(Kyiv) Russian strikes targeted several regions of Ukraine on Saturday, including the capital Kyiv, where the shelling left at least one dead and several injured, according to local authorities.
“According to the first information, a person died in the Solomiansky district. Several people were injured,” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. Ukrainian officials also reported destruction and fires in Mykolaiv in the south and Khmelnytsky in the west.
AFP journalists heard at least 11 explosions early in the afternoon in Kyiv.
Mr. Klitschko then clarified that seven people had been injured in two places in the capital, one of them being in “extremely serious condition”.
Ukrainian officials also reported destruction and fires in Mykolaiv in the south, where at least two people were injured, and in Khmelnytsky in the west, where four people were injured in these Russian strikes.
In Kyiv, the authorities broadcast images from the scene of one of the bombings, which gutted a hotel in the center of the capital.
After several military setbacks on the front, Russia has opted since October for a tactic of bombing Ukrainian infrastructure, which regularly causes massive cuts in electricity and running water.
Russian Defense Minister promises ‘inevitable’ victory
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in his wishes to the military for the new year that their victory in Ukraine was “inevitable”, after more than ten months of fighting.
“For next year, I want to wish everyone good health, courage, reliable and dedicated comrades […] Our victory, like the new year, is inevitable,” he said in a video released by his ministry.
Mr. Shoigu acknowledged that the year 2022 had been marked by “serious challenges” and that the “military-political situation” was “difficult” while the Russian offensive in Ukraine, launched in February, suffered serious setbacks these last months.
A counter-offensive by Ukrainian troops notably forced the Russian army to withdraw from the Kharkiv region, in the northeast, and from the city of Kherson on the Dnieper, in the south of the country.
Russian troops, however, claimed on Saturday the capture of the small village of Dorojnianka, in the Zaporizhia region of southern Ukraine, a rare claimed gain as positions are largely frozen with winter.
“The past year will forever enter the military chronicle of the homeland, filled with your immortal deeds, your selfless courage and your heroism in the fight against neo-Nazism and terrorism,” said Mr. Shoigu. in his message to the Russian military.
“We will always remember our comrades who sacrificed themselves performing combat missions in the name of protecting civilians from genocide and violence, just for the right to speak Russian,” he added.
Russia has justified its offensive in Ukraine in particular by a desire to defend the Russian-speaking population of the country against the authorities in Kyiv. This rhetoric has been denounced as propaganda by the Ukrainian authorities.