liveblog
The Russian army is again attacking the Ukrainian capital Kiev with combat drones. The German Journalists’ Association has condemned the bombing of a hotel in Kharkiv. Monday’s developments to read.
Jan 1, 2024 • 11:28 p.m
End of the Liveblog
This concludes the live blog for today – thank you for your interest.
Jan 1, 2024 • 6:37 p.m
Kiev’s presidential advisor: Russia is long dead
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak sees Russia’s threats of further attacks against Ukraine as pure boasting. Because Russia is actually “dead a long time ago”. But the Kremlin is not yet aware of this fact, said the member of President Volodomyr Zelensky’s advisory staff in Kiev.
“Sometimes when a person dies, he doesn’t know it, but he is dead. And that is exactly the case with Russia – it is already dead, but it does not fully understand this yet,” Podoljak was further quoted by the Unian agency.
01/01/2024 • 4:15 p.m
Drone attacks on Kyiv again
The Russian military launched another wave of attacks with combat drones against the Ukrainian capital Kiev on New Year’s Day. The population was called upon to go to shelters in the afternoon, Ukrainian media reported. Shortly afterwards, explosions were heard around the city as anti-aircraft defenses went into action.
Shortly before, Russian President Vladimir Putin had announced new attacks against Ukrainian cities. Russia launched 90 so-called kamikaze drones to targets in Ukraine on New Year’s Eve. According to its own information, the Ukrainian air defense system destroyed 87 of these drones.
01/01/2024 • 2:23 p.m
Putin announces new attacks against Ukraine
A few days after the shelling of the Russian border region of Belgorod with more than 20 deaths, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin announced further attacks against neighboring Ukraine. “Surely you noticed that literally the next day such attacks were carried out,” he said at a meeting with injured Russian soldiers at a Moscow military hospital on New Year’s Day. “And today, as far as I know, some are being carried out and we will do the same tomorrow.”
In his first reaction to the shelling of Belgorod last Saturday, Putin also spoke of an “act of terrorism” by the Ukrainian army. In his appearance, which was broadcast by state media, Putin did not mention that this attack was preceded by the worst wave of Russian attacks against Ukraine since the beginning of the war. According to Ukrainian information, more than 45 people died last Friday – also because residential areas came under fire in many places.
01/01/2024 • 1:27 p.m
EU import ban on diamonds applies
Diamonds and diamond jewelry from Russia have no longer been allowed to be imported into the European Union since the beginning of the new year. This is provided for by the sanctions adopted in December because of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The measure is intended to deprive the government in Moscow of an important source of income and thus also limit its ability to finance the war against Ukraine.
During the period from March 1st to September 1st, an indirect import ban on Russian diamonds processed in third countries other than Russia will also be gradually introduced. The transition period is intended to allow the introduction of a traceability mechanism that will keep disruption to market participants to a minimum.
Anyone who imports diamonds into the EU will in future have to provide proof of the country of origin of the diamonds or diamond products.
Jan 1, 2024 • 1:24 p.m
DJV condemns attack on journalists’ hotel in Ukraine
The German Association of Journalists (DJV) has condemned the Russian bombing of a hotel in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv as an attack on journalism. According to the broadcaster, ZDF employees were injured in the attack on the “Kharkiv Palace” hotel on Saturday. DJV federal chairman Mika Beuster called the Russian Defense Ministry’s justification for the attack on the hotel “inhumane and cynical.”
After the attack, the ministry said the attack had eliminated “representatives of the main intelligence service and the Ukrainian armed forces.” Beuster: “We journalists are not an intelligence service or a war party, but rather independent observers of what is happening.” War correspondents are protected by the Geneva Convention.
01/01/2024 • 10:15 am
Ukraine reports Russian attacks with combat drones
According to Kiev, Russia fired on Ukraine with a record number of 90 combat drones on New Year’s Eve. Ukrainian air force chief Mykola Oleshchuk said on Telegram that 87 of them could have been repelled nationwide. That is almost twice as many unmanned missiles as on New Year’s Eve a year ago, when a total of 45 were shot down.
There is also said to have been damage to the port in the Black Sea region of Odessa in the south. A museum is said to have been destroyed in Lviv in western Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the Russian army also attacked the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions in the south and Kharkiv in the east with missiles.
01/01/2024 • 10:13 am
The number of refugees from Ukraine is hardly increasing
According to a media report, the number of people who fled to Germany from the war in Ukraine hardly increased in 2023 compared to the previous year. By the deadline on December 25th, around 1.1 million Ukrainians had been included in the central register of foreigners, as the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (NOZ) reported, citing information from the Federal Ministry of the Interior. At the end of 2022, the number was almost one million war refugees.
01/01/2024 • 05:11 am
Local authorities report five dead in attacks on Ukraine
According to local authorities, five people were killed in attacks in several areas in Ukraine. Four people were killed and 13 others injured in the city of Donetsk in the east of the country, the Russian-appointed administrator, Denis Pushilin, said on the Telegram online service.
In the southwestern Odessa region, one person was killed in a Russian drone strike, according to local governor Oleg Kiper. Three other people were injured. Several buildings were hit by parts of “downed drones,” Kiper explained on Telegram. Fires broke out in residential buildings in various parts of the city.
01/01/2024 • 05:11 am
Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of attacks
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of attacks early on New Year’s morning. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia carried out attacks on the Mykolaiv, Odessa and Dnipro regions. At least one person was killed in the Russian air strike on Odessa, the governor of the Odessa region, Oleh Kiper, said on the short message service Telegram. The Ukrainian air defense repelled the drone attack, but falling debris caused several fires in residential buildings in different parts of the city and injured several people.
A video posted on social media by Odessa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov shows him inspecting a damaged apartment with broken windows. “They say that the way you greet the New Year is the way you will live the year,” he captioned the images. “This year Ukraine will break this rule: we will persevere and we will win.
At the same time, Russia spoke of “heavy shelling” by Ukrainian forces in the center of Donetsk. Four people were killed in the shelling, the Russian-appointed head of the expanded Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, wrote on Telegram. 14 people were injured.
12/31/2023 • 12:39 am
Sunday’s live blog for reading