Accusations Fly as Deadly Attacks Occur on New Year's Day

Controversy arose as both Ukraine and Russia accused each other of carrying out deadly attacks on New Year's Day. According to a Russian-installed official in eastern Ukraine, Ukraine's shelling of Donetsk resulted in the death of four individuals. Conversely, local officials reported that Russia's air attacks in multiple Ukrainian regions caused at least one fatality. The head of the Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, labeled the "heavy shelling" by Ukrainian forces on the center of Donetsk as a "terrorist act" targeting civilian infrastructure. In a separate incident, a person was killed by shelling in the Russian border region of Belgorod. On the Ukrainian side, the governor of the Odesa region reported that one person was killed and nine were injured in a Russian drone attack on the southern port of Odesa, which also caused fires in residential buildings. In another incident, officials in Ukraine's Lviv region claimed that a Russian air attack damaged a university building in the city of Dubliany and a monument in the city of Lviv. Both Russia and Ukraine have denied targeting civilians in the conflict that began with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Verification of the conflicting reports was not independently possible by Reuters.