Russia carried out its second major round of missile attacks on Ukraine in three days on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said, with explosions reported throughout the country on New Year's Eve.
Multiple blasts rocked Kyiv and other areas of Ukraine, killing at least 1 and injuring 14A local resident embraces their child as they stand next to a site of a Russian missile strike in Kyiv on Saturday.Some Ukrainians defied the danger, however, to return to the country to reunite with families for the holidays.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy published a video address shortly after Russia launched the New Year's Eve cruise missiles over Ukraine saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "hiding behind the military, behind missiles, behind the walls of his residences and palaces." Addressing the Russians, he added that "no one in the world will forgive you for this. Ukraine will not forgive.
In Zaporizhzhia region, as a result of a missile attack, two houses were destroyed, and around eight damaged. Four people were also wounded, among them a pregnant woman and a 14-year-old girl, said regional Gov. Oleksandr Starukh.Even though Russia's 10-month war rumbles on with no end in sight, for some families the new year is nevertheless a chance to reunite, however briefly, after months apart.
Nearby, another soldier, Vasyl Khomko, 42, joyously met his daughter Yana and wife Galyna who have been living in Slovakia due to the war, but returned to Kyiv to spend New Year's Eve together.Back in February, fathers, husbands and sons had to stay behind as their wives, mothers and daughters boarded trains with small children seeking safety outside the country. Scenes of tearful goodbyes seared television screens and front pages of newspaper across the world.