Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that his country “will not forgive” the Russians for the invasion and bombing, after the new attacks on kyiv and other cities on New Year’s Eve that left at least one dead, while Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced in his New Year’s Eve speech that the West lied about his alleged peace plans.
“No one will forgive terror. No one in the world will forgive. Ukraine will not forgive,” Zelensky wrote in Russian on Telegram, further assuring that “Those who order such attacks, and those who carry them out, will not be pardoned.”
A few hours later, in his end-of-year message, the president said that Ukraine will continue to fight until “victory” is achieved and until the territories occupied or annexed by Moscow are recovered.
“We are fighting and we will continue fighting. To make this word come true: victory,” he declared. in his speech, in which he said he hoped that 2023 would be “the year of the recovery (…) of our lands.”
2022 was the year “Ukraine changed the world,” Zelensky said, referring to Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion.
“They told us to surrender. But we chose to counterattack! They told us to make concessions and agreements. But we will join the European Union and NATO,” he added.
Ukrainian authorities reported that a wave of shelling hit several cities in the country, including the capital kyiv.
“According to the first information, one person died in the Solomiansky neighborhood. Several people were injured,” kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported on Telegram.
The ruler of the capital specified that seven people were injured and that one of them was in an “extremely serious state.”
At least 11 explosions were heard in the early afternoon in kyiv and images released by Ukrainian authorities show the destruction of a hotel in the center of the capital.
At least 11 explosions were heard in the early afternoon in kyiv and images released by Ukrainian authorities show the destruction of a hotel in the center of the capital, the AFP news agency reported.
The head of the Ukrainian General Staff, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, declared that the Russian Army had attacked several Ukrainian cities firing 20 missiles, some from bombers, 12 of which were shot down by the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense.
“The enemy launched more than 20 airborne cruise missiles using Tu-95MS strategic bombers from the Caspian Sea and from land-based missile systems. Our air defense forces and means destroyed 12 missiles,” he detailed on Telegram.
It was also reported destructions and fires in the cities of Mikholaiv, in the southwhere at least two were injured, and Khmelnitsky, in the west, where four people were injured.
After suffering several military setbacks on the ground, Russia opted since last October to bomb Ukrainian infrastructure, leaving millions of people without electricity in the dead of winter.
Putin’s speech
These denunciations from Ukraine occur in parallel to Putin’s end-of-year speech, in which he stated that the elites of Western countries “They are using Ukraine and its people to weaken and divide Russia.”
“We never allow anyone to do it, and we won’t allow it either,” he stressed.
“In reality, they supported the neo-Nazis in all spheres, who continued to carry out openly terrorist military actions against the civilians of the Donbas people’s republics,” he stressed.
“The West was lying about peace and preparing for aggression. And today it is not ashamed to admit it, in broad daylight,” he declared.
“Those who launched it expected the total destruction of our industry, our finances and our transportation. That did not happen,” he said.
The year 2022 was the year of “truly decisive and important events” that “lay the foundations of our true independence,” he declared.
“Today we are fighting for it, protecting our people on our own historical territories, in the new constituent entities of the Russian Federation,” he added.
In his speech, Putin also announced the creation of a commission to deal with the development of unmanned aircraft systems.published the Kremlin on its website.
“Form a government commission for the development of drone systems, in order to prepare coordinated proposals for the implementation of state policy in this sphere and solve tasks related, among other things, to the development, production, certification and operation of systems of unmanned aircraft,” the statement states, reported the Sputnik news agency.
Putin requested that the commission be formed by February 15 and that a national project for the development of drones be approved until September 1, in addition to ordering the appointment of the first vice president of the Russian government, Andrei Belousov, as head of that Commission. .
Also this Saturday the Russian Defense Ministry reported that some 82 Russian prisoners from Ukraine were returned to his country after negotiations.
“On December 31, as a result of a negotiation process with the territory controlled by the kyiv regime, 82 Russian soldiers who were in captivity were returned, under threat of death,” the Defense portfolio said.
“All those released receive the necessary medical and psychological help,” added the military entity.
Within the framework of this exchange, 41 prisoners of war returned to Lugansk, detailed Viktoria Serdiukova, the Russian ombudsman for that province, one of the four annexed last September by Russia, along with Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Kherson.
