New Year’s celebrations in Kyiv were interrupted by a Russian drone attack and residents were forced into shelters. This is stated by the city’s mayor Vitaly Klytchko on Telegram.
“The air defense forces are activated. Get to the shelters,” he writes on Telegram.
Explosions thundered across the morning sky in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv early Wednesday morning. At least three people must have been taken to hospital, reports Reuters.
Shortly before the attack, Kyiv’s air force warned of drones approaching the city and an air raid alert was issued.
“The air defense forces are activated. Get to the shelters,” Mayor Vitalii Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
The mayor said that the air defense repulsed an enemy attack and that two floors of a residential building were destroyed in the attack. Russia has not commented on the attack.
End of Russian gas
A few hours later, at 06:00 on New Year’s Day, the Russian energy giant Gazprom shut off the gas to Europe, which passes through Ukrainian pipelines. This is because a five-year transit agreement between the countries expires – and will not be extended.
“Due to the repeated and explicit refusal of the Ukrainian side to extend these agreements, Gazprom was deprived of the technical and legal possibility to supply gas through Ukraine,” the energy giant writes on Telegram.
In December, both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that by the end of the year it would be the end of selling Russian gas through Ukraine to several EU countries.
The gas price rose yesterday to the highest level since November 2023. This despite the fact that the current gas is only estimated to make up around five percent of European demand, according to Bloomberg.