Closing summary
Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and the north-eastern city of Kharkiv killed at least five people on Tuesday and injured dozens of others, Ukrainian officials said. Officials said the attacks caused widespread damage and hit power supplies. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said gas pipelines had been damaged in Kyiv’s Pecherskyi district, while electricity and water had been cut off in several districts of the capital. Heating and water supplies were damaged in Kharkiv, mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
One man was killed and seven people were injured on Tuesday in a Ukrainian attack on the city and region of Belgorod, near Russia’s border with Ukraine, the defence ministry and regional officials said.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, urged faster supplies of air defence systems, combat drones and long-range missiles, the ministry said. It said Kuleba called on Ukraine’s western partners to respond to a new Russian strike on Ukraine by “accelerating the supply of additional air defence systems, combat drones of all types, long-range missiles with a range of 300+ km”.
Russia said it had accidentally bombed a village in its southern Voronezh region near Ukraine. In a statement quoted by Russian news agencies, the Russian army said: “On 2 January 2024, at around 9am Moscow time (GMT), during a flight of the aerospace forces, an abnormal discharge of aircraft ammunition occurred over the village of Petropavlovka in the Voronezh region. There are no casualties.”
Lithuania’s president, Gitanas Nausėda, and Latvia’s president, Edgars Rinkēvičs, have called for more air defence systems for Ukraine after Russia’s large-scale missile attack on Tuesday.
Nausėda wrote on X that “Ukrainians do wonders with the air defence the west has provided, but they need more,” adding “air defence systems to Ukraine now!”.
Rinkēvičs, meanwhile, wrote that “Ukrainian air defence works well, but Ukraine must get more help,” adding that western countries must get “serious”.
Another set of brutal Russian air strikes against Kyiv this morning, innocent civilians again being victims of the Russian terrorism. Ukrainian air defense works well but Ukraine must get more help. New Year’s celebrations are over and the West must get serious and act now
— Edgars Rinkēvičs (@edgarsrinkevics) January 2, 2024
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