world, i m laila harrak. at the vatican the first holy mass of the new year will commemorate the late pope emeritus benedict. we re live from st. peter s square. and the year begins with flooding and evacuations in california as over 25 million could be affected by extreme weather. details and the forecast ahead. and defiance as ukraine enters the new year untd a barrage of russian missiles. we will hear from the ukrainian and russian leaders on two very different visions of what lies ahead. announcer: live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with laila harrak. from new zealand to the u.s. most of the world has now ushered in 2023 with a mix of hope, excitement and flare. hours ago new york held its traditional ball drop in front of a jam packed times square. it was a spectacular show complete with fireworks, music and a ton, literally a ton, of confetti raining down on the crowd. celebrations were also held across europe, africa and asia and in the next hour hawa
reporter: so russia presenting this as a war not with ukraine but with the west and almost as those words, that speech was being released there was this big cruise missiles attack across ukraine, ukraine saying it repelled 12 out of 20 cruise missiles and that followed up overnight by what seems to be a pretty large scale drone attack. the ukrainian air force said it shot down about 45 drones in kyiv the regional military administration says that around three dozen drones were launched at that region reporting damage to infrastructure though as of yet in casualties. clare sebastian reporting. thank you so much as ever. a ukrainian orchestra won last year s your revision contest. the band s front man tells cnn how their tune is unifying the nation. here is christina mcfarland.