Kremlim attacked Ukraine with a barrage of strikes to mark the new year, according to an official.
Russia has sent an exploding drone inscribed with “Happy New Year” to attack Kyiv in Ukraine.
However, defiant Ukrainians cheered from their balconies while their air defences blasted Russian missiles and drones out of the sky in the first hours of 2023, as Moscow saw in the new year by attacking civilian targets across Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Kremlim attacked Ukraine with a barrage of strikes to mark the new year, according to an official.
Andriy Nebytov, the chief of police in the capital Kyiv, posted images of the drone on Facebook after attacks across Ukraine on New Year’s Eve and in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
The images show “Happy New Year” written in Russian on part of the wreckage. It also features crude drawings of a gift, and a bauble labelled “boom,” Business Insider reports.
The drone was marked as Geran-2, the Russian name for the Shahed-136 drones which were acquired from Iran and have been launched at Ukraine in vast numbers.
A zoomed-out image of the wreckage. Andriy Nebytov, via Facebook
Ukrainian officials said they shot down 45 of these drones on the night of December 31, including 32 over Kyiv.
Nebytov said the drone in the photos landed in a children’s playground. He did not say whether it was shot down or landed there itself.
“This is all you need to know about the terrorist state and its army,” Nebytov wrote about the message on the drone.
Officials said that the strikes across Ukraine on New Year’s Eve also included at least 20 cruise missiles. These killed one person and injured 20 more in what one Ukrainian official described as “terror on New Year’s Eve”.
The attacks followed major bombardments in recent days, including the firing of more than 120 missiles across Ukraine on December 29, its biggest wave of attacks in recent months, according to a Ukrainian official.
Russia said the latest strikes targeted locations involved in the manufacture of drones, with the aim of limiting attacks on Russia.
Ukraine has repeatedly said that Russia rarely hits military targets and mostly harms ordinary people and civilian infrastructure.
