Russia and Ukraine report deaths in separate New Year's Day attacks

Ukrainian and Russian officials are both reporting deaths in separate attacks early in the new year.

Ukraine's shelling of the city of Donetsk on Monday killed four people, according to a Russian-installed official in the eastern region of Ukraine, while Russia's air attackskilled a teenage boy in Odesa, local officials said.

Ukraine's "heavy shelling" on the centreof Donetsk also injured 13, Denis Pushilin, thehead of the Donetsk region, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

In a statement, Russia'sForeign Affairs Ministry called the shelling of Donetsk a "terrorist act" that it said was aimed atcivilian infrastructure. Russian state media reported that a journalist was among the victimsbut provided no further details.

Russian officials said oneperson was killed in a separate attack in the Russian border region of Belgorod, and another was killed in a shelling on the Russian border town of Shebekino.

On the Ukrainian side, a 15-year-old boy was killed and seven other people were wounded after falling debris from a drone that was shot down hit a residential building in the city of Odesa, according to Oleh Kiper, the region's governor.

Ukraine's air force said Russia launched a record 90 Shahed-type drones over Ukraine early Monday morning, and Kiper said on Telegram that falling debris from downed drones also caused several fires in residential buildings across Odesa.

WATCH | Aerial attacks intensify in Russia-Ukraine war:

Aerial attacks intensify between Russia and Ukraine

9 months ago

Duration 2:46

Air attacks between Russia and Ukraine have intensified in recent weeks, with increased missile and drone strikes by Russia and Ukraine hitting the Russian city of Belgorod.

A social media video, posted by Odesa Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov, showed him inspecting a damaged apartment building with broken windows.

"They say that how you welcome the New Year is how you will live the year," Trukhanov said in thepost. "Well, this year Ukraine will break this rule: we will persevere and we will win."

Heavy aerial bombardments

Russian attacks also severely damaged a museum in the western city of Lviv dedicated to Roman Shukhevych, a controversial Ukrainian nationalist and military leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during the Second World War.

Writing on social media, LvivMayor Andriy Sadovyi described the strike as "symbolic and cynical," adding that"this is a war for our history."

The attacks follow a series of heavy aerial bombardments that began on Friday, when Russia unleashed an 18-hour onslaughtthat one air force official described as the biggest aerial barrage of the war. At least 49 people were killed in the bombardment, with rescuers in Kyiv reporting on Monday that they had recovered at least eight more bodies from underneath the rubble.

Shelling blamed on Ukraine in the centreof Belgorodon Saturday killed 21 people, including three children, local officials reported.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that started with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Zelenskyy says no signs Russia wants peace

In an interview published by the Economist on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the notion that Russia was winning the nearly two-year-old war was only a "feeling" and that Moscow was still suffering heavy battlefield losses.

Zelenskyy also said there were no real signs that Russia was interested in peace and that any indication that Russia wanted talks signified that itwas running out of weapons and soldiers.

"I see only the steps of a terrorist country," he told the Economist.

Zelenskyy also said that hitting Russian strength in Crimea was critical to reducing attacks on Ukraine, as was defending cities in the east of the country.

Separately, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with Zelenskyyon Monday about the situation on the ground and Ukraine's needs in the coming months, according to the Prime Minister's Office.

Trudeau"reiterated Canada's commitment to continue working with Allies and partners to provide Ukraine with as much as it takes, for as long as it takes," the office said.

Canada expects its military assistance to Ukraine to surpass $800 million in the current budget year, with aid set to decline substantially in subsequent fiscal years.