One person was killed in Kyiv by Russian Missile Strikes

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KYIV — Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles at targets in Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least one person in Kyiv, in attacks President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said showed Moscow was in league with the devil.

The second wave of major Russian missile attack in three days severely damaged a Kyiv Hotel and a residential building. German Galushchenko (energy minister) stated that the strikes have not caused any serious damage to national power systems.

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Since October, Russia has attacked vital infrastructure in Ukraine with missiles and drones. This has caused massive power blackouts when the cold weather strikes.

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Zelenskiy, speaking in video addresses, noted that Russia also launched attacks on Easter and Christmas.

“They call themselves Christians … but they are for the devil. They are for him and with him,” He said.

The attacks left at least 12 people injured. Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv mayor said that a Japanese journalist was among the injured and was taken into a hospital.

DTEK, the country’s largest private energy company, later said it had canceled emergency power outages in Kyiv and the surrounding region.

Zelenskiy in comments addressed to Russian speakers said President Vladimir Putin was destroying Russia’s future.

“No one will forgive you for terror. No one in the world will forgive you for this. Ukraine will not forgive,” He reiterated his calls for allies’ support of anti-missile system and anti-aircraft systems,

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Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the Army chief, said that 12 cruise missiles were shot down by air defenses. These included six in the Kyiv region and five in the Zhytomyrskiy regions. One was in the Khmeltnytskiy area.

Telegram said that the cruise missiles were launched from land-based launchers and strategic bombers hundreds of miles away over the Caspian Sea.

“Russia’s mass missile attack is deliberately targeting residential areas, not even our energy infrastructure,” After the attack, Dmytro Kuleba, Foreign Minister, wrote on Twitter.

“War criminal Putin ‘celebrates’ New Year by killing people,” Kuleba called for Russia’s permanent seat to be removed from the United Nations Security Council.

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets described the attack as “Terror on New Year’s Eve.”

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NATIONWIDE BLASTS

Other cities in Ukraine were also under attack. Vitaliy Kim, the local governor in Mykolaiv’s southern region, stated that six people were injured.

Kim also posted a Telegram post in which he claimed that Russia had attacked civilians with its strikes. This is something Moscow previously denied.

“According to today’s tendencies, the occupiers are striking not just critical (infrastructure) … in many cities (they are targeting) simply residential areas, hotels, garages, roads.”

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Ukrainian presidential adviser, said that two people were injured in a drone strike in Khmelnytskyi. Tymoshenko reported another strike in Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, which Tymoshenko stated had damaged residential properties.

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Ukraine’s defense ministry responded on Telegram by saying: “With each new missile attack on civilian infrastructure, more and more Ukrainians are convinced of the need to fight until the complete collapse of Putin’s regime.”

All across Ukraine curfews, which range from 7 p.m. till midnight, remained in force. It made celebrations of the 2023 start impossible in public spaces.

Several regional governors posted messages on social media warning residents not to break restrictions on New Year’s Eve. (Also reporting by Pavel Polityuk & David Ljunggren; Writing and Editing by Max Hunder & Tom Balmforth.