The city of Donetsk faced heavy shelling on Monday, resulting in the loss of four lives, according to Denis Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Simultaneously, Russia launched air attacks on several Ukrainian regions, claiming at least one life, as reported by local officials.
Pushilin conveyed that the shelling by Ukrainian forces on the center of Donetsk was intense, causing significant damage and leaving thirteen people injured. The Telegram messaging app served as the platform for Pushilin to share updates on the dire situation in the region.
The Russian Foreign Ministry swiftly responded, condemning the shelling of Donetsk as a “terrorist act” specifically targeting civilian infrastructure. This rhetoric further intensifies the already strained relations between the two nations.
In a separate incident, a person lost their life due to shelling in the Russian border region of Belgorod, as confirmed by the local governor via Telegram.
On the Ukrainian side, the southern port city of Odesa faced a Russian drone attack that resulted in one fatality and nine injuries, according to Oleh Kiper, the governor of the region. Kiper revealed that falling debris from the drones, some of which were successfully intercepted, sparked fires in residential buildings across the city.
A video posted on social media by Odesa Mayor Henadii Trukhanov depicted the aftermath of the attack, showing a damaged apartment building with shattered windows. Trukhanov, defiant in the face of adversity, expressed determination for Ukraine to overcome the challenges. “They say that how you welcome the New Year is how you will live the year. Well, this year Ukraine will break this rule: we will persevere and we will win,” he stated in a post.
The conflict extended beyond Donetsk and Odesa, impacting Ukraine’s western region of Lviv, which shares a border with Poland. Reports from Lviv indicated that an early New Year’s Day Russian air attack damaged a university building in the city of Dubliany and caused harm to a monument commemorating a 1940s commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) on the outskirts of Lviv.
Ukraine’s air force responded, asserting that Russia’s air attack also targeted the Mykolaiv and Dnipro regions. However, the conflicting reports from Russian and Ukrainian sources make it challenging to independently verify the events.
Both Russia and Ukraine continue to deny targeting civilians in the ongoing conflict that erupted with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The situation remains highly fluid and tense, with the international community closely monitoring developments and expressing concerns about the escalating violence in the region.
