The war in Ukraine does not take a break on New Year’s Eve either. Throughout the day, Ukrainians had to take cover from Russian airstrikes. There were no fireworks in the traditional sense – instead there were dead and injured. The Ukrainian authorities reported on Saturday that three people had been killed. Around 50 are said to have been injured in the attacks. On New Year’s Day, another person died in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia.
Despite the continuing dramatic situation in the country, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj displayed the well-known and now tried and tested fighting spirit. In his emotional speech Zelenskyy paid great respect to his compatriots. “I want to tell you all: Ukrainians, you are amazing.” Everyone is a fighter, the whole country is fighting as “one team”.
Russian shells shake several regions in Ukraine
Zelenskyy’s adviser Mykhailo Podoliak meanwhile accused the Russian army that its strategy now aims to “kill as many civilians as possible and destroy more civilian facilities”. On Saturday, the Ukrainian capital was shaken several times by detonations. Even shortly after the turn of the year, the wave of attacks continued, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. “Heard an explosion in the capital. Air defense works,” said Klitschko on the Telegram online service. Shells are said to have hit two districts in Kyiv just half an hour after midnight.
Attacks in the southern region of Mykolayiv and Khmelnytskyi in the west also reported several injuries.
Nevertheless, the Ukrainians didn’t want to let the party mood be completely spoiled. “Our enemies, the Russians, can destroy our calm, but not our state of mind,” said the 23-year-old filmmaker Yaroslav Mutenko from Kiev to the AFP news agency. Because of the imposed curfew, the parties had to be moved to the private apartments that were still habitable.