Russia-Ukraine war live updates: both sides accuse other of launching new Year attacks

Russia bombarded Ukraine with more than 200 drones overnight, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who warned that air defense deliveries from allies “cannot be delayed.”

Moscow targeted energy infrastructure in the Volyn, Rivne, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv regions, Zelensky said in a New Year’s Day post on X, adding that most of the drones were shot down. Just the day before, the embattled leader had delivered an address in which he said that a peace agreement was “90 percent ready.”

“We expect that everything agreed with the United States at the end of December for our protection will be delivered on time,” Zelensky wrote in the X post on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Russian official Vladimir Saldo claimed that Ukrainian forces carried out a targeted drone strike on a café and hotel in Khorly, a village in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Kherson region, during New Year celebrations. According to preliminary reports, at least 24 people were killed and more than 50 injured, with a child among the dead, Saldo said in a Telegram post.

Follow Newsweek’s live blog for the latest updates.