Russia struck Ukraine with drones and missiles a few hours before the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the people on the eve of the New Year.
«As a result of the Russian Shahed attack, residential buildings in Odesa were hit directly and by shrapnel. At least one dead person. Three people were injured and hospitalized. Rescuers localized the fire. Operational assistance is provided on the ground, all relevant services are working. A 15-year-old teenager died in Odesa. Three people with injuries and burns were hospitalized, four more received medical assistance on the spot and continue to be treated on an outpatient basis», – Odesa Regional State Administration reported
Ukrainian children met New Year’s Eve under the explosions of Russian drones, in stress, nightmare, and terror.
The enemy also launched a missile attack on Kostyantynivka, a city in the Kramatorsk district of the Donetsk region. On December 31, 2023, at 10:35 pm one of the micro districts of the Kostyantynivka was attacked by the enemy from the Uragan MRL. As a result of the shelling, the following were damaged: five private houses, a gas line, and a DFEC (Donbas fuel and energy company) power grid line. No injured or dead were found on the spot.
On the morning of January 1, 2024, explosions rang out in Lviv. Fragments of an enemy drone hit a civilian object, as a result of which a fire started in the city of Dublyany, Lviv region. In addition, the occupiers completely destroyed the museum of UPA Corporal Roman Shukhevich in Bilogorshchi.
New Year, New Records
Overnight, Ukrainian air defense forces destroyed 87 of the 90 Shahed kamikaze drones launched by the Russians. This is stated in the message of the Ukrainian Air Force. They specified that the attack was carried out in waves from four directions: Cape Chauda, Balaklava – Crimea, Kursk, Primorsko-Akhtarsk – Russian Federation.
«A total of 90 Shahed-136/131 enemy drone launches were recorded. The enemy also struck with four S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles in the Kharkiv region, three Kh-31P anti-radar missiles and one Kh-59 from the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions», – reports in the message.
Reaction of the foreign news media to the Russian attack and speeches of the presidents
Most publications wrote about shelling of Ukrainian cities, while adding events in Russia`s Belgorod and temporarily occupied city of Donetsk, thus shifting attention from Russian terror to mutual shelling.
While everyone was celebrating the New Year — Odesa, Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities of Ukraine suffered from Russian shelling. Foreign mass media also wrote about the New Year’s speeches of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin.
The New York Times reported Russia hit Ukraine with missiles and drones hours before the leaders of the two countries used New Year’s Eve speeches to their people on Sunday to offer starkly different messages at the end of another year of brutal war.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the Russian invasion had already demonstrated his country’s strength and resilience — and he called on Ukrainians to “make an extraordinary effort and to do more.“
Reuters reported Zelenskyy speaks of war, Putin makes passing reference in contrasting New Year speeches.
The speeches – traditional December, 31 messages in both Russia and Ukraine – came as both countries marked the end of the year with increased air attacks on each other’s territories.
In a separate article, Reuters also paid attention to the shelling of Ukrainian Kharkiv. Russia pounded Kharkiv with drones and missiles in the hours leading into New Year’s Eve, Ukrainian officials said, hours after Moscow accused Kyiv of carrying out a deadly air assault just across the border on nearby Belgorod.
Qatar state-owned media Al Jazeera reported: “Ukraine, Russia accuse each other of New Year’s Day attacks. At least five people have been killed in Donetsk and Odesa as the two sides continue a wave of escalating attacks that began on Friday.“
Ukraine’s Air Force said that Russian air attacks also targeted both Mykolaiv and Dnipro regions, as well as the city of Lviv. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war, which began when Russia sent its soldiers into Ukraine in February 2022 in a full-scale invasion of the country.
Conclusion
In general, for the world, including for foreign mass media, shelling of Ukraine is becoming something commonplace. The war between Israel and Hamas has already made a certain negative contribution to the information field. Our conclusion: It is important to convey information about the shelling and events in Ukraine to your local reader promptly, because it does not allow the world to forget about Ukraine.
