2024-01-01 12:53:24
Moscow and kyiv have seen an escalation of violence in recent days with an unprecedented attack which left 24 dead on Saturday in Belgorod, Russia, following a missile attack against Ukraine on Friday, described as “massive” by Kiev, and which caused around forty deaths. The Ukrainian capital is observing a day of mourning this Monday, January 1, for the 19 victims of this attack in the city, the municipality said.
Information to remember
⇒ kyiv says it faced a “record” drone attack on New Year’s Eve
⇒ Zelensky vowed to “ravage” Russian forces in Ukraine
⇒ The Ukrainian president assured that his country would soon have a million drones and F-16 planes
Ukraine says it faced “record” drone attack on New Year’s Eve
Ukraine said this Monday, January 1, that it faced a “record” attack by 90 drones fired by Russia on New Year’s Eve, which notably targeted Lviv and Odessa, killing at least one person. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, 87 of 90 Shahed explosive drones launched by Russian forces from four directions were destroyed in flight. “The enemy used a record number of attack drones,” she noted.
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It also reported strikes using four S-300 surface-to-air missiles in the Kharkiv region (north-east) and three Kh-31 anti-radar missiles and one Kh-59 targeting the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions. (south). In the Lviv region, in the west of the country, the strikes destroyed a university and a museum whose history is linked to two Ukrainian nationalist figures and Nazi collaborators during the Second World War, according to Mayor Andriï Sadovy.
Russia, for its part, reported Ukrainian bombings and drone strikes on the Belgorod border region, which did not cause any casualties.
Several bombings for the new year
Denis Pushilin, head of the Donetsk administration appointed by Moscow, reported on Telegram “13 injured and four dead” after strikes on the night of Sunday to Monday in the eastern Ukrainian city, under Russian control. He had reported earlier in the evening “massive bombings” in several districts of Donetsk, which left seven injured.
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In southern Ukraine, Odessa Governor Oleg Kiper reported that “one person died as a result of an enemy attack”, and reported eight injured, in messages on Telegram. A woman was also killed during Russian shelling in the Kherson region on Monday, head of the regional administration Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram. In the west of the country, the governor of the Lviv region Maksym Kozytskyi indicated that anti-aircraft defense systems had shot down drones coming from Russia in the early hours of Monday.
Zelensky vowed to “ravage” Russian forces in Ukraine
During his New Year’s speech on Sunday, Volodymyr Zelensky promised to “ravage” the Russian forces who invaded his country, at the end of a year marked by the failure of Ukraine’s summer counter-offensive and the almost total freezing of the front line. Ukraine will have at least “a million” additional drones in its arsenal next year, the Ukrainian president added, as well as F-16 fighter jets provided by its Western partners.
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His Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin assured him during his New Year’s greetings that his country would “never back down”. After a very martial speech last year, he proclaimed on Sunday that the year 2024 would be that of “family”. Without explicitly mentioning Ukraine, he paid tribute to the soldiers, “heroes”, assuring them of the “support of the entire nation”.
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