Multiple explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital Kiev minutes after midnight on New Year’s Day.
The attacks on Kyiv on Sunday followed a series of at least 20 cruise missiles fired on targets across Ukraine in what officials there called “New Year’s Eve terror”.
The new attack triggered air raid sirens across the country, and some in Kyiv took to balconies chanting “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that the first explosions of the new year began about 30 minutes after midnight, hitting two districts. He said there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The city’s military authorities said 23 “aerial objects” launched by Russia were destroyed and air defense systems were operational.
Earlier in the evening, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Ukrainians would fight until victory in a war now in its 11th year.
“We fight and will continue to fight. For the sake of the key word: ‘victory,'” he said in an emotional speech. “I want to say to all of you: Ukrainians, you are extraordinary! See what we’ve done and what we’re doing!”
“We fight as a team — the whole country, all our regions. I admire all of you. I want to thank every invincible region of Ukraine,” he added.
An earlier attack on Kyiv damaged the Alfavito hotel and a residential building, killing at least one person and injuring at least dozens more. Klitschko said a Japanese journalist was among the injured and was taken to hospital.
Filmmaker Yaroslav Mutenko, 23, who lives in an apartment complex near the Alfavito hotel, said he was taking a shower to prepare for a New Year’s Eve party when he heard a loud bang. He said there had been similar explosions in the area during an earlier attack in October, but not as large as Saturday’s blast.
As he watched rescuers crowd the road in front of the hotel, he told AFP news agency he was still planning to go to a party at a friend’s house.
“Our enemy, the Russians, can destroy our tranquility, but they cannot destroy our spirit,” he said. “Why am I going to celebrate with my friends? Because this year I understand that it’s important to have people around.”
Attacks were also reported in the southern city of Mykolaiv, where a local official said seven people were injured.
Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram that Russia has targeted civilians with attacks, which Moscow has previously denied. “According to today’s trend, the occupiers are not just going on strike [infrastructure] …in many cities [they are targeting] simply residential areas, hotels, garages, roads,” he said.
The attacks came at an unusually fast pace, one that alerted officials just 36 hours after Russia launched a salvo of missiles on Thursday aimed at destroying energy infrastructure.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stressed the heavy civilian toll of this latest attack – that “this time, the Russian mass missile attack is deliberately targeting residential areas, not even facilities. energy infrastructure”. “War criminal Putin ‘celebrates’ the New Year by killing people,” he added, calling for Russia’s permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council to be stripped.
Ukraine’s human rights inspector Dmytro Lubinets described the attack as “New Year’s Eve terror”.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry responded with a defiant message.
“With each new missile attack on civilian infrastructure, more and more Ukrainians believe it is necessary to fight until the complete collapse of Putin’s regime,” it wrote on Telegram.
A curfew from 7 p.m. to midnight local time is still in place across Ukraine, making it impossible to celebrate the beginning of 2023 in public places.
Several regional governors have posted notices on social media warning residents not to breach restrictions on New Year’s Eve.
