On New Year's Eve, more than ten months after the Russian invasion, several Ukrainian cities including kyiv were targeted by Russian strikes, killing at least one person and injuring thirty.
The mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitschko, announced that 30% of the inhabitants of the city were deprived of electricity after these strikes.
In kyiv, AFP journalists heard at least 11 explosions in the early afternoon as the city prepared to celebrate the New Year despite more than ten months of fierce fighting at the front since the invasion of the country by Russia launched in February.
According to the city administration, these strikes left at least one dead and 22 injured.
At least 14 people were taken to hospital.
A gutted hotel in the center of kyiv
The strikes ripped open the facade of the four-star Alfavito hotel in the center, spreading rubble across the street.
A Japanese journalist staying there was hit by a missile.
Nearby sidewalks were covered in glass from blown windows, including those in the National Palace of the Arts.
This video published by Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the President's Office, shows the Alfavito hotel in central Kyiv, which was damaged by Russia's mass missile strike on Dec. 31. pic.twitter.com/VjjqrYXxn5
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) December 31, 2022
Filmmaker Yaroslav Mutenko, 23, who lives in the area, said he was showering before going to a New Year's Eve party when he heard an explosion.
The latest Russian bombings haven't dampened her desire to go to the party.
“Our enemies, the Russians, can destroy our calm, but they cannot destroy our spirit.
This year, it is important to have people close to you”, he justifies himself.
“Residential areas deliberately targeted”
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, accused Moscow of “deliberately targeting residential areas, not even our energy infrastructure.
War criminal Putin
celebrates
New Year by killing people,” he wrote on Twitter.
This time, Russia's mass missile attack is deliberately targeting residential areas, not even our energy infrastructure.
War criminal Putin “celebrates” New Year by killing people.
Russia must be kicked out of its UN Security Council seat which it has always illegally occupied.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) December 31, 2022
The curfew in force in the Kyiv region from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. is extended until January 8, the head of the regional administration announces on Telegram.
The curfew is also valid this Saturday, for New Year's Eve.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian strikes caused destruction and fires in Mykolaiv in the south, where at least six people were injured, and in Khmelnytsky in the west, where four people were injured.
Zelensky: "Ukraine will not forgive"
Reacting to these new bombings, President Volodymyr Zelensky assured that "Ukraine will not forgive" Russia, promising that "those who order such strikes, and those who execute them, will not be pardoned".
According to Ukrainian Chief of Staff Valery Zalouzhny, Russian forces fired 20 cruise missiles, including from strategic bombers from the Caspian Sea, 12 of which were shot down by anti-aircraft defense.
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.