Ukraine: At least one dead and 14 hospitalised as blasts rock different parts of country

At least one person was killed and 14 others hospitalised as multiple blasts rocked Kyiv and other areas of Ukraine on Saturday.

Some Ukrainians defied the danger, however, to return to the country to reunite with families for the new year’s holiday.

Ukrainian officials claimed Russia was deliberately targeting civilians, seeking to create a climate of fear to see out a grim 2022 and usher in a bloody new year.

First lady Olena Zelenska expressed outrage that such massive missile attacks could come just before New Year’s Eve celebrations.

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“Ruining lives of others is a disgusting habit of our neighbours,” she said.

The deadly blast in the Ukrainian capital occurred among the multi-story residential buildings of the Solomianskyi district.

One person wounded in the attacks is in a critical condition, according to Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko. He said two schools were damaged, including a kindergarten.

Various residential buildings and civilian infrastructure were damaged in Kyiv on Saturday afternoon as part of massive attacks spanning the country.

An official in the president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, published photos and video of a partially collapsed six-story hotel in Kyiv. Mr Klitschko said a Japanese journalist was among those injured in the capital.

Russia launched 20 cruise missiles over Ukraine on Saturday afternoon, of which Ukrainian forces shot down 12, according to Ukrainian military chief general Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

At least four civilians were wounded in the Khmelnytskyi province of western Ukraine, according to regional governor Serhii Hamalii. Six people were wounded in the southern region of Mykolaiv.

Mykolaiv governor Vitalii Kim said that the Russians were targeting civilians more directly than just by attacking infrastructure as in the past.

“In many cities residential areas, hotels, just roads and garages are affected,” he wrote on Telegram.

In Zaporizhzhia region, as a result of a missile attack, two houses were destroyed, and around eight damaged. Four people were also wounded, among them a pregnant woman and a 14-year-old girl, said regional Governor Oleksandr Starukh.

Even though Russia’s 10-month war continues with no end in sight, for some families the new year is nevertheless a chance to reunite, however briefly, after months apart.

Soldier Vasyl Khomko (42) met his daughter Yana and wife Galyna who have been living in Slovakia due to the war, but returned to Kyiv to spend New Year’s Eve together.

As Russian attacks continue to target power supplies leaving millions without electricity, no big celebrations are expected and a curfew will be in place as the clock rings in the new year.

Natalya Kontonenko had travelled from Finland. It was the first time she had seen her brother Serhii Kontonenko since the full-scale invasion began on February 24th. Serhii and other relatives travelled from Mykolaiv to Kyiv to meet Natalya.

“We are not concerned about the electricity, because we are together and that I think is the most important,” he said.

Meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Saturday his country would never give in to the West’s attempts to use Ukraine as a tool to destroy Russia.

In a new year’s video message broadcast on Russian state TV, Mr Putin said Russia was fighting in Ukraine to protect its “motherland” and to secure “true independence” for its people.

In a nine-minute message – the longest new year’s address of his two-decade rule – Mr Putin accused the West of lying to Russia and of provoking Moscow to launch what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

“For years, western elites hypocritically assured us of their peaceful intentions,” he said in a speech filmed in front of Russian service personnel at the headquarters of Russia’s southern military district.

“In fact, in every possible way they were encouraging neo-Nazis who conducted open terrorism against civilians in the Donbas,” Mr Putin said in an uncharacteristically combative new year’s speech, usually dedicated to well wishes for the year ahead.

Earlier on Saturday, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu had vowed victory in Ukraine was “inevitable” as he praised the heroism of Russian soldiers fighting on the front lines and those who had died during the 10-month war.

In Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed to reinforce his nation’s air defences in the new year as Russia continues to pound its electrical grid and cities with missiles and armed drones.

“This year we didn’t just save our air defence, we made it the strongest ever, he said in his evening address. “But in the new year Ukraine’s air defence will become even stronger and more efficient.”

Mr Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s air defence could become the most powerful in Europe, which he said would help the defence of the Continent as well as his nation.

Ukraine shot down all of the fourth wave of drones sent over the past day, with a district administrative building sustaining damage in Kyiv, according to local authorities and Ukraine’s military command.

It was part of one of the most intense missile and drone attacks of the war.

Ukraine got 5,000 diesel generators this month and expects to get about 8,000 more next month, though the nation’s needs are much bigger, given repeated Russia’s air attacks on its energy infrastructure, according to the Infrastructure Ministry.

The overall number of generators imported so far this year is near 500,000, according to Ukraine’s government.

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is occupied by Russian forces, lost connection to the backup power line due to shelling, the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Twitter.

The power plant is receiving off-site electricity from the last external line, IAEA said. Ukraine’s three other nuclear plants are restoring previous electricity production levels after Thursday’s missile attacks, according to the statement.

Mr Putin and China’s Xi Jinping hailed deepening ties between Russia and China in talks Friday, despite signs that Beijing is impatient with the wider political and economic impact of Russia’s struggling invasion of Ukraine.

Russia would seek to strengthen military co-operation with China, with relations between the two countries at their “best in history”, Mr Putin said in the video call, the first since the leaders met in person in September. China stands ready to expand their “strategic partnership”, Mr Xi said.

Chinese state television reported that Mr Xi told Mr Putin Beijing would continue to play a constructive role in seeking to resolve Ukraine “crisis, though the road to peace talks won’t be smooth”.

Beijing has refused to publicly condemn the invasion or even to call it a war, instead accusing the US of provoking Russia by pushing to expand Nato. – Agencies