One person was killed and 20 others injured in Kiev as a wave of Russian missiles rocked the capital on Saturday – while Vladimir Putin of Russia and Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine exchanged spikes in New Year’s messages to their respective nations.
In a militant nine-minute speech, broadcast on Russian state television just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, Putin stressed that his troops in Ukraine were “defending our people and our historic territory.”
“The West Lied About Peace” said the gloomy Putin, surrounded by ceremonial soldiers and sailors in uniform. “They were preparing for aggression… and now they’re cynically using Ukraine and its people to weaken and divide Russia.”
“We’ll win for our families and for Russia,” he vowed, before toasting the service members with champagne.
But Zelensky responded with a message to the Russians in their very own language – telling them that Putin’s troops “follow the devil.”
“Your propagandists are lying,” the Ukrainian president said in a speech posted on Instagram. “All this war you are waging … is to maintain one person in power for the remaining of your life.”
“Your leader wants to indicate that he has the military behind him,” Zelensky said. “But he’s hiding… He’s hiding behind you, burning your country, your future. Nobody will forgive terror. Nobody in the world will forgive you.”
Airstrike Alerts sounded on Saturday morning over a large strip of Ukraine when the Russian bombardment lasted 10 months after the invasion.
Not less than 20 civilians, including a Japanese journalist, were injured and one killed in a rocket attack on Kyiv, where several schools were severely damaged, reported CNN.
A video posted on social media showed that the corner of the Alfavito hotel in the middle of Kiev had fell in the baywhile other photos showed firefighters on top of the smoking rubble in Mykolaiv, and a drone attack reportedly injured two people in the western city of Khmelnitsky.
A couple of third of the capital has been forced to rejoice the brand new yr in darkness as “emergency blackouts” have left 1000’s without power, Mayor Vitaly Klitschko told Telegram.
“Russia desires to sow darkness and harm the country with constant attacks,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote in a Telegram post.
Moscow intends to “intimidate, leave us in the dark for the brand new yr, cause as much damage as possible to civilian infrastructure,” Shmyhal said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced that Russia would close its borders to men of military age in January ahead of one other round of forced military mobilizations.
“Russian authorities will close borders for men in early January, then introduce martial law” Reznikov said in a video message late friday.
“I do know needless to say that you simply still have per week left before you have got any alternative,” Reznikov warned the Russians.
The Kremlin last month rescinded Putin’s divisive draft decree that drafted 300,000 largely untrained men into his armed forces – triggering mass protests and forcing lots of of 1000’s to flee the country.