Russian forces have staged a fresh round of strikes on military targets and energy infrastructure in several parts of Ukraine, according to Moscow’s defense ministry.
According to the defense ministry, Russian forces used missiles, artillery, and military aircraft—both manned and unmanned—to strike designated targets.
It did not provide additional details about the latest wave of strikes, which, as of publication time, The Epoch Times could not independently verify.
The defense ministry further asserted that within the same 24-hour period, Russian air defenses had successfully downed a Ukrainian Su-27 jet fighter, scores of attack drones, and six U.S.-made HIMARS rockets.
Kyiv, meanwhile, has yet to verify any of the Russian claims.
On Jan. 1, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported that a residential building in central Kyiv had been struck by a Russian drone, leaving two people dead.
According to the Ukrainian military, 63 out of 111 incoming drones were intercepted by air defenses, while another 46 were downed by electronic jamming systems.
In a statement, the National Bank of Ukraine said that one of its buildings in Kyiv had been partially damaged by falling drone debris.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was quick to condemn the drone strike.
“Even on New Year’s Eve, Russia was only concerned about how to hurt Ukraine,” he said in a Jan. 1 social media post.
“The targets were stationing areas of the Ukrainian army and mercenaries, defense industry facilities, and power installations,” TASS reported on Jan. 2.
The news agency also said that at least five “mass strikes” had been carried out against Ukrainian targets over the previous year, based on data provided by Russia’s defense ministry.
In 2022, Russia invaded and effectively annexed broad swaths of territory in eastern and southeastern Ukraine.
Since then, Russian forces have carried out frequent attacks on Ukrainian military targets and energy infrastructure located behind the 1,000-mile-long frontline.
Moscow claims that it uses precision weapons to avoid killing civilians and that all of its strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure serve a purely military purpose.
Kursk Still in Play
On Jan. 2, Russian officials claimed that Ukrainian forces had conducted a missile strike on a village in Russia’s western Kursk region.According to Khinshtein, only “civilian targets” were hit, including a local town hall, a boarding school, a post office, and a shopping center.
No deaths or injuries have been reported as a result of the alleged strike, which officials in Kyiv have yet to acknowledge.
Since August, Ukrainian forces have held territory in Kursk after staging a surprise cross-border offensive into the Russian border region.
On the same day, Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s military, claimed that Russia had lost roughly 38,000 troops in Kursk over the same period.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify casualty figures cited by either side.
