- Several waves of drones attack Kyiv, officials say
- Ukraine says it shot down 20 aerial objects over Kyiv
- Stern Putin’s New Year’s speech indicates that there is no stopping
- Zelenskiy says Ukraine is united
- Tough New Year in the frontline trenches of Ukraine
Frontline KIEV/DONETSK PROVINCE, Ukraine, Jan 2 (Reuters) – Ukraine said on Monday it had shot down all Russian drones in a massive wave of strikes, after Moscow launched a third straight night of strikes unprecedented airstrikes against civilian targets, stepping up their air war for the New Year holidays.
Meanwhile, Russian officials were reeling from reports that a large number of Russian troops had been killed in an attack on a dormitory where they were staying in occupied Ukraine next to an ammunition dump. Kyiv and Russian nationalist bloggers said hundreds of Russian troops were killed. Officials stationed in Russia spoke of high casualties without giving a number.
Russia has seen in the new year with nighttime attacks on Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, hundreds of kilometers from the front lines. This marks a change in tactics after months in which Moscow usually spaced such strikes about a week apart.
After firing dozens of missiles on December 31, Russia launched dozens of Iranian-made Shahed drones on January 1 and 2. But Kyiv said on Monday it had shot down all 39 drones in the latest wave, including 22 shot down overhead. the capital
Kyiv said the new tactic was a sign of Russia’s desperation, as Ukraine’s ability to defend its airspace had improved.
Russia had been trying to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for months but had failed as Ukraine gained better defenses, presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on Telegram.
“Now they’re looking for routes and trying to hit us somehow, but their terror tactics won’t work. Our sky will become a shield.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised Ukrainians for showing gratitude to the troops and to each other and said Russia’s efforts would prove futile.
“Drones, missiles, the rest won’t help them,” he said of the Russians. “Because we are united. They are only united by fear.”
Ukraine’s air defense systems have worked overnight to shoot down incoming drones and warn communities of impending danger.
“It is strong in the region and in the capital: nighttime drone attacks,” said Kyiv Governor Oleksiy Kuleba.
“Russians launched several waves of Shahed drones. Targeting critical infrastructure facilities. Air defense is working.”
Russia, which has seized and claims to have annexed around a fifth of Ukraine, has turned to massive airstrikes against Ukrainian cities since suffering humiliating defeats on the battlefield in the second half of 2022.
It says its attacks, which have knocked out heat and power to millions in the winter, are aimed at reducing Kyiv’s fighting capacity. Ukraine says the attacks have no military purpose and are intended to harm civilians, a war crime.
‘MASSIVE BLOW’ IN MAKIIVKA
Russian nationalist war bloggers seethed with anger on Monday after reports of mass casualties of soldiers holed up in a dormitory along with ammunition at a former vocational school in Makiivka, a twin city of the regional capital Donetsk, east of ‘Ukraine occupied by the Russians. Unverified images posted online showed a huge building reduced to smoking rubble.
Daniil Bezsonov, a senior official stationed by Russia in the Moscow-controlled parts of the Donetsk region, said the building had taken a “massive hit” from US-made rockets on New Year’s Eve shortly after after midnight According to preliminary reports, it was being used as staff quarters, he said.
“There were dead and wounded, the exact number is still unknown,” Bezzonov said on the Telegram messaging app. “The building itself was badly damaged.”
Russian state news agency TASS said at least 15 people were injured. Ukraine’s defense ministry said up to 400 Russians were killed there “as a result of ‘careless handling of heating devices'”.
Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian troops in eastern Ukraine who has become one of Russia’s most prominent nationalist military bloggers, also put the death toll in the hundreds. Ammunition had been stored in the building, which detonated when it hit the barracks.
“What happened in Makiivka is horrible,” wrote Archangel Spetznaz Z, another Russian military blogger with more than 700,000 followers on Telegram.
“Who came up with the idea of placing personnel in large numbers in a building, where even a fool understands that even if they hit with artillery, there will be many wounded or killed?”
A source close to the Russian-based leadership of Donetsk told Reuters that casualty reports were exaggerated and that the death toll appeared to be less than 100.
Ukrainian troops saw out the New Year on the front lines in eastern Donetsk province. One soldier, Pavlo Pryzhehodskiy, 27, played a song he had written on a guitar after 12 of his comrades were killed in one night.
“It’s sad that instead of meeting friends, celebrating and giving each other gifts, people were forced to seek shelter, some were killed” during the New Year holiday, he told Reuters.
“It is a great tragedy that can never be forgiven.”
In a nearby trench, soldier Oleh Zahrodskiy, 49, said he had volunteered after his son was called up as a reservist. Now, his son is in the hospital, fighting for his life with a brain injury, while his father is on the frontline.
“It’s very hard now,” she said, holding back tears.
Russia has crushed Ukrainian cities and killed thousands of civilians since Putin ordered his invasion in February, saying Ukraine was an artificial state whose pro-Western outlook threatened Russia’s security.
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 warfare.
In a stern New Year’s message filmed in front of a group of people dressed in military uniform, Putin vowed he would not give up his war.
“The most important thing is the fate of Russia,” Putin said. “The defense of the motherland is our sacred duty to our ancestors and descendants. Moral and historical justice is on our side.”
Reuters bureau reports; Writing by Peter Graff, Lidia Kelly, Dan Peleschuk and Michael Perry; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel, Alexandra Hudson
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