KYIV: Numerous explosions have rocked the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, minutes after midnight on New Year’s Day.
The attacks on Kyiv on Sunday followed a barrage of at least 20 cruise missiles fired at targets across Ukraine in what officials there called “Terror on New Year’s Eve”.
The new assault set off air raid sirens across the country, and some people in Kyiv took to their balconies shouting “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes”. Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that the first blasts of the new year began roughly 30 minutes after midnight, hitting two districts. He said there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The city military administration said that 23 Russian-launched “air objects” had been destroyed and that air defence systems were working. Earlier in the evening, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainians would fight until victorious in the war that is now in its eleventh month. “We fight and will continue to fight. For the sake of the main word: ‘victory’,” he said in the emotional address. “I want to say to all of you: Ukrainians, you are incredible! See what we have done and what we are doing!”
“We fight as one team — the whole country, all our regions. I admire you all. I want to thank every invincible region of Ukraine,” he added.
The earlier round of attacks on Kyiv damaged the Hotel Alfavito and a residential building, killing at least one person and wounding at least a dozen others. Klitschko said a Japanese journalist was among the wounded and was taken to a hospital. –Agencies
