 Russia fired 500 missiles and drones in three days. Russia pounded Ukraine's two biggest cities on the 2nd of January in a new wave of heavy airstrikes that killed at least five civilians and prompted calls for the West to quickly provide more military assistance according to URACTIV. Ukraine's Interior Ministry said 135 people had been injured in the latest missile and drone attacks, including 61 in and around Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city in the Northeast and 17 in and around the capital, Kiev. Vladimir Zelensky said rescue operations continued into the late evening as the assaults also caused widespread damage and hit power supplies. Russia has intensified attacks over the New Year period with President Vladimir Putin warning that the Ukrainian airstrike on the Russian city of Belgorod, which Moscow said killed 25 civilians, would not go unpunished. Zelensky in his nightly video address later said Russia had deployed almost 300 missiles and more than 200 drones in attacks over the last three days. The latest assaults he said were intended to cause maximum destruction. The trajectories have been specially calculated by the enemy to cause as much damage as possible. No other country has yet repelled similar attacks by combined drones and missiles, including ballistic missiles. Russia stepped up missile and drone strikes on the 29th of December when it launched its largest air attack of the war, killing at least 39 people. Kiev had warned for weeks that Russia appeared to be stockpiling missiles for big attacks.