KYIV/DONETSK PROVINCE FRONT LINE: W aves of Russian drones targeted infrastructure in Ukraine’s capital and surrounding areas on Monday, damaging energy facilities and causing some power outages, officials said, as Russia extended its bombardment into the second day of 2023.
Ukraine’s air force said that its air defense systems destroyed all of Russia’s 39 Iranian-made Shahed drones that targeted Ukraine overnight in what it said was a “massive attack”.
President Volodymyr Zelensky praised Ukrainians for showing gratitude to the troops and one another and said Russia’s efforts would prove useless.
“Drones, missiles, everything else will not help them,” he said of the Russians. “Because we stand united. They are united only by fear.”
But in a stern New Year’s speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled no let-up in his assault on Ukraine.
Ukraine’s air defense systems worked through the night to bring down incoming drones and to warn communities of the approaching danger.
“It is loud in the region and in the capital: night drone attacks,” Kyiv Governor Oleksiy Kuleba said.
“Russians launched several waves of Shahed drones. Targeting critical infrastructure facilities. Air defense is at work,” he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the strikes had knocked out some power and heating.
“There are emergency power outages in the city,” he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Earlier, he said one person was wounded by debris from a destroyed drone that hit a road and damaged a building in a northeastern district of the capital.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the information.
The regional military command in Ukraine’s east said air defense systems destroyed nine of the Iranian-made drones over the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions by the early hours of Monday.
