KYIV, Ukraine, 2 Jan: Ukrainian forces fired rockets at a facility in the eastern Donetsk region where Russian soldiers were stationed, killing 63 of them, Russia\u2019s defense ministry said Monday, in one of the deadliest attacks on the Kremlin\u2019s forces since the war began more than 10 months ago.
\nUkrainian forces fired six rockets from a HIMARS launch system and two of them were shot down, a defense ministry statement said. It did not say when the strike happened.
\nThe strike, using a U.S.-supplied precision weapon that has proven critical in enabling Ukrainian forces to hit key targets, delivered a new setback for Russia which in recent months has reeled from a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
\nThe Ukrainian military has not directly confirmed the strike, but seemed to acknowledge what appeared to be the same attack that Russian authorities reported.
\nThe Strategic Communications Directorate of Ukraine\u2019s Armed Forces claimed Sunday that some 400 mobilized Russian soldiers were killed in a vocational school building in Makiivka and about 300 more were wounded. That claim could not be independently verified. The Russian statement said the strike occurred \u201cin the area of Makiivka\u201d and didn\u2019t mention the vocational school.
\nMeanwhile, Russia deployed multiple exploding drones in another nighttime attack on Ukraine, officials said Monday, as the Kremlin signaled no letup in its strategy of using bombardments to target the country\u2019s energy infrastructure and wear down Ukrainian resistance to its invasion.
\nThe barrage was the latest in a series of relentless year-end attacks, including one that killed three civilians on New Year\u2019s Eve.
\nOn Monday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that 40 drones \u201cheaded for Kyiv\u201d overnight. All of them were destroyed, according to air defense forces.
\nKlitschko said 22 drones were destroyed over Kyiv, three in the outlying Kyiv region and 15 over neighboring provinces.
\nEnergy infrastructure facilities were damaged as the result of the attack and an explosion occurred in one city district, the mayor said. It wasn\u2019t immediately clear whether that was caused by drones or other munitions. A wounded 19-year-old man was hospitalized, Klitschko added, and emergency power outages were underway in the capital.
\nIn the outlying Kyiv region a \u201ccritical infrastructure object\u201d and residential buildings were hit, Gov. Oleksiy Kuleba said.
\nRussia has carried out airstrikes on Ukrainian power and water supplies almost weekly since October.
\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of \u201cenergy terrorism\u201d as the aerial bombardments have left many people without heat amid freezing temperatures. Ukrainian officials say Moscow is \u201cweaponizing winter\u201d in its effort to demoralize the Ukrainian resistance.
\nUkraine is using sophisticated Western-supplied weapons to help shoot down Russia\u2019s missiles and drones, as well as send artillery fire into Russian-held areas of the country.
\nMoscow\u2019s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24 has gone awry, putting pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin as his ground forces struggle to hold ground and advance. He said in his New Year\u2019s address to the nation that 2022 was \u201ca year of difficult, necessary decisions.\u201d
\nPutin insists he had no choice but to send troops into Ukraine because it threatened Russia\u2019s security \u2014 an assertion condemned by the West, which says Moscow bears full responsibility for the war.
\nRussia is currently observing public holidays through Jan. 8.
\nDrones, missiles and artillery shells launched by Russian forces also struck areas across Ukraine.
\nFive people were wounded in the Monday morning shelling of a Ukraine-controlled area of the southern Kherson region, its Ukrainian Gov. Yaroslav Yanushevich said on Telegram.
\nThe Russian forces attacked the city of Beryslav, the official said, firing at a local market, likely from a tank. Three of the wounded are in serious condition and are being evacuated to Kherson, Yanushevich said. AP<\/p>\n
Seven drones were shot down over the southern Mykolaiv region, according to Gov. Vitali Kim, and three more were shot down in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said.
\nIn the Dnipropetrovsk region, a missile was also destroyed, according to Reznichenko. He said that energy infrastructure in the region was being targeted.
\nUkraine\u2019s Air Force Command reported Monday that 39 Iranian-made exploding Shahed drones were shot down overnight, as well as two Russian-made Orlan drones and a X-59 missile.
\n\u201cWe are staying strong,\u201d the Ukrainian defense ministry tweeted.
\nA blistering New Year\u2019s Eve assault killed at least four civilians across the country, Ukrainian authorities reported, and wounded dozens. The fourth victim, a 46-year-old resident of Kyiv, died in a hospital on Monday morning, Klitschko said.
\nMultiple blasts rocked the capital and other areas of Ukraine on Saturday and through the night. The strikes came 36 hours after widespread missile attacks Russia launched Thursday to damage energy infrastructure facilities, and the unusually quick follow-up alarmed Ukrainian officials.
\nIn Russia, a Ukrainian drone hit an energy facility in the Bryansk region that borders with Ukraine, Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz reported on Monday morning. A village was left without power as a result, he said. AP<\/p>\n
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