Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said Russia was continuing its war "into the New Year" with more than 200 drones fired at Ukraine, mainly targeting energy infrastructure.
"Russia deliberately brings war into the New Year -– launching more than two hundred attack drones against Ukraine overnight," Zelensky said on social media, adding that the "targets were our energy infrastructure."
Russia attacked the Odesa region overnight in several waves of drone attacks, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.
In a post on Telegram, Kiper said a two-storey residential building was damaged and that a drone hit an apartment on the 17th floor of a high-rise building without detonating. There were no casualties reported.
In Kherson, Russian strikes killed one and injured four others in the last day, while in the Donetsk region, attacks killed one, according to regional governors.
Another 12 were injured in Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and Sumy regions.
In its daily report, Ukraine’s air force said air defence forces had downed or suppressed 176 of 205 drones targeting the country overnight. It said hits by 24 strike drones were recorded at 15 locations and the attack was still ongoing.
'Ten per cent to determine fate of Ukraine and Europe'
In his New Year’s address the night before, Zelenskyy said that a peace deal was "90% ready" but warned that the remaining 10%, believed to include key sticking points such as territory, would “determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe, how people will live.”
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Wednesday that he, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner had a “productive call” with the national security advisers of UK, France, Germany and Ukraine “to discuss advancing the next steps in the European peace process.”
“We focused on how to move the discussions forward in a practical way on behalf of (Trump’s) peace process, including strengthening security guarantees and developing effective deconfliction mechanisms to help end the war and ensure it does not restart,” Witkoff said in a post on X.
Lead Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov also reaffirmed that European and Ukrainian officials plan to meet Saturday, while Zelenskyy is due to hold talks next week with European leaders.
