Russia bombards Kyiv minutes into 2023 as drone scrawled with 'Happy New Year, boom' message hits city

1 January 2023, 11:39 | Updated: 1 January 2023, 11:41

A Russian drone with a message reading 'Happy New Year, boom' hit Kyiv in the early hours of 2023.

Ukraine rang in the New Year under a wave of Russian drones attacks, including one that had the red writing scrawled on it.

It came just minutes after midnight, forcing Ukrainians to cut their celebrations short and run for cover.

Head of Kyiv's police Andriy Nebytov shared images of what appeared to be the drone on Telegram.

"These wreckages are not at the front, where fierce battles are taking place, they are here, on a sports grounds, where children play," he said in a post.

"This is all you need to know about the terrorist state and its army."

Ukraine’s military said that it shot down 45 drones on Sunday.

Mr Nebytov reminded people "not to ignore the air alarm signal and always take shelter".

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It comes after Ukrainian president Voldoymyr Zelenskyy said in his New Year's message that his only hope was for 2023 was to see victory for Ukraine.

He said: "We fight and will continue to fight. For the sake of the main word: 'victory'.

The leader continued: "I want to say to all of you: Ukrainians, you are incredible! See what we have done and what we are doing!"

"We fight as one team - the whole country, all our regions. I admire you all. I want to thank every invincible region of Ukraine," he added.

Meanwhile, Putin used his New Year address to the nation to lash out at the West and Ukraine.

In a nine-minute video shown on TV as each Russian time zone region counted down the final minutes of 2022 on Saturday, he denounced the West for aggression and accused the countries of trying to use the conflict in Ukraine to undermine Russia.

"It was a year of difficult, necessary decisions, the most important steps toward gaining full sovereignty of Russia and powerful consolidation of our society," he said.

"The West lied about peace, but was preparing for aggression, and today it admits it openly, no longer embarrassed. And they cynically use Ukraine and its people to weaken and split Russia.

"We have never allowed anyone and will not allow anyone to do this."

Russia has attempted to justify the conflict by saying that Ukraine persecuted Russian speakers in the eastern Donbas region, which had been partly under the control of Russian-backed separatists since 2014.

Ukraine and the West says these accusations are untrue.