Ukrainians marking New Year's Eve across the war-torn country should not ignore air raid warnings and not set off fireworks as they ring in 2024, Kyiv's air force has warned.
"We must understand that the enemy will not make any concessions, even to civilians," Ukraine's air force spokesperson, Colonel Yuriy Ihnat, said during Ukraine's rolling news broadcast, according to Ukrainian media.
"Ukrainians should get ready for the New Year, but keep in mind that their own safety is above all," Ihnat said. "Fireworks are wrong from any point of view."
Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian military and the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
The warning comes off the back of a series of strikes by Russia and Ukraine.
On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed the Kremlin had launched its most intensive strikes of the more than 22-month-old war. Close to 160 missiles and strike drones were launched at Ukraine in the barrage, he said. Zelensky announced on Saturday that 39 people had died and 159 people had been injured in the hit on "almost 120 cities and villages."
The death toll is now at least 45 people, according to the BBC. Of those, 23 people died in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, the city's military administration said on Sunday.
Moscow has been stockpiling missiles for a while, but still has "relatively limited" numbers available, according to Frederik Mertens, a strategic analyst with the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. But large waves of missile salvos are more likely to get through Ukraine's air defenses, he told Newsweek.
"But the Russians should only have the missiles for a few great attempts" like Friday's attacks, he predicted.
On Saturday, Russia then accused Ukraine of an "indiscriminate combined strike" on the border city of Belgorod using missiles equipped with cluster munitions and Czech-made rockets fired by multiple launch systems. Belgorod's regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Sunday that 24 people had been killed, with 108 people injured.
A Ukrainian security source told the BBC that more than 70 drones were launched in "response to Russia's terrorist attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilians," and that Kyiv had only targeted military infrastructure. The source said that the "incompetent work of Russian air defense" and falling fragments were to blame for civilian casualties.
On Sunday, Russia's defense ministry said it had retaliated with strikes on Ukraine, hitting "decision-making centers and military facilities" in Kharkiv. Moscow said its missiles killed members of Kyiv's intelligence services and its military who "were directly involved in the planning and execution of the terrorist attack in Belgorod."
Russia launched several waves of attacks from Saturday evening into the early hours of Sunday, said Kharkiv's regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov.
Moscow fired "at least six rockets" at Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, between 7 p.m. and 7:20 p.m. local time on Saturday, Syniehubov said. The attacks damaged several residential and medical buildings and injured 28 civilians, he added.
Russia then attacked Kharkiv with Iranian-designed Shahed attack drones and targeted more than 15 settlements in the Kharkiv region with artillery and mortars, Syniehubov said.
Ukraine's air force said Russia had launched 49 Shahed kamikaze drones across the country on Sunday, with six S-300 anti-aircraft missiles fired on Kharkiv. Ukraine's air defenses intercepted 21 of the strike drones, Kyiv said.
"On the eve of the new year, the Russians want to intimidate our city, but we are not scared," said Kharkiv mayor, Ihor Terekhov.
Russian strikes also hit the southern Ukrainian cities of Odesa and Dnipro over the past day, the Ukrainian military said.
"The enemy attacks us basically every day, both with Shaheds and missiles," Ihnat said.
Update 12/31/2023 10:20 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comments from Frederik Mertens.
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Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine ... Read more
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