Ukraine faces grim start to 2023 amid strikes

KYIV — Several waves of Russian drones targeted critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and surrounding areas on Monday, Ukrainian officials said as Moscow extended its special military operation into the second day of 2023.

Ukrainians cheered from balconies as their air defenses blasted some Russian missiles and drones out of the sky in the first hours of the New Year.

Ukrainian forces shot down 45 drones fired by Russia on the first night of the year, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday.

In a stern New Year's speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled no letup in the assault, Reuters reported.

"The main thing is the fate of Russia," Putin said in a New Year's Eve speech to a group dressed in military uniform, instead of the event's normal backdrop of the Kremlin walls.

"Defense of the fatherland is our sacred duty to our ancestors and descendants. Moral, historical righteousness is on our side."

The Russian Defense Ministry said it had targeted production, storage and launch sites of Ukrainian drones with long-range missiles on New Year's Eve.

Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday that the Western military alliance's 30 members need to "ramp up" arms production in the coming months to maintain their own stockpiles and to keep supplying Ukraine with weapons.

Since October, Russia has launched mass missile and drone attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, casting cities into darkness and cold as winter sets in.

In Russia's Bryansk region bordering Ukraine, a Ukrainian drone attack damaged a power supply facility, the regional governor said on Monday, adding that there were no casualties.

Troops toasted the new year on the front line in Donetsk. One soldier, Pavlo Pryzhehodskiy, played on the guitar a song he had written after 12 of his comrades were killed in a single night.

"It is sad that instead of meeting friends, celebrating and giving gifts to one another, people were forced to seek shelter. Some were killed," the 27-year-old soldier told Reuters.

"It is a huge tragedy. It is a huge tragedy that cannot ever be forgiven. That is why the New Year is sad."

Agencies - Xinhua