Conflicts & War

One killed in Kyiv as Russia launches New Year’s Eve missile attack

Lviv, Ukraine, Dec 31 (EFE).- Ukraine came under renewed attack on Saturday as the country marked New Year’s Eve under sustained Russian missile strikes.

“We did not choose the war. But we accepted the battle. And God is on our side,” the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny said in his New Year message to the Ukrainian Army on Saturday

“On our shoulders and on the shoulders of our families have fallen difficult trials, pain and suffering. This Christmas tastes of tears and is tinged with blood.

“However, our strength is enough to defeat the enemy. The nation is born out of struggle,” he added.

The Russian army did not spare Ukrainians on the last day of the year and hit 11 regions with missiles, a bombardment that left the capital Kyiv, and Kharkiv, the second largest city in the country, without power.

Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko reported on his Telegram channel explosions in the Solomyan, Pechersk and Holossivsk districts of the capital, with residents taking shelter in the city’s underground stations.

“One elderly man was killed in Kyiv and seven other civilians were injured as a result of two explosions in the Solomyan district. One wounded is in extremely serious condition,” he said.

According to Klitschko, a total of 11 people – including a Japanese journalist – were injured.

The head of the military administration of the Mykolaiv region, Vitaly Kim, said that “the occupiers are not only shelling critical infrastructure. In many cities (they attack) homes, hotels, parking lots, simply highways.”

According to Zaluzhny, preliminary estimates suggest the Russian Army launched more than 20 air-launched cruise missiles from strategic bombers stationed in the Caspian Sea and ground-based missile systems.

The Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses destroyed 12, 6 in the vicinity of Kyiv, 5 in Zhitomir and one in Khmelnitsky.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense would be boosted next year, to the point where it could become “the most powerful in Europe.”

“This year, we not only maintained our air defenses, but strengthened them more than ever. But in the new year, Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense will be even stronger, even more effective,” he expressed in his usual video message.

Zelenskyy predicted that his country’s air defense system would constitute a “security guarantee” not only for Ukraine “but also for the whole continent”. EFE

mos/ks

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