Two people were killed and six injured on Wednesday in kyiv by an attack by the Russian army, which launched a wave of 111 drones on Ukraine for New Year's Day.
This Russian strike on the first day of 2025 comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had expressed the day before, in his wishes, that this year would be the year of negotiations which must “end the war”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened, at the end of December, to strike the center of kyiv in response to the use of American and British long-range weapons on his country.
Even on New Year's Eve, Russia only cares about harming Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelensky sur Telegram
“After the morning attack, the number of victims in kyiv increased: two dead, six injured, four people saved”Ukrainian emergency services said on Telegram.
Emergency services also declared that they had brought under control the fire which damaged a residential building and an administrative building in the Pechersk district, in the historic city center of the capital, a fire caused by falling debris from drones shot down by air defense .
The building belongs to the Ukrainian National Bank, according to the latter, located approximately three hundred meters from the presidential offices.
“Even on New Year's Eve, Russia only cares about harming Ukraine”and reagi Volodymyr Zelensky sur Telegram.
AFP journalists heard multiple, powerful explosions in the city center of the capital on Wednesday morning.
Negotiation table
Another fire caused by Russian drone debris was extinguished in the Svyatoshin district, on the outskirts of kyiv, according to Ukrainian emergency services.
“A residential building, 9 cars, a tram and a tram line were damaged”in this area, they continued on Telegram.
For its part, the Ukrainian Air Force claims to have shot down 63 drones of the 111 that Russia sent to Ukraine, mainly Shahed attack drones of Iranian design and “other types of drones”.
Still according to this source, 76 were lost and disappeared from radars, either thanks to Ukrainian jammers or on their own, without “harmful consequences”and two others returned to Russia and Belarus.
While this attack caused injuries in the Ukrainian capital, it targeted a large part of the country, with drones having been shot down in the northeast, north, southeast and south of the country, according to the Ukrainian army. the air.
In his old wishes, Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Ukraine will have to fight for the year 2025 “on the battlefield” but especially at “negotiation table” for peace, believing that this coming year would be “Year of Ukraine”.
In his New Year's speech on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not explicitly mention the war in Ukraine, but said that “the thoughts and hopes of relatives and friends, millions of people across Russia, are with our fighters and our commanders”.
The latter had promised more than “destruction” to Ukraine on December 22 while kyiv had struck, the day before, a building in Kazan, in central Russia, about 1,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
