Russia launches New Year drone strike on Kyiv, officials say

Firefighters work at a site of a building damaged during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in central Kyiv, Ukraine January 1, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russia launched a drone strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Wednesday (January 1, 2025), wounding at least three people and damaging buildings in two districts, city officials said.

Explosions boomed across the morning sky shortly after Ukraine’s air force warned of drones approaching the city.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said air-defences were repelling an enemy attack, and that two floors of a residential building had been partially destroyed in the strike.

“Debris had also damaged a non-residential premise in another neighbourhood,” he said.

Russia has carried out regular air strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities far behind the front line of its nearly three-year-old invasion.