Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv destroyed 37,000 drones in 2024 as scientists killed in New Year attack
Ukrainian naval forces also claim to have destroyed five Russian ships through the year
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Your support makes all the difference.Ukraine’s navy destroyed more than 37,000 Russian drones through 2024, it said yesterday as the war inched closer to the third-year mark.
The downed platforms included operational and tactical unmanned aerial vehicles, first-person-view drones and Shahed-type attack drones, the navy said in a Facebook post. The naval forces also destroyed five Russian ships and 458 watercraft, it added.
The latest Russian drone attack on Kyiv killed a prominent scientist couple and left six people injured, education and scientist minister Oksen Lisovyi said.
The minister identified the couple as prominent neurobiologist Ihor Zyma and doctor of biological sciences Olesia Sokur. “The family devoted almost their entire lives to science,” Mr Lisovyi said.
More than 100 drones targeted the Ukrainian capital in the early hours of Wednesday as the rest of the world was celebrating the arrival of 2025.
Ukraine, meanwhile, halted Russian gas supplies to European customers that pass through the country, almost three years into the conflict with its neighbour, after a transit deal signed before the war expired.
Ukraine-Russia war map: Where are Putin’s forces making gains on the frontline as 2025 begins?
Ukraine is right to turn off the flow of Russian gas – whatever the cost
Ukraine ends Russian gas pipeline to Europe – but how much will it cost Moscow?
Putin makes pledge to Russia’s soldiers in New Year address
Ukraine halts Russian gas supplies to Europe
Ukraine has halted Russian gas supplies to European customers that pass through the country, almost three years into Moscow’s all-out invasion of its neighbour, after a pre-war transit deal expired.
At a summit in Brussels last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that Kyiv would not allow Moscow to use the transits to earn “additional billions ... on our blood, on the lives of our citizens”.
But he briefly held open the possibility of the gas flows continuing if payments to Russia were withheld until the war ends.
Ukraine‘s energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the gas flows “in the interest of national security”.
Pictured: Drone attack on Kyiv
Zelensky thanks Ukrainian people in New Year’s address
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked the Ukrainian people and soldiers for their steadfastness in a New Year’s address, as the war approaches its fourth year.
He wrote on X: “Today, I address all those who value Ukraine, cherish their state, and lovingly call it ‘Mine’.
“Those who cannot imagine themselves without Ukraine, no matter where they are. All those who have been fighting for it – so steadfastly and so bravely – for more than 1,000 days. This is you – our people. Ukrainians – men and women.
“To all of whom I am grateful to for this year, 2024. Our people who endure all difficulties with dignity. People for whom being citizens of Ukraine is a source of pride.
“For me, it is an honor to be the President of such people – Ukrainians who prove that no cruise missile can defeat a nation that has wings.”
Putin praises Russia's soldiers in New Year’s address
Ukraine-Russia war map: Where are Putin’s forces making gains on the frontline as 2025 begins?
By the time February 2025 arrives, marking three years since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the situation on the front line could look very different.
Currently, Russian forces are advancing in the east, slowly but surely, and they are shrinking Ukraine’s partial hold of the border region of Kursk.
That the Russians haven’t been more successful is a testament, above all else, to the resilience of Ukraine’s troops on the ground, many of whom have been fighting continuously for years. Dysfunction in the Russian military, with Mr Putin as its de facto commander-in-chief, is another.
But US president Joe Biden has sent the final military package of his tenure to Ukraine, ending the support (for now) of Kyiv’s most heavily-armed ally. US president-elect Donald Trump will soon re-enter the White House on the promise of ending the fighting altogether, even if that potentially means rewarding Mr Putin for his illegal land grab.
Tom Watling reports:
Ukraine-Russia war map 2025: Where are Putin’s forces making gains on the frontline?
Russian forces are advancing in the east, slowly but surely, and they are shrinking Ukraine’s partial hold of the border region of Kursk
Ukraine ends Russian gas pipeline to Europe - but how much will it cost Moscow?
As of January 1 2025, Russian gas is no longer flowing into Europe via Ukraine’s pipeline.
A five-year deal between Gazprom, the Russian state energy company, and Ukraine expired at 5am GMT Wednesday morning.
The deal had allowed for Russian gas to travel through Ukraine’s pipeline networks into European countries, primarily Hungary, Slovakia and Austria.
Ukraine refused to renew the gas transit deal, which has existed in some form since 1991, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying that Russia would not be allowed to “earn billions on our blood”.
The move will not cut off all Russian gas to Europe, but significantly reduce it. Gas can still travel from Russia to Europe via the TurkStream pipeline, but no longer through Ukraine, cutting gas imports to the EU by around 14 billion cubic meters.
Ukraine ends Russian gas pipeline to Europe - but how much will it cost Moscow?
Russia will no longer transport gas to Europe via Ukraine’s pipelines, further limiting its ability to raise capital
UPDATE: Two people killed after New Year’s drone attack on Kyiv
Russia launched a New Year’s Day drone strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Wednesday, killing two people, wounding at least six others and damaging buildings in two districts, authorities said.
Explosions boomed across the morning sky as Ukraine‘s air force warned of incoming drones and Mayor Vitali Klitschko said air defences were repelling an enemy attack.
Two floors of a residential building in central Kyiv were partially destroyed in the strike, according to the State Emergency Service. Two people were killed, it said.
War in Ukraine: A snapshot of 2024 military warfare
Russian forces in 2024 advanced in Ukraine at the fastest rate since 2022, the war’s first year, and control about a fifth of the country. But the gains have come at the cost of heavy, though undisclosed, losses in men and equipment.
In 2024, Russia was invaded for the first time since the Second World War as Ukraine grabbed a slice of its western Kursk region in a surprise counter-attack on 6 August.
Russia has yet to eject Ukrainian forces from Kursk despite bringing in more than 10,000 troops from its ally North Korea, according to Ukrainian, South Korean and US assessments. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.
“To sustain even the very slow advance in Ukraine, Russia has been forced to ignore the months-long occupation of part of its own territory by Ukrainian forces,” British security expert Ruth Deyermond said.
“Taking a ‘nothing to see here’ attitude to the loss of its own land is not what great powers do, particularly one so preoccupied with the idea of state sovereignty.”
Deyermond, in a long thread posted on X, suggested Putin’s efforts to portray Russia as a leading world power were also undermined by the toppling of its chief Middle East ally, former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and its increasing dependence on China.
Mr Putin, the longest-serving ruler of Russia since Josef Stalin, said on 19 December that under his leadership the country had moved back from “the edge of the abyss” and rebuffed threats to its sovereignty.
With hindsight, he said, he should not have waited until February 2022 before launching his “special military operation” in Ukraine, the term he still uses for the full-scale invasion of Russia’s neighbour.
Watch: Russia and Ukraine swap 150 prisoners in tearful exchange
Putin makes three-word pledge to Russia’s soldiers in New Year address
In his address to the nation on Tuesday (31 December), the Russian President praised his country’s military in its war against Ukraine, telling soldiers, “We believe in you.”
Putin ensured Russians that everything will be fine as the country enters the third year of fighting in Ukraine.
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