Several Ukrainian cities including kyiv were targeted on Saturday by Russian strikes which left at least one dead and around 30 injured, which did not prevent the president from promising that his country will fight until “victory”.
“We are fighting and we will continue to fight. In favor of this word: ‘victory’,” Mr. Zelensky said in his speech on the occasion of the New Year.
In his wishes, Russian President Vladimir Putin for his part claimed to have “moral correctness” on his side.
In the Ukrainian capital, AFP journalists heard at least eleven explosions in the early afternoon, as its inhabitants prepared to celebrate the new year. An explosion sounded above kyiv less than an hour after the transition to the year 2023, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital declaring that the air defense system was “working” to protect the city against Russian strikes.
According to the kyiv administration, these bombings left at least one dead and 22 injured. They ripped open the facade of the four-star Alfavito hotel in the city center, spreading rubble in the street, according to AFP.
Nearby sidewalks were covered in glass from blown windows, including those in the National Palace of the Arts.
Filmmaker Yaroslav Mutenko, 23, who lives in the area, said he was showering before going to a New Year’s Eve party when he heard an explosion.
The latest Russian strikes have not affected his desire to go out to participate in these festivities.
“Our enemies, the Russians, can destroy our calm, but they cannot destroy our spirit. This year, it is important to have people close to you,” he explained.
“Ukraine will not forgive,” reacted Mr. Zelensky, promising that “those who order such strikes and those who carry them out will not be pardoned”.
The year 2023 will be that of “victory” in the war against Russia, he also proclaimed a little later in his New Year’s greetings.
cruise missile
Russian shelling further caused destruction and fires in Mykolaiv in the south, where at least six people were injured, and in Khmelnytsky in the west, where four people were injured.
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, accused Moscow of deliberately targeting residential areas. “War criminal Putin ‘celebrates’ New Year by killing people,” he wrote on Twitter.
According to Ukrainian Chief of Staff Valery Zalouzhny, 12 of the 20 cruise missiles fired by the Russians, including from strategic bombers coming from the Caspian Sea, were shot down by anti-aircraft defense.
The mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, meanwhile made a trip to Bakhmout, a city which Russian soldiers have been trying to seize since the summer. “The Russian barbarians will not break us! “, he launched.
After several military setbacks on the front, Russia has opted since October for a tactic of striking Ukrainian infrastructure, which has caused massive cuts in electricity and running water.
Almost at the same time, Russian television in the Far East was broadcasting Vladimir Putin’s New Year’s speech, given the difference in time zones with Moscow.
Standing alongside soldiers who fought in Ukraine and whom he had just decorated in an army headquarters in southern Russia, Mr. Putin assured that “moral and historical correctness” was “on the side” of his country.
“That is what we are fighting for today, protecting our people in our own historical territories, in the new constituent entities of Russia,” he said.
Russia claimed in September the annexation of four Ukrainian territories that it controls at least partially.
“Weaken Russia”
The Russian president also castigated “a real sanctions war that has been declared to us” by the West. “Those who launched it expected the total destruction of our industry, our finances and our transport. This does not happen “.
He accused the Americans and Europeans of “cynically using Ukraine and its people to weaken and divide Russia”.
In this context, French President Emmanuel Macron promised 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.
Shortly before Mr. Putin’s speech, his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu promised his soldiers an “inevitable” victory in Ukraine.
His ministry announced on Saturday the capture of the village of Dorojnianka, in the Zaporizhjia region, in southern Ukraine, while the positions are largely frozen with winter.
He also reported on a new prisoner exchange with Ukraine, which allowed the return of 82 Russian soldiers. The Ukrainian authorities have announced that they have recovered 140 people.