Russia launched a record 90 Shahed-type drones over Ukraine during the early hours of the new year, the Ukrainian air force said Monday, while Russia also reported Ukrainian attacks.
With casualties mounting and Western support in question, war-weary Ukrainian soldiers fighting on the country's eastern front lines are bracing for the coming year fighting a Russian occupier who shows no signs of quit.
Yevgeny Prigozhin rose from being an ex-con and hot dog vendor to winning lucrative Kremlin contracts and heading a formidable mercenary army. But it all came to a sudden end when the private plane carrying him and others mysteriously exploded over Russia.
Russia launched a fresh drone assault on Ukraine on Saturday night, after promising that strikes on the Russian border city of Belgorod earlier in the day "would not go unpunished."
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Russia's "united society" in his prerecorded New Year's address to the nation, the country's state news agencies reported Sunday.