Afternoon summary
Volodymyr Zelenskiy vows to unleash ‘wrath’ on Russian forces in 2024. But the Ukrainian president’s new year’s address made almost no direct reference to the situation on the frontline or the limited success of a counteroffensive launched in June.
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of New Year’s Day attacks. Five people have been killed in attacks on Ukraine’s southern Odesa region and the occupied eastern city of Donetsk.
Ukraine claims Russia has launched a ‘record number’ of attack drones. Ukraine’s Air Force said 87 out of 90 drones had successfully been shot down in the hours leading into New Year’s Day.
Vladimir Putin calls Ukrainian strikes on Belgorod ‘terrorist act’ that will ‘not go unpunished’. Russia’s president said it would continue to strike “sensitive” military targets in Ukraine.
The death toll following Ukrainian strikes on Belgorod has risen to 25, according to region’s governor. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Monday a four-year-old girl died from injuries sustained in the attack.
The death toll as a result of the attack on the Russian border city of Belgorod on 30 December has increased to 25, according to the region’s governor.
Vyacheslav Gladkov said a child had died in hospital from injuries sustained in the attack.
“Today in the local children’s hospital a four-year-old girl, who was in a serious condition with severe injuries to the chest and internal organs, died,” Gladkov said.
Her death brought the number of child victims of the attack to five.
“This is an irreparable loss for all of us,” Gladkov said.
He said a total of 109 people were wounded, 45 of which are still in medical facilities.
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Vladimir Putin calls Ukrainian strikes on Belgorod 'terrorist act' that 'will not go unpunished'
Vladimir Putin said on Monday that a series of Ukrainian missile strikes on the Russian border city of Belgorod that killed 20 people and wounded 111 was “a terrorist act” that would not go unpunished and promised more strikes on Ukrainian targets, Reuters reports.
Speaking at a meeting with servicemen at a military hospital in Moscow, Putin said that the strikes, which came amid intensified Russian air assaults against Ukrainian cities Kyiv and Kharkiv, “will not go unpunished”.
Putin said that Russia would continue to strike “sensitive” military targets in Ukraine. Russia denies Western and Ukrainian accusations that it targets civilian infrastructure.
In a wide-ranging conversation with the servicemen, Putin said that the course of the war in Ukraine was changing in Russia’s favour, and that Moscow hoped to end the war, but only on its own terms.
Putin’s traditional new year address delivered on Sunday made only a passing reference to the war in Ukraine, a sharp contrast to last year’s speech.
More details on the attacks in the early hours of New Year’s Day – reported by both Ukraine and Russia – here…
A 15-year-old boy was killed and seven people wounded after falling debris from one of 87 downed drones hit a residential building in the city of Odesa, the head of the region’s military administration, Oleh Kiper, said.
In the western city of Lviv, Russian attacks severely damaged a museum dedicated to Roman Shukhevych, a controversial Ukrainian nationalist and military commander who fought for Ukrainian independence during World War II. University buildings in the town of Dubliany were also damaged, although no casualties were reported.
Writing on social media, Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi described the strike as “symbolic and cynical,” adding, “this is a war for our history.”
Meanwhile, four people were killed and 13 more wounded following Ukrainian shelling on Russian-occupied areas of Donetsk, according to the area’s Russian-installed leader, Denis Pushilin. Russian state media reported that a journalist was among the victims, but provided no further details.
One person was also killed and another wounded in shelling on the Russian border town of Shebekino, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Five more bodies have been found under rubble after massive Russian air strikes on Kyiv three days ago, city authorities said on Monday, bringing the death toll in the Ukrainian capital from the attack to 28.
Ukraine had previously declared Monday a day of mourning for those killed in Friday’s missile strikes, the deadliest single attack on Ukraine’s capital of the nearly two-year-long war.
“Sincere condolences to all those who lost relatives and loved ones ... terrorists who kill civilians will never be forgiven for the blood spilled on Ukrainian soil,” Kyiv’s military governor Serhiy Popko wrote on Telegram.
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Russia launches 'record number' of attack drones, Ukraine claims
Russia launched a “record number” of attack drones in the hours leading into New Year’s Day, Ukraine’s Air Force said this morning.
In an update on messaging platform Telegram, it said 87 out of 90 drones had been successfully shot down.
“On New Year’s Eve 2024, the enemy used a record number of ‘Shahed’ type attack UAVs,” it said.
“The attack was carried out in waves from four directions.”
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Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of New Year’s Day attacks.
Five people have been killed in attacks on Ukraine’s southern Odesa region and the occupied eastern city of Donetsk, local authorities have said as the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv escalates.
“As of 02:00 (2300 GMT), there were preliminary 13 wounded and four dead,” Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed head of Donetsk, said on Telegram.
He described the attack as “massive shelling from multiple launch rocket systems”.
In Odesa, the governor Oleg Kiper said one person died in a Russian drone attack, and three others were wounded.
Several buildings were hit and damaged by “downed drones”, he said on Telegram. “Fires broke out in residential buildings in different areas of the city.”
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Ukraine’s military has said that an overnight Russian drone attack on Odesa targeted port infrastructure, and that a fire had broken out in one of the port terminals as a result of a strike.
“The enemy’s clear priority remains the port infrastructure of Odesa. A large number of drones were directed from the sea to the coastal zone,” Ukraine’s southern military command said on Telegram.
It said the fire was promptly extinguished and that there were no casualties.
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Volodymyr Zelenskiy vows to unleash 'wrath' on Russian forces in 2024
Good morning. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has vowed to unleash “wrath” against Russian forces in 2024, saying Ukraine has become stronger as the war moves toward its third year.
But Zelenskiy’s slick 20-minute new year’s address, delivered from his Kyiv office, made almost no direct reference to the situation on the 600 mile (1,000km) frontline or the limited success of a counteroffensive launched in June.
Nor did he refer to the political and diplomatic difficulties in securing continued military and other aid from both the US Congress and the European Union.
Zelenskiy said the war had taught Ukrainians to withstand Russian attacks and adapt to hardships, including blackouts, the operation of industry and threats to shipping its exports.
You can read the full report here:
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