As Ukraine rang in the New Year, its Air defense forces shot down 45 Russian drones on January 1.
In a New Year assault, Russia attacked Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with cruise missiles and Iranian-made war drones.
In a statement, the Ukrainian air force reported that air defenses destroyed 45 “Shahed” drones. The air defense shot down 13 Iranian-made Shahed-131/136 kamikaze drones late on December 31 while killing 32 others early on January 1.
The Air Force of Ukraine did not identify the locations of the drone downings. In the early hours of January 1, Russia used drones to strike Kyiv and the Kyiv region.
According to the Kyiv City Hall, items that seemed to be missile debris were discovered on the metro lines on January 1. Several stations of the capital’s metro have been closed.
The head of the Kyiv police, Andriy Nebytov, shared a photo of a fallen drone’s wreckage with a greeting in the Russian language “Happy New Year” written on the drone (the picture above).
In the Shevchenkivsky district of Kyiv, Russian missile debris struck a car. There were no casualties reported.
Russian missiles struck civilian areas in the center, south, east, and west of Ukraine during the coordinated assault, which had several targets, first of all, energy facilities.
Before the drone attack, Russia had also unleashed a new rain of missiles throughout Ukraine on New Year’s Eve, resulting in at least one person killed and at least 28 injured, all civilians.
The assaults happened as the invasion of Ukraine launched by Russian President Putin entered its eleventh month.
Following a series of humiliating military defeats on the front lines, Russia started attacking Ukraine’s infrastructure in October, trying to leave millions of Ukrainians in the dark and the cold during the winter.
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