Ukrainian air defenses shoot down 45 Shahed drones during New Year's night
Ukraine’s Air Force Command reported on Telegram that Air Force and other military units’ air defenses had shot down 45 attack UAVs during the night. The command added that 13 drones were destroyed before midnight and another 32 in the first hours of 2023.
Read also: Russians fire more than 20 cruise missiles at Ukraine, air defenses shoot down 12 — Zaluzhnyy
"The holiday was not spoiled for Ukrainians," the command’s statement reads.
In Kyiv, Police showed the wreckage of an Iranian drone shot down over the capital in the early hours of Jan. 1. The wreckage of the enemy drone was found on a sports ground.
In a Telegram post shared by the head of the police of Kyiv Oblast Andriy Nebytov, pictures of the wreckage showed that someone had written “Happy New Year” on one of the drone’s wing stabilizers, and had drawn a present, fireworks, and a bomb, with “boom” written on it.
"The wreckage of the Shahed is part of the overnight greetings from the ‘brotherly people’ on the occasion of the New Year.” Nebytov wrote, referring to the Russians.
“You could say it’s both cheap and tasteless! Real orc-style.”
Ukrainians commonly refer to Russian soldiers as orcs following their invasion of Ukraine, during which the Russian army has committed numerous atrocities against Ukrainian civilians.
More debris, thought to be from a downed missile, was found on one of the lines of the Kyiv metro after the overnight attack.
Train traffic on the red line of the subway in Kyiv was restricted – currently, trains are running on the red metro line from Akademmistechko to Arsenalna metro stations, the underground section of the line. The line runs above ground after Dnipro metro station, where it crosses the Dnipro River and continues through left-bank Kyiv to terminate at Lisova metro station.
Read also: Video from site of Russian missile strike in Protasiv Yar in Kyiv released
"On the tracks of the open area, foreign objects were found, similar – according to preliminary information – to the fragments of a missile. Explosives experts are working there," a statement from the metro’s press service reads.
The press service of the metro said it would inform the public of the resumption of the subway’s operations later.
Earlier on New Year's Eve, there were air raid alerts in Kyiv and in the rest of the country.
The Russian military attacked the capital with missiles and kamikaze drones. An elderly man was killed and 20 people were injured in Kyiv as a result of the Russian missile attack on the nation’s capital on the afternoon of Dec. 31.
Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
