Ukraine, Russia accuse each other of early New Year’s Day attacks
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Head of the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushilin accused Ukraine of shelling the city of Donetsk.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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DONETSK - Ukraine’s shelling of the city of Donetsk on Jan 1 killed four people, a Russian-installed official in the eastern region of Ukraine said, while Russia’s air attacks on several Ukrainian regions killed at least one person, local officials said.
Thirteen people were also injured in “heavy shelling” by Ukrainian forces on the centre of Donetsk, wrote Mr Denis Pushilin, the Russian-appointed head of the broader Donetsk region, on the Telegram messaging app.
At least one person was killed and nine injured in a Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian southern port of Odesa, Mr Oleh Kiper, governor of the Odesa region, said on Telegram.
Mr Kiper said falling debris from drones that were shot down caused several fires in residential buildings in different parts of the city.
A social media video posted by Odesa Mayor Henadii Trukhanov showed him inspecting a damaged apartment with broken windows.
“They say that how you welcome the New Year is how you will live the year,” Mr Trukhanov said in the post.
“Well, this year Ukraine will break this rule: We will persevere and we will win.”
Officials in Ukraine’s western region of Lviv, which borders Poland, said that a Russian air attack early on New Year’s Day damaged a university building in the city of Dubliany as well as the monument to a commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the 1940s on the outskirts of the city of Lviv.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia’s air attack also targeted the Mykolaiv and Dnipro regions.
Reuters could not independently verify the Russian and Ukrainian reports.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that started with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
