Rescue workers work at the site of a building damaged during a Russian missile attack, amid Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine on December 31, 2022.
Gleb Garanich Reuters
Russia carried out three missile attacks on Ukraine on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said, with explosions reported across the country on New Year’s Eve.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least one person had been killed and eight wounded after a series of explosions in the capital. A Reuters reporter reported hearing 10 loud explosions in the city.
The mayor said one of those injured by the blast was a Japanese journalist who had been taken to hospital.
A hotel south of downtown Kyiv was hit and residential buildings in other districts were damaged, according to the city administration.
The governor of the surrounding Kyiv region, Oleksiy Kuleba, had warned in advance of the possibility of an upcoming missile attack and said the area’s air defenses were targeting them.
“Terrorist countries are launching several waves of missiles. They want us to enjoy the New Year. But we will continue,” Kuleba wrote on Telegram in a separate post after the explosion shook the capital.
A national explosion
Other cities across Ukraine were also hit by the fire. In the southern region of Mykolaiv, local governor Vitaliy Kim said on television that six people had been injured.
In a separate post on Telegram, Kim said Russia had targeted civilians with the attack, which Moscow had previously denied.
“According to the current tendency, the invaders attack not only critically … in many cities. [they are targeting] only residential areas, hotels, garages, roads.”
In the western city of Khmelnytskyi, two people were injured in a drone strike, Ukrainian presidential aide Kyrylo Tymoshenko said.
The official also reported an attack in the southern industrial powerhouse city of Zaporizhzhia, which Tymoshenko said had destroyed residential buildings.
Ukraine’s defense ministry responded with a rebuttal message posted on Telegram.
“With each new missile attack on civilian infrastructure, more and more Ukrainians are convinced of the need for war until the fall of the Putin regime,” it wrote.