KIEV(Reuters) January,1 – After rockets were fired on Saturday and air raid sirens blared for hours through the night, Russia continued its barrage of strikes in Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine early in the New Year.
The Ukrainian Air Force command said it had destroyed 45 Iranian-made Shahed drones. Of these, 32 were shot down after midnight on Sunday and 13 were shot down after midnight on Saturday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled the war would continue, now in its 11th month, in a belligerent New Year’s speech.The speech contrasted with a message of gratitude and unity from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. It was targeted.
“Glory to Ukraine! Let’s pay our respects to our heroes!” from a balcony as sirens blared over his four hours in Kyiv, Reuters eyewitnesses reported.
The 7pm-midnight curfew remains in force across the country, making it impossible to celebrate the start of 2023 publicly. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on social media that shrapnel from the destroyed rocket had caused minimal damage to the center of the capital and preliminary reports indicated no injuries or casualties.
US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said on Twitter:
“Russia attacked Ukraine with cold and cowardice early in the new year, but Putin still doesn’t seem to understand that Ukrainians are made of steel.”
Kyiv police chief Andriy Nevitov posted on Telegram’s messaging app a photo allegedly showing the drone used in the attack on the capital.
At least one of him was killed and 12 wounded in an attack in Kyiv on Saturday. Russia has followed a number of bombings in recent months, mainly targeting Ukraine’s energy and water infrastructure. The latest attacks damaged infrastructure in Sumy in the northeast of Ukraine, Khmelnytsky in the west, and Zaporizhia and Kherson in the southeast and south, the chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said.
Dnepropetrovsk Region Governor Valentin Reznichenko said ‘let’s have a quiet day’ after several communities in the region were hit by heavy artillery shelling overnight early Sunday morning, injuring one person.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in southern Russia, which borders Ukraine, said independently that houses were damaged during the night shelling on the outskirts of Shevekino city, but no one was injured.
Russian media also reported multiple Ukrainian attacks on Moscow-controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, with local officials saying at least nine people were injured.
Six people were killed in an attack on a Donetsk hospital on Saturday, Russia’s state news agency RIA said, citing a local doctor. There was no immediate reaction from Kyiv, which rarely publicly claims responsibility for attacks within Russia or on Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine.
Putin said he launched an invasion of Ukraine on February 24 in a “special operation” to “de-Naz” and demilitarize Ukraine, posing a threat to Russia. Kyiv and his Western allies say Putin’s aggression was simply an imperialist land grab. Russian forces have waged heavy fighting in eastern and southern Ukraine for months as they try to defend the areas that Moscow declared annexed in September and make up Ukraine’s wider industrial zone of Donbass.
