Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv destroyed 37,000 drones in 2024 as scientists killed

Russia launched a New Year’s 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 Ukraine‘s 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 Ukraine said 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’s remarks last week that Russian forces suffered 427,000 casualties in 2024.

“ISW 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,” 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’s historians writing after the fact that identify the pivotal dates in wars when the road to victory or defeat becomes clear. Russia’s war on Ukraine is different: it is clear in advance that 20 January 2025 will change the course of the conflict.

It’s 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.

The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 47 Russian drones overnight.

Of 72 drones launched, 24 “imitator drones” had not reached their targets, the air force added. One drone remained in Ukrainian airspace this morning.

As of January 1 2025, Russian gas is no longer flowing into Europe via Ukraine’s pipeline.

A five-year deal between Gazprom, the Russian state energy company, and Ukraine expired at 5am GMT Wednesday morning.

The deal had allowed for Russian gas to travel through Ukraine’s 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 would not be allowed to “earn billions on our blood”.

The move will not cut off all Russian gas to Europe, 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.

Ukraine has halted Russian gas supplies to European customers that pass through the country, almost three years into Moscow’s 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 “additional billions … on our blood, on the lives of our citizens”.

But he briefly held open the possibility of the gas flows continuing if payments to Russia were withheld until the war ends.

Ukraine‘s energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the gas flows “in the interest of national security”.

The Russian drone attack on Kyiv killed a prominent scientist couple, education and scientist minister Oksen Lisovyi said.

Prominent neurobiologist Ihor Zyma and doctor of biological sciences Olesia Sokur were killed in the attack, the minister said.

“The family devoted almost their entire lives to science,” Lisovyi said.

The minister said Zyma was a senior researcher and associate professor at the Institute for Biology and Medicine at the Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, while Sokur worked at the Institute as a deputy director of scientific work and a member of the Academic Council.

“My deepest sympathies to the relatives and loved ones of those killed, as well as to all those who suffer from today’s terrorist terror. Russia – absolutely evil, bringing death and destruction. The world must react harshly and principledly,” the minister said on Facebook.

By the time February 2025 arrives, marking three years since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the situation on the front line could look very different.

Currently, Russian forces are advancing in the east, slowly but surely, and they are shrinking Ukraine’s partial hold of the border region of Kursk.

That the Russians haven’t been more successful is a testament, above all else, to the resilience of Ukraine’s troops on the ground, many of whom have been fighting continuously for years. Dysfunction in the Russian military, with Mr Putin as its de facto commander-in-chief, is another.

But US president Joe Biden has sent the final military package of his tenure to Ukraine, ending the support (for now) of Kyiv’s most heavily-armed ally. US president-elect Donald Trump will soon re-enter the White House on the promise of ending the fighting altogether, even if that potentially means rewarding Mr Putin for his illegal land grab.

Vladimir Putin made a three-word pledge to Russia’s soldiers in his pre-recorded New Year address.

In his address to the nation on Tuesday, the Russian president praised his country’s military in its war against Ukraine, telling soldiers, “We believe in you.”

Mr Putin ensured Russians that everything will be fine as the country enters the third year of fighting in Ukraine.

He directly addressed Russia’s armed forces saying the country is proud of their courage and bravery.

Millions of people were expected to watch the new address when it aired on TV as each Russian time zone region counted down the final minutes of 2024.

Ukraine’s navy has destroyed more than 37,000 Russian drones in the year 2024, it reported yesterday.

The downed platforms include Russian strike drones, operational and tactical unmanned aerial vehicles, first-person-view drones, and Shahed-type attack drones, the navy said in a Facebook post. Ukrainian naval forces also destroyed five Russian ships and 458 watercraft, it added.

Russia’s drone losses included 35,670 destroyed FPV drones and 1,140 strike drones, the navy said. Ukraine’s naval units also eliminated 192 operational and tactical drones and another 164 Shahed-136/131 drones.