Blasts across Ukraine amid messages on New Year by Putin, Zelensky

As New Year celebrations gripped the world, blasts were reported to have rocked Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv and other parts of the war-torn country less than an hour into 2023.

However, there were no immediate reports of casualties or injuries in the attack which came shortly after President Volodymyr Zelensky’s New Year message, wishing victory for his nation in the war that is in its 11th month with no end in sight.

Here are top five points on the war:

1) The attack came after Russia fired a barrage of over 20 cruise missiles across Ukraine on Saturday in what Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets called “terror on New Year’s eve”. On Thursday, in one of the biggest wave of strikes seen in recent weeks targeting national infrastructure, Russia pounded Ukraine with over 120 missiles striking Kyiv, the eastern city of Kharkiv, and the western city of Lviv.

2) The latest attack came shortly after Zelensky’s address. “We fight and will continue to fight. For the sake of the main word: ‘victory’,” he said. “I want to say to all of you: Ukrainians, you are incredible! See what we have done and what we are doing!” Zelensky added, in the emotional speech.

3) “We fight as one team — the whole country, all our regions. I admire you all. I want to thank every invincible region of Ukraine,” he continued.

4) With the onset of winter, Russian strikes have been systematically targeting energy infrastructure in Ukraine, leaving millions in the cold and dark in the middle of the chilling cold.

5) Meanwhile, in his traditional New Year’s Eve address, President Vladimir Putin told Russians that “moral, historical rightness is on our side”. Putin said that this year was marked by “truly pivotal, fateful events” which became “the frontier that lays the foundation for our common future, for our true independence”.