With Republicans holding up new military aid for Ukraine on Capitol Hill, Russia launched one of the most massive aerial assaults of the war on Dec. 29, killing 40 in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro and Lviv. Ukraine retaliated the next day with a missile strike on the Russian city of Belgorod [11], killing at least 22. Russia counter-retaliated with a wave of drone strikes, damaging schools, hospitals and homes across Ukraine, killing at least 24. Russia accused Ukraine of using internationally prohibited [12] cluster munitions in the strike on Belgorod, and called [13] for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
Moscow claimed that Czech-supplied rocket launchers were used in the Belgorod attack, and demanded [16] that the Czech permanent representative appear before the Security Council to account for the matter. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky responded in a post [17] on X (formerly Twitter): "We refuse to be summoned anywhere by Russia. Czechia will not serve the lie-poisoned propaganda of the aggressor. When Russia wants to discuss the withdrawal of its occupying troops at the Security Council, we will be happy to come." (Jurist [18], Kyiv Post [19], Al Jazeera [20], NBC [21], ABC [22], NYT [23], BBC News [24])
Of course, Russia has itself used cluster munitions [14] since the start of the war in February 2022, despite international criticism [15] from bodies including the UN Human Rights Council.
Kyiv also claimed that Russian drones brought down by its air-defense systems definitively prove that they were supplied to Moscow by Iran. (Al Jazeera [25])
