01/01/2024 – 17:35
Russian and Ukrainian attacks killed at least five people on New Year's Eve. Zelensky promises Russia's “wrath”, and Putin says his country “will not back down”. At least five people died in Russian and Ukrainian attacks, with the two countries accusing each other this Monday (01/01) of a start of a bloody year, while the war seems far from over. DW was unable to independently verify the information.
According to a Russian-installed official in eastern Ukraine, bombings authorized by Kiev killed four people. Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine, wrote on Telegram that the “heavy shelling” by Ukrainian forces also left 14 people injured. The France Presse news agency (AFP) said the injured included journalists. According to emergency services cited by the Russian agency TASS, one journalist was among the dead and another among the injured.
Local Russian authorities cited by AFP said that Ukrainian forces carried out an attack without “any military sense” on the center of that pro-Russian stronghold with cluster bombs.
“The enemy’s goal was to cause as much damage as possible to the civilian population,” Pushilin said on Telegram.
The Ukrainian attacks also damaged a school, apartment blocks, a store, a shopping center and other buildings, the Russian Investigative Committee wrote in Telegram.
Largest Russian drone attack
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said Russian airstrikes in Odesa, southern Ukraine, killed at least one person.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, “the enemy used a record number of Iranian-made Shahed-type attack unmanned aerial vehicles.” Ukrainian authorities said the country managed to repel most of the attacks.
According to Kiev, Russia launched 90 drones and four S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles over Ukraine, in addition to three Kh-31P anti-radar missiles and one Kh-59.
“A powerful massive drone attack lasted 11 hours. The kamikaze drones were launched in the afternoon and the anti-aircraft defense finished its work at around 4am local time,” the Southern Defense Forces reported on Monday.
The missiles hit Kharkiv (east), Kherson and Zaporizhia (south), while the drones impacted Mikolayiv (south), Vinitsia (central-west), Dnipropetrovsk (center), Kherson and Kirovohrad (center) and Lviv (west).
Also according to Kiev, around midnight, Russian forces launched drones over residential areas where citizens were preparing to celebrate the New Year. As a result, debris from the downed unmanned vehicles damaged at least three private and agricultural buildings, causing the death of one person.
Zelensky warns of Ukrainian “anger”
As violence escalated between Ukraine and Russia, Zelensky vowed in his New Year's address to inflict “wrath” on Russian forces in 2024.
“Next year, the enemy will feel the wrath of domestic production.” He highlighted Zelenski, referring to at least “one million” additional drones, as well as F-16 fighter jets promised by his Western partners.
“No matter how many rockets the enemy launches, no matter how many bombings and attacks – vile, merciless, massive – the enemy carries out in an attempt to break the Ukrainians, intimidate, overthrow Ukraine, drive it underground, we will still rise,” said Zelenski.
At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin, without mentioning Ukraine, said his country “will never back down”.
In the latest escalation of the conflict, on Friday, a series of missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities left 39 people dead.
Kiev retaliated a day later, attacking the southern Russian city of Belgorod also with missiles and drones, killing 24 people and injuring more than 100.
le (EFE, Lusa, AFP, ots)
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