The Ukrainian Air Force announced on Sunday January 1 that it had shot down 45 Iranian-made drones launched by Russia during New Year’s Eve, the day after a day marked by bombardments on kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised that his country will continue to fight until “victory” against Russia, and the return of all the territories occupied by Moscow to the bosom of kyiv.
- 45 drones shot down by kyiv on New Year’s Eve
“During the night of December 31, 2022 to January 1, 2023, Russian invaders attacked Ukraine with Iranian-made Shahed-131/136 kamikaze drones,” the Ukrainian Air Force said. According to her, 13 of these drones were shot down before midnight, and 32 after midnight. The Ukrainian army did not say whether other drones had hit their targets.
kyiv Police Chief Andrii Nebitov posted a photograph on Facebook showing what appears to be the remains of a drone with the words “Happy New Year” in Russian. “This is all you need to know about the terror state and its military,” he wrote. AFP journalists heard explosions ring out over kyiv less than an hour into the year 2023, after a Saturday already marred by shelling that left at least one dead and dozens of injured.
Pro-Russian separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine, for their part, reported the death of a civilian in Ukrainian shelling on Sunday in Yassynouvata in the Donetsk region. According to them, the Ukrainian army also struck Donetsk and the neighboring town of Makiivka just after midnight, injuring at least 15 people.
- “We are fighting and we will continue to fight,” says Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised on Saturday, December 31, that his country will continue to fight until “victory” against Russia, and the return of all the territories occupied by Moscow to the bosom of kyiv. “We are fighting and we will continue to fight. In favor of this word: ‘victory'”, he said in his speech on the occasion of the new year, saying he hoped that it would become “the year return […] of our lands”.
Hailing Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion launched in February, he said the past year had been one in which “Ukraine changed the world”. “We were told to surrender. We chose the counter-attack! We were told to make concessions and compromises. We are joining the European Union and NATO,” continued the head of state.
While Russia has been carrying out massive strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure for months, Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the way the country “resists all threats, bombings, cluster bombs, cruise missiles, darkness and cold”. “I want to wish one thing to each of us: victory. And that’s the main thing. The only wish for all Ukrainians,” he concluded.
- Emmanuel Macron promises to help Ukraine “without fail”
French President Emmanuel Macron promised, on Saturday, in his New Year’s greetings, to continue to help Ukraine “without fail”, “until victory”. “We will be together to build a just and lasting peace. Count on France and count on Europe,” he said in his televised address.
