In war-torn Ukraine, New Year's Eve explosions are a sign of Russian raids continuing to target cities, not the fireworks used to celebrate the rest of the world.
Anti-aircraft in Kiev went into action just after midnight, being called once again to work overtime by shooting down scores of kamikaze drones
.
One of which bore the mocking inscription 'Happy New Year'.
Meanwhile, the two leaders continued to challenge each other in greeting to 2023. "We will fight until victory", promised Volodymyr Zelensky.
"History is on our side", replied Vladimir Putin.
However, the shadow of precarious health conditions remains, which according to Western intelligence would put his political future into question.
Shelling by the invading army targeted Ukraine all weekend, killing at least four people and injuring dozens.
The rain of fire fell with the usual use of cruise missiles and the notorious swarms of Iranian-made drones.
Far and wide,
from Kiev to Chernihiv, from Sumy to Zaporizhzhia, from Mykolaiv and Kherson
.
According to Moscow's Defense Ministry, drone launch sites and factories have been targeted to foil attempts by Ukrainians to carry out "terrorist attacks" against Russia.
In Kiev, on the other hand, they denounced that the targets were inhabited centres, and only thanks to the anti-aircraft fire was a bloodbath and huge damage avoided.
At least 45 Russian drones were shot down on New Year's Eve alone, the air force command said.
The effectiveness of anti-missile defenses, which may become the "most powerful in Europe", was underlined by Zelensky in his year-end message.
For the last address to the nation of 2022, a long video, 17 minutes, was prepared with evocative background music and symbolic images of the war, while the Ukrainian leader addressed his people
: "We are fighting and we will continue to fight. In favor of this word, victory", the words of the president.
With the hope that 2023 will become the year in which "Ukrainians will return home" and "our lands will return" to the borders of 1991, the year of independence.
Proclamations of victory also came from Moscow.
Putin, who addressed the Russians standing up, among the soldiers and women who fought in Ukraine, underlined the "moral and historical correctness" of choices made to
"protect our people in our historical territories".
The tsar has lashed out at the West, which has "lied about peace" and is "cynically using the Ukraine" against Russia.
Finally, the promise: "They will never divide us", because "our destiny is at stake".
New rumors about Putin's health
have filtered in from Westerners
.
According to Danish military intelligence services, the Russian leader was being treated for a form of cancer in February and this may have influenced his decision to invade Ukraine.
While now he would not suffer from an incurable disease, but from severe chronic pain caused by several falls and accidents.
These pains, however, could constitute an obstacle to his new presidential term, after the 2024 elections.
In any case, at the moment, the Kremlin's main unknown factor is the state of health of the Russian army.
American analysts believe that the Army is running out of artillery ammunition
, and according to Ukrainian intelligence, cruise missiles are enough to launch no more than two to three large-scale attacks.
So much so that Putin is thinking of a new mobilization order, closing the borders to avoid desertions.
Precisely in view of a "potential new Russian offensive",
NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has launched an appeal to the countries of the Alliance
: we must prepare to support Kiev in the "long term".
Because only then will Russia be forced to negotiate an end to the war.
(HANDLE).
