Ukrainians woke up to a grim 2023 Sunday, reeling from more sirens and fresh missile attacks as the death toll from Russia’s massive New Year’s Eve assault across the country climbed to at least three. ukraine
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“Of course it was hard to celebrate fully because we understand that our soldiers can’t be with their family,” Evheniya Shulzhenko said while sitting with her husband on a park bench overlooking the city. The strikes came 36 hours after widespread missile attacks Russia launched Thursday to damage energy infrastructure facilities. Saturday’s unusually quick follow-up alarmed Ukrainian officials. Russia has attacked Ukrainian power and water supplies almost weekly since October, increasing the suffering of Ukrainians, while its ground forces struggle to hold ground and advance.
When shells hit the children’s hospital on Saturday night, surgeons were operating on a 13-year-old boy who was seriously wounded in a nearby village that evening, Kherson Gov. Yaroslav Yanushevych said. The shelling blew out windows in the operating room, and the boy was transferred in serious condition to a hospital about 99 kilometres away in Mykolaiv.