LAUREN IRWIN
Russia launched a record 90 drones over Ukraine during the early hours of the new year, and Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country would intensify its attacks.
The Ukrainian Air Force said it destroyed 87 of the 90 drones, and the attack was carried out in waves that came from four different directions. The military shared the message online and said, “Let’s keep the sky! Together — to victory.”
Putin spoke at a New Year’s Day visit to a military hospital after Ukraine struck the Russian border city of Belgorod, killing more than two dozen people and wounding 100 others, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
It was one of the deadliest Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil since the start of the war nearly two years ago. Putin called the attack a “terrorist attack” and said, “They want to intimidate us and create uncertainty within our country.”
“We will intensify strikes. Not a single crime against our civilian population will go unpunished,” Putin said, per the AP.
In his year-end address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised an increase in domestically produced weapons in the coming year for the country’s war against Russia.
Putin also gave a New Year’s address. He did not mention Ukraine by name in his speech, but the war was a central theme in his remarks; he said Russia would “never back down.”
Both Russia and Ukraine have relied on explosive drones throughout the war, the AP reported.
Russia’s recent attack killed a 15-year-old boy and wounded seven people after one of the downed drones hit a residential building in Odesa, Ukraine, said Oleh Kiper, the head of the country’s military administration, per the AP.
The AP said drone strikes and artillery fire killed three people in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions in Ukraine.
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