FRONT LINE KIIV/DONETSK PROVINCE, Ukraine, Jan 1 (Reuters) – Ukrainians cheered from their balconies as their air defenses blasted Russian missiles and drones out of the sky in the early hours of 2023, as see Moscow in the new year attacking civilians. targets throughout Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Air Force Command said it had destroyed 45 Iranian-made Shahed drones overnight, 32 of them after midnight on Sunday and 13 on Saturday afternoon. This was in addition to 31 missile attacks and 12 airstrikes across the country in the past 24 hours.
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not let go of his assault on Ukraine, in a somber and defiant New Year’s speech that contrasted with a hopeful message of gratitude and unity from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
As sirens sounded in Kyiv, some people shouted from their balconies: “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!”
Fragments of the overnight attack caused minimal damage in the center of the capital, and preliminary reports indicated no injuries or casualties, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on social media. The attacks in the early hours of Saturday had hit residential buildings and a hotel in the capital, killing at least one person and injuring more than 20.
US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said on Twitter: “Russia coldly and cowardly attacked Ukraine early in the new year. But Putin still doesn’t seem to understand that Ukrainians are made of iron.”
On the front line in the eastern Donetsk province of Urkaine, troops toasted the new year. Private Pavlo Pryzhehodskiy, 27, played a song on his guitar that he had written at the front after 12 of his comrades were killed in a single night.
“It’s sad that instead of meeting friends, celebrating and giving each other gifts, people were forced to seek refuge, some were killed,” he told Reuters. “It’s a huge tragedy. It’s a huge tragedy that can never be forgiven. That’s why the New Year is sad.”
In a front-line trench nearby, soldier Oleh Zahrodskiy, 49, said he had signed up as a volunteer after his son was called up to fight as a reservist. His son was now in a hospital in the southern city of Dnipro, fighting for his life with a brain injury, while his father was at the front.
“It’s very hard now,” she said, holding back tears.
‘HAPPY NEW YEAR’
Andrii Nebytov, Kyiv’s police chief, posted a photo on his Telegram messaging app showing what was described as a drone used in an attack in the capital, with a handwritten sign in Russian that read “Happy New Year”. .
“These remains are not at the front, where fierce battles are taking place, this is here, on a sports field, where children play,” said Nebytov.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had targeted production, storage and launch sites of Ukrainian drones with long-range missiles on New Year’s Eve.
[1/11] Women hold sparklers next to a Christmas tree during a pre-curfew New Year’s Eve celebration amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine in front of Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine , on December 31, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
Russia has flattened Ukrainian cities and killed thousands of civilians since Putin ordered its invasion in February, claiming Ukraine was an artificial state whose pro-Western outlook threatened Russia’s security. Since then, Moscow has claimed to have annexed around a fifth of Ukraine.
Ukraine has fought back with Western military support, driving Russian forces out of more than half of the territory they occupied. In recent weeks, the front lines have been largely static, with thousands of soldiers dying in intense trench warfare as Moscow defends its grip on captured territory.
Since October, Russia has launched massive missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, plunging cities into darkness and cold as winter approaches. Moscow says the attacks are aimed at reducing Ukraine’s fighting capacity; Kyiv says they have no military purpose and are intended to harm civilians, a war crime.
“The most important thing is the fate of Russia,” a stern-faced Putin said in his New Year’s address to a group of people dressed in military uniform instead of the usual backdrop of walls of the Kremlin. “The defense of the motherland is our sacred duty to our ancestors and descendants. Moral and historical justice is on our side.”
Zelenskiy delivered his own address in near darkness, in front of a Ukrainian flag. He described the past year as a national awakening.
“They told us: you have no choice but to surrender. We say: we have no other option but to win,” he said.
“This year has touched our hearts. We have cried all the tears. We have shouted all the prayers,” Zelenskiy said. “We fight and we will keep fighting. For the sake of the key word: ‘victory’.”
The latest airstrikes damaged infrastructure in Sumy in the country’s northeast, Khmelnytskyi in the west and Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the southeast and south, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.
“May the day be peaceful,” Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, said early Sunday after reports of heavy shelling of several communities in the region overnight that injured one.
Grid operator Ukrenergo said on Sunday that the past day had been “difficult” for its workers, but the electricity situation was “under control” and no emergency outages were being implemented.
Separately, Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia’s southern Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, said overnight shelling on the outskirts of the town of Shebekino had damaged houses but there were no casualties.
Russian media also reported multiple Ukrainian attacks in Moscow-controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, with local officials saying at least nine people were wounded.
Russian state news agency RIA quoted a local doctor as saying that six people were killed in the attack on a hospital in Donetsk on Saturday. Donetsk authorities also said one person had been killed by the Ukrainian shelling.
Reuters could not verify the reports. There was no immediate response from Kyiv, which rarely comments on attacks in Russia or Russian-held territories in Ukraine.
Reporting by Gleb Garanich, Valentyn Ogirenko, Dan Peleshchuk and Sergiy Karazy in Kyiv and Herbert Villarraga on the front in Donetsk province; Written by Peter Graff, Lidia Kelly and Dan Peleschuk Editing by Kim Coghill and Frances Kerry
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