A museum damaged by Russian drone strikes on Lviv in western Ukraine, January 1, 2024 (Andriy Sadovyi)

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Monday’s Coverage: Zelenskiy’s New Year Message — “Ukrainians Are Stronger”

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1501 GMT:

Turkey is preventing the delivery of two British minehunter ships to Ukraine for clearance of explosives from the Black Sea.

The UK announced the transfer last month as part of the establishment of a “protected corridor” for ships transporting grain and other essential items from Ukrainian ports.

The Turkish President said it had invoked the Montreux Convention of 1936 to prevent transit of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, by any military ships, as long as Russia’s invasion continues.

UPDATE 1435 GMT:

The toll from this morning’s Russian attacks across Ukraine has risen to five killed and at least 115 injured.

Ukraine Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin posted:

UPDATE 1016 GMT:

Russia has accidentally bombed a village in its southern Voronezh region near the border with Ukraine.

The Russian army said in a statement that “an abnormal discharge of aircraft ammunition occurred over the village of Petropavlovka”, 93 miles east of Ukraine, about 9 a.m.

The military said six private houses were damaged. There were no casualties.

UPDATE 1001 GMT:

The head of Ukraine’s armed forces, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, says air defenses have downed 62 Russian missiles so far today: 10 Kinzhals, 3 Kalibrs, and 59 cruise missiles.

UPDATE 0953 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reports that four people have been killed and at least 92 injured in this morning’s Russian missile and drone attacks.

For the third day already, our air defenders are doing incredible work.

I thank all partners who help to strengthen our air shield. And it’s obvious it helps save hundreds of lives every day and every night that would have been taken by Russian terror if it weren’t for Patriots and other defense systems.

In Kyiv city, an elderly woman has been killed and at least 27 people injured. Two others have been killed in the Kyiv region.

UPDATE 0932 GMT:

Yaroslav Trofimov, the chief foreign affairs for The Wall Street Journal, links Russia’s escalating missile and drone strikes to Western politicians — from US Republicans in Congress to long-time Putin ally Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — blocking further aid to Ukraine.

UPDATE 0822 GMT:

Russian attacks on Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv have killed a woman and injured 41 people.

At least 20 people have been injured in Kyiv, 16 of them in a residential building evacuated after it was hit by a missile.

Ukrainian member of parliament Kira Rudik posts:

UPDATE 0728 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has knocked back the Kremlin narrative — promoted by some activists and echoed by outlets in the West — that Ukrainians are “losing” against Russia’s invasion.

In an interview with The Economist, he acknowledged that gains from Ukraine’s counter-offensive in the east and south have been limited, “Maybe we did not succeed the world wanted. Maybe not everything is as fast as someone imagined.”

But he added that the idea that Putin is winning is no more than a “feeling”, while the reality was of the Russians failing in “human wave” assaults, such as the three months of attacks on Avdiika in eastern Ukraine.

“Thousands, thousands of killed Russian soldiers, nobody even took them away,” he noted.

He reminded the international community:

Giving us money or giving us weapons, you support yourself. You save your children, not ours….

Putin feels weakness like an animal, because he is an animal. He senses blood, he senses his strength. And he will eat you for dinner with all your EU, NATO, freedom, and democracy.

UPDATE 0713 GMT:

The Ukraine Air Force says air defenses downed all 35 Iran-made attack drones launched by Russia early Tuesday.

At least 16 people have been wounded in Kyiv, posted Mayor Vitalii Klitschko posted. Fifteen were in a building which caught fire after it was struck by a rocket.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia carried out the largest drone attack of its invasion of Ukraine on New Year’s Day, three days after the largest firing of missiles in its 22-month assault.

Air defenses intercepted 87 of 90 drones. A 15-year-old boy was killed and seven people wounded by falling debris in Odesa in southern Ukraine.

In western Ukraine, the Russians heavily damaged a museum in Lviv dedicated to Roman Shukhevych, a military commander who fought for Ukrainian independence during World War II, and university buildings in the town of Dubliany. No casualties were reported.

At least 45 people were killed — 29 in Kyiv — and more than 160 wounded in Friday’s missile attacks across the country. Five more bodies were discovered under rubble in Kyiv on Monday.

This morning, the Ukrainian capital is again defending itself against incoming missiles and drones.

Journalists reported more than 10 loud explosions shaking buildings in the center of Kyiv. The city’s military administration said fragments of downed rockets fell on residential buildings in several districts, and Mayor Vitali Klitschko said parts of the capital are without power.

While carrying out daily strikes, Russia’s firing of missiles and Iran-made Shahed attack drones had been far less than Vladimir Putin’s “energy war” tried — and failed — to break Ukraine’s infrastructure last winter.

The escalation in the past week accompanies political warfare trying to break international support for Kyiv, as well as the resistance of Ukrainians.

Putin: “We’re Going to Intensify the Strikes”

Vladimir Putin is using the pretext of deadly explosions in Belgorod, near the border with northern Ukraine, to justify the latest strikes.

He said at a military hospital on Monday, “We’re going to intensify the strikes. No crime against civilians will rest unpunished, that’s for certain.”

Local officials said 25 people, including five children, were slain in Belgorod on Saturday. They have claimed but not established that Ukraine deliberately fired missiles on the city center.

Ukrainian officials say the the deaths were caused by flawed Russian air defenses intercepting the missiles over densely-populated civilian areas.

The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged that “cluster parts from the downed [Ukrainian] Vilkha missiles hit the city of Belgorod”.