itstargetnews
Russian drones blew up residential buildings and the power grid in the south Ukraine city of Odessa in an overnight attack that injured six people, including a toddler and two other children, officials said Wednesday.
The attack came as Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed confidence in his country’s final victory in the nearly four-year war against its neighbor.
Four residential buildings were damaged in the bombing of Odessa, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration. Electricity supplier DTEK said two of its energy facilities suffered significant damage. The company said 10 substations that distribute electricity in the Odesa region were damaged in December alone.
Russia has escalated its long-range attacks on urban areas of Ukraine this year. In recent months, as Russia’s invasion of its neighbor approaches its four-year milestone in February, it has also intensified its targeting of energy infrastructure, seeking to deny Ukrainians heating and running water in the bitter winter months.
Between January and November, more than 2,300 Ukrainian civilians were killed and more than 11,000 wounded, the United Nations said earlier this month. That was 26 percent more than in the same period in 2024 and 70 percent more than in 2023, it said.
Russia’s continued drone and missile attacks have come against a backdrop of renewed diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting.
US President Donald Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at his Florida resort on Sunday and announced that a solution was “closer than ever before”. Next week, the Ukrainian leader is due to hold talks with European government leaders who support his efforts to secure acceptable terms.
Putin confident of victory
Despite progress in peace talks, which he did not mention, Putin reaffirmed his belief in Russia’s eventual success in its invasion of Ukraine as he delivered his traditional New Year’s address to the nation on Wednesday.
He especially praised the Russian troops deployed in Ukraine, describing them as heroes who are “fighting for their homeland, truth and justice.”
Get daily national news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic and current affairs headlines delivered to your inbox once a day.
“We believe in you and our victory,” Putin said, as reported by the Russian state news agency Tass.
Putin delivered his 3-1/2-minute taped speech against the backdrop of a snowy Kremlin, a tradition that was only broken in 2022 – the year the invasion began – when the Russian leader delivered his address alongside men and women in military uniform.
Russia claims that Putin’s residence was attacked
The ongoing long-range attacks, meanwhile, are fueling tensions.
The overnight attacks in Odesa “are further evidence of the enemy’s terror tactics, which deliberately target civilian infrastructure,” said Kiper, the regional leader.
Moscow claimed that Ukraine attempted to attack Putin’s residence in northwestern Russia with 91 long-range drones late Sunday and early Monday. Ukrainian officials deny the claim and say it is a hoax to derail progress in peace talks.
Major General Alexander Romanenkov of the Russian Air Force claimed on Wednesday that the drones took off from Ukraine’s Sumy and Chernihiv regions.
At a briefing where no questions were allowed, he presented a map showing the flight routes of the drones before they were shot down by Russian air defenses over the Bryansk, Tver, Smolensk and Novgorod regions.
It was not possible to independently verify the reports.
The European Union’s high representative for foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, on Wednesday called the Russian accusations a “deliberate distraction” from the peace talks.
“No one should accept baseless claims from an aggressor who has indiscriminately targeted Ukrainian infrastructure and civilians since the beginning of the war,” Kallas posted on X.
Ukrainian arms fund receives billions
Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Romania and Croatia are the latest countries to join the fund that buys weapons for Ukraine from the United States. The financial arrangement, known as Ukraine’s Priority Request List, or PURL, pools contributions from NATO members other than the United States to buy American weapons, ammunition and equipment.
Since it was established in August, 24 countries now contribute to the fund, Zelenskyy said. The fund has received 4.3 billion US dollars so far, and almost 1.5 billion US dollars arrived in December alone, he said on social networks.
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Wednesday that Russia had fired 127 drones at the ground overnight, 101 of which were intercepted by air defenses.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defense ministry said 86 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight over Russian regions, the Black Sea and the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula.
The Ukrainian attack sparked a fire at an oil refinery in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, but it was quickly extinguished, local authorities said.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
