The armed forces of Ukraine and Russia exchanged strikes today, on New Year's Eve, world agencies reported, quoted by BTA.
The Ukrainian army announced that it had shot down 6 of the 21 missiles fired by Russia overnight and early this morning, reporting minor damage in the capital Kiev and strikes on infrastructure in the northern Sumy region, Reuters reported.
A woman was injured in the Kiev region, where a house was destroyed, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry reported on the "Telegram" application.
Missile debris damaged three private buildings and two cars in a neighborhood of the capital, the Kiev regional military administration explained in the "Telegram".
The Ukrainian Air Force announced that among the six downed Russian missiles was a "Kinzhal" hypersonic missile.
Russia fired 13 missiles at the town of Shostka, in Sumy region, the head of the local regional administration said on television. 12 high-rise residential buildings, two educational institutions, a clinic and other objects were hit, local authorities explained.
Moscow also attacked Ukraine with 40 drones. Ukrainian air defenses shot down 15 of them, while 24 Russian drones failed to reach their targets, the Ukrainian Air Force said, as quoted by Reuters.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on the Telegram app that Russian forces had struck infrastructure at a military airfield and a gunpowder production facility in Ukraine early this morning. The ministry said all targets had been hit. Reuters notes that this information cannot be independently verified.
At the same time, Russia's Defense Ministry said early this morning that its air defenses had shot down 68 Ukrainian drones over several regions and sunk four remotely piloted vessels in the Black Sea, the Associated Press reported.
The governor of the western Smolensk region, Vasily Anokhin, said that parts of the drones had fallen on the territory of an oil depot, causing a fire.
The Moscow-appointed head of the city of Sevastopol, on the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said that Russian forces had shot down four drones, attacked the city, and sunk two boats near the coast, the AP reported.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) announced that one of its naval drones had shot down a Russian helicopter with a missile today. This is the first time a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle has destroyed a Russian air target, Reuters and the Associated Press reported.
The GUR wrote on "Telegram" that a "Magura B5" sea drone equipped with missiles hit a Russian Mi-8 helicopter in the Black Sea, near Cape Tarkhankut on the western coast of the Crimean peninsula. Another Russian Air Force helicopter was hit but managed to return to its base, Ukrainian military intelligence said.
Russia has held the initiative in the fighting over the past year, with its units methodically pushing their way through Ukrainian defenses in eastern Ukraine in a series of slow but steady advances, the AP noted.