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1 dead, several wounded after Russian strike on Odesa

• 1 min read

Local officials in Odesa on Jan. 1 reported one dead and several wounded after Russia struck the southern port city with UAVs on New Year's Eve.

Authorities said wreckage from downed drones hit buildings throughout the city of Odesa, causing fires in several residential areas.

Russia has stepped up airstrikes as the world celebrates the New Year holiday, in what Moscow claims is retaliation for a deadly attack in the Russian city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine.

Earlier on Dec. 30 in Kharkiv, residential homes, a landmark hotel, and hospitals were damaged in Russian airstrikes on Dec. 30, according to local official Oleh Syniehubov.

President Volodymyr Zelensky at midnight on Dec. 31 delivered his traditional new year's address on television, thanking Ukrainian troops and civil society for the immense sacrifices made in the ongoing struggle against Russia.

On Dec. 31, Russian leader Vladimir Putin did not mention Ukraine by name in his short and muted New Year address.

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Lance Luo

Lance Luo (Li P. Luo) is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. Previously, he worked at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Hromadske Television in Kyiv. He also spent three years in finance and strategy consulting. Mr. Luo graduated from the University of Southern California and serves as an arbitrator at FINRA.

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Inflicting heavy personnel losses has become a stated strategic objective of Ukraine. In January, then-Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Ukraine aimed to "kill 50,000 Russians per month," arguing that losses on that scale could undermine Moscow's ability to sustain the war.

Among those killed were a 16-year-old boy, as well as a 19-year-old woman, and a 51-year-old woman, authorities said, in a strike that landed near a grocery store as well as several residential buildings.

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