As the war enters its 678th day, these are the main events.
Here is the situation on Tuesday, January 2, 2024.
Struggle
- Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to step up attacks on Ukraine after the death toll rose to 25 in Saturday’s unprecedented attack on the Russian city of Belgorod, not far from the border. Moscow has blamed Kiev for the Belgorod attack, which came a day after Russia launched some 158 missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities, killing 30 people in kyiv and elsewhere.
- Ukraine held a day of mourning for Friday’s attack, the deadliest in the capital since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, as five more bodies were recovered from the rubble in kyiv.
- Ukraine’s air defense systems destroyed 87 of the 90 drones launched against the country by Russia, some of which targeted Odessa’s port infrastructure. Oleh Kiper, head of the region’s military administration, said a 15-year-old boy was killed and seven people were injured after debris from one of the drones fell on a residential building in the southern city.
- Drone strikes and artillery fire also killed three people in the Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Kharkiv and Sumy, according to officials.
- Four people were killed by artillery fire in the Russian-occupied eastern city of Donetsk, according to Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed head of the Donetsk region, adding that 14 people had been wounded.
- One person was also killed and another wounded in a bombing in the Russian border town of Shebekino, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
