{"id":121128,"date":"2025-01-02T12:19:58","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T12:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-kyiv-destroyed-37000-drones-in-2024-as-scientists-killed-in-new-year-attack-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2025-01-02T12:19:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T12:19:58","slug":"ukraine-russia-war-latest-kyiv-destroyed-37000-drones-in-2024-as-scientists-killed-in-new-year-attack-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-kyiv-destroyed-37000-drones-in-2024-as-scientists-killed-in-new-year-attack-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv destroyed 37,000 drones in 2024 as scientists killed in New Year attack – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ukrainian naval forces also claim to have destroyed five Russian ships through the year
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Ukraine<\/a>\u2019s navy destroyed more than 37,000 Russian drones through 2024, it said yesterday as the war inched closer to the third-year mark.
The downed platforms included operational and tactical unmanned aerial vehicles, first-person-view drones and Shahed-type attack drones, the navy said in a Facebook post. The naval forces also destroyed five Russian ships and 458 watercraft, it added.
The latest Russian drone attack on Kyiv<\/a> killed a prominent scientist couple and left six people injured, education and scientist minister Oksen Lisovyi said.
The minister identified the couple as prominent neurobiologist Ihor Zyma and doctor of biological sciences Olesia Sokur. \u201cThe family devoted almost their entire lives to science,\u201d Mr Lisovyi said.
More than 100 drones targeted the Ukrainian capital in the early hours of Wednesday as the rest of the world was celebrating the arrival of 2025.
Ukraine, meanwhile, halted Russian gas supplies to European customers that pass through the country, almost three years into the conflict with its neighbour, after a transit deal signed before the war expired.
Crisis has aided the Russian strongman\u2019s regime stability far more than any index of economic success, writes Mark Almond
Russia will no longer transport gas to Europe via Ukraine\u2019s pipelines, further limiting its ability to raise capital
Russia has said it had attacked energy facilities in\u00a0Ukraine\u00a0that support Kyiv\u2019s military-industrial complex.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that over the last 24 hours it had used its air force, drones, missiles and artillery to target energy facilities, military airfields and Ukrainian military personnel across multiple locations.
The Independent could not confirm the extent of the attacks or the damage they inflicted.
Russia regularly reports such strikes, describing recent ones as retaliation for Kyiv\u2019s use of Western-supplied missiles to strike deep into Russian territory
The ministry also reported that Russian troops had downed a Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jet, 97 drones and six U.S.-supplied HIMARS missiles overnight.
The stoppage of gas transit through Ukraine will have \u201cdrastic\u201d impact on European Union countries but not on Russia, Slovak prime minister Robert Fico said yesterday.
The pro-Russian Slovak leader has repeatedly warned that the end of transit would cost Slovakia hundreds of millions of euros in lost transit revenue and higher fees for the import of other gas, and argued it would also lead to a rise in gas and electricity prices in Europe.
Russia launched a New Year\u2019s Day drone strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Wednesday, killing two people, wounding at least six others and damaging buildings in two districts, authorities said.
Explosions boomed across the morning sky as\u00a0Ukraine\u2018s air force warned of incoming drones and Mayor Vitali Klitschko said air defences were repelling an enemy attack.
Two floors of a residential building in central Kyiv were partially destroyed in the strike, according to the State Emergency Service. Two people were killed, it said.
Photos posted by the agency showed firefighters dousing a gutted corner of a building and rescuers helping elderly victims.
The National Bank of\u00a0Ukraine\u00a0said in a statement that one of its buildings nearby had been damaged by debris from a downed drone. Debris also damaged a non-residential building in a different neighbourhood, authorities said.
Russian forces gained 4,168sq km of land, largely fields and small settlements in Ukraine and the Kursk region, in 2024 but suffered over 420,000 casualties in the process, an American think tank monitoring the war has claimed.
The Institute for the Study of War cited Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi\u2019s remarks last week that Russian forces suffered 427,000 casualties in 2024.
\u201cISW has observed geolocated evidence to assess that the Russian forces advanced 4,168 square kilometers in 2024, indicating that Russian forces suffered approximately 102 casualties per square kilometer of Ukrainian territory seized,\u201d it said in an assessment released on Wednesday.
Russian forces made 56.5 per cent of their 2024 territorial gains between September and November period, it added.
Ordinarily, it\u2019s historians writing after the fact that identify the pivotal dates in wars when the road to victory or defeat becomes clear. Russia<\/a>\u2019s war on Ukraine is different: it is clear in advance that 20 January 2025<\/a> will change the course of the conflict.
Since well before the US election, there has been no doubt that the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House<\/a> could be decisive for Ukraine\u2019s continuing ability to resist Russia\u2019s onslaught.
It\u2019s long been apparent that the outcome of the war will be decided far from the battlefields in the east and south of the country, and in fact, not in Ukraine at all.
Both Russia and Ukraine are supported by coalitions of nations whose contributions to their respective war efforts are crucial. The key difference is that in Ukraine\u2019s case, the biggest backer by volume may be about to pull the rug from under the country\u2019s feet, crippling its ability to continue in its struggle to survive<\/a>.
Keir Giles<\/em><\/strong> writes:
With a Russian apologist preparing to return to the White House, Keir Giles plots out how he believes Putin will use the new American president, Ukraine\u2019s defenselessness, and the chill of life without a US security blanket, to proceed with his long-term goals of domination
The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 47 Russian drones overnight.
Of 72 drones launched, 24 \u201cimitator drones\u201d had not reached their targets, the air force added. One drone remained in Ukrainian airspace this morning.
As of January 1 2025, Russian gas<\/a> is no longer flowing into Europe<\/a> via Ukraine<\/a>\u2019s pipeline.
A five-year deal<\/a> between Gazprom<\/a>, the Russian state energy company, and Ukraine expired at 5am GMT Wednesday morning.
The deal had allowed for Russian gas to travel through Ukraine\u2019s pipeline networks into European countries, primarily Hungary, Slovakia and Austria.
Ukraine refused to renew the gas transit deal, which has existed in some form since 1991, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying that Russia<\/a> would not be allowed to \u201cearn billions on our blood\u201d.
The move will not cut off all Russian gas to Europe<\/a>, but significantly reduce it. Gas can still travel from Russia to Europe via the TurkStream pipeline, but no longer through Ukraine, cutting gas imports to the EU by around 14 billion cubic meters.
Russia will no longer transport gas to Europe via Ukraine\u2019s pipelines, further limiting its ability to raise capital
Ukraine has halted Russian gas supplies to European customers that pass through the country, almost three years into Moscow\u2019s all-out invasion of its neighbour, after a pre-war transit deal expired.
At a summit in Brussels last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that Kyiv would not allow Moscow to use the transits to earn \u201cadditional billions … on our blood, on the lives of our citizens\u201d.
But he briefly held open the possibility of the gas flows continuing if payments to Russia were withheld until the war ends.
Ukraine\u2018s energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the gas flows \u201cin the interest of national security\u201d.
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