December 29, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

As Russia carried out a large attack on Ukraine, Kyiv residents who were woken up by air raid sirens and sounds of explosion remained defiant. 

Thirty-four-year-old Anastasiia Hryn woke up to the sound of air raid sirens in the Ukrainian capital. She went down to the basement shelter in her building along with her son when she heard the first explosion. 

After the sirens gave the all clear, life went back to normal, Hyrn said. Parents took their children to school and kindergarten, people went to their offices. “In the elevator I met my neighbors with their child who were in hurry to get to the cinema for the new Avatar movie on time,” she said. 

Anna Kovalchuk is determined not to have Russians ruin upcoming New Year's celebrations. “I'm more worried that most likely the will be no electricity on New Year's Eve and the holiday will have to be spent in the dark. But I began to prepare myself for such a scenario in advance, stocked up on garlands, power banks, so the blackout would upset us, but not stop us,” she said. 

Roman Grischuk, a member of parliament, woke up to messages from his wife asking if he was okay. “I read that there were several hits in Kyiv. I quickly got water in case the water ran out and went to a safe place,” he told CNN. After ten months of war, it is hard to describe the feeling, he added. “The first thought is no one should die. But even that unfortunately the Russian attacks have turned into a routine,” he said. 

Halyna Hladka’s stocked up on water as soon as the sirens sounded and quickly made breakfast for her family so they would have something to eat. After nearly two hours, they heard the sounds of explosions.

The Ukrainian military said that the majority of cruise missiles fired at Ukraine on Thursday were intercepted, with its defense forces shooting down 54 of 69, according to preliminary data.

Zaluzhnyi said the Russians had launched air and sea-based cruise missiles, as well as anti-aircraft guided missiles such as the S-300 at energy infrastructure facilities. The Ukrainian military also shot down 11 Iranian Shahed drones, which are designed to detonate on impact.

There were conflicting reports on the scale of the missile attacks on Thursday. An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, said in an earlier post that Russia had launched more than 120 missiles in the barrage, without offering further details. He said the intent of the attack was to "destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse."

Explosions rattled villages and cities across Ukraine on Thursday in what Kyiv has called one of Moscow's largest missile barrages since the war began. The strikes have left several regions across Ukraine without power, with Lviv, Kyiv and Odesa hardest hit, officials said.

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Explosions rattled villages and cities across Ukraine on Thursday in what the government has said was one of Russia's largest missile barrages since the war began.

"Russian terrorists have been saving one of the most massive missile attacks since the beginning of the full-scale invasion for the last days of the year," Ukraine's Defense Ministry said in a statement on Twitter. "They dream that Ukrainians will celebrate the New Year in darkness and cold. But they cannot defeat the Ukrainian people."

According to preliminary data, Ukraine's Air Force said that Russian forces had launched 69 cruise missiles and that it had downed 54 of those, along with Ukraine's Defense Forces. The Air Force said that it had also repelled attacks from Iranian-made Shahed drones, which are designed to explode on contact with their targets.

Earlier on Thursday, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a post on Twitter that Russia had launched more than 120 missiles in the attack, without giving more details. He said the focus of the onslaught was to "destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse."

The war has reached a stalemate, with neither Ukraine nor Russia able to make any substantial gains, Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov has said, as Kyiv awaits more weapons from the United States and other Western allies.

Since Ukrainian forces reclaimed the southern city of Kherson in November, much of the fiercest fighting has raged around Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region, where Budanov visited frontline positions earlier in the week. Both sides have been locked in brutal battle there since Russian forces launched their siege on the city in earnest in May.

The freezing winter conditions have slowed advances and Russian forces are "now completely at a dead end" after heavy losses, Budanov said. But he added that Ukrainian troops were unable to progress either without more resources, particularly weapons supplies.

Budanov also poured cold water on the idea that Russian forces might launch another attack from Belarus, where Moscow has been holding joint military exercises with Minsk. "As of now, I don't see any signs of preparations for an invasion of Kyiv or northern areas from Belarus," he said.

Russian missiles struck an energy facility in Ivano-Frankivsk, according to the head of the region's military administration, as western Ukraine reeled from attacks on its power grid.

"The enemy hit one of the energy facilities in the region, resulting in a fire on the total area of 50 square meters. As of 11.25, the fire was localized, there were no casualties," she said.  

"Another missile damaged a private residential building in the territory of Tlumach community, but did not explode. There were no people in the house at the time of the missile hit. Fortunately, no one was injured," Onyshchuk added. 

Some background: Ukraine's Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that electrical infrastructure in the country's west, as well as Kyiv and Odesa, were particularly hard hit in the wave of strikes on Thursday.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba described the latest wave of Russian missile attacks as "senseless barbarism" on Thursday.

"Senseless barbarism. These are the only words that come to mind seeing Russia launch another missile barrage at peaceful Ukrainian cities ahead of New Year," Kuleba said on Twitter, adding that there could be "no neutrality" in the face of such attacks.

The barrage of Russian missiles, one of the largest waves of attacks, hit several Ukrainian cities Thursday, damaging civilian infrastructure and knocking out power.

Another wave of Russian missile strikes left several Ukrainian regions without power on Thursday, with crews across the country racing to restore power as the New Year holidays approach.

Ukraine's Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that infrastructure in Kyiv, in north central Ukraine, and Odesa, in the south, had been damaged in the barrage and were experiencing emergency power outages -- when the electricity is protectively turned off to diminish damage from the grid shorting out.

Forty percent of Kyiv residents were without power, mayor Vitali Klitschko said Thursday, adding that this was due to security measures taken by power engineers during the air raid alarm and that they were now working to restore services. “The city is supplying heat and water in normal mode,” Klitschko said on the messaging platform Telegram.

Authorities in Odesa, in southern Ukraine, said that emergency power outages had been rolled out amid the missile attacks. “They are introduced due to the threat of missile attacks to avoid significant damage if the enemy manages to hit energy facilities,” DTEK, a utility company, said in a statement.

In western Ukraine, Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi said that 90% of the city was without power, cautioning that the city's waterworks could also to stop working.

Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 16 missiles over Kyiv, the capital's mayor said Thursday, amid a fresh barrage by Russia targeting civilian infrastructure. 

At least three people, including a 14-year-old, were injured and two people pulled from a damaged home, Klitschko said earlier.

Homes, an industrial facility and a playground in the capital have been damaged in the barrage, according to the Kyiv city military administration.