Russia and Ukraine report deaths in separate New Year's Day attacks
At least 5 people reported dead as attacks on both sides continue
Ukrainian and Russian officials are both reporting deaths in separate attacks early in the new year.
Ukraine's shelling of the city of Donetsk on Monday killed four people, according to a Russian-installed official in the eastern region of Ukraine, while Russia's air attacks killed a teenage boy in Odesa, local officials said.
Ukraine's "heavy shelling" on the centre of Donetsk also injured 13, Denis Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk region, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
In a statement, Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry called the shelling of Donetsk a "terrorist act" that it said was aimed at civilian infrastructure. Russian state media reported that a journalist was among the victims but provided no further details.
Russian officials said one person was killed in a separate attack in the Russian border region of Belgorod, and another was killed in a shelling on the Russian border town of Shebekino.
On the Ukrainian side, a 15-year-old boy was killed and seven other people were wounded after falling debris from a drone that was shot down hit a residential building in the city of Odesa, according to Oleh Kiper, the region's governor.
Ukraine's air force said Russia launched a record 90 Shahed-type drones over Ukraine early Monday morning, and Kiper said on Telegram that falling debris from downed drones also caused several fires in residential buildings across Odesa.
A social media video, posted by Odesa Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov, showed him inspecting a damaged apartment building with broken windows.
"They say that how you welcome the New Year is how you will live the year," Trukhanov said in the post. "Well, this year Ukraine will break this rule: we will persevere and we will win."
Heavy aerial bombardments
Russian attacks also severely damaged a museum in the western city of Lviv dedicated to Roman Shukhevych, a controversial Ukrainian nationalist and military leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during the Second World War.
Writing on social media, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi described the strike as "symbolic and cynical," adding that "this is a war for our history."
The attacks follow a series of heavy aerial bombardments that began on Friday, when Russia unleashed an 18-hour onslaught that one air force official described as the biggest aerial barrage of the war. At least 49 people were killed in the bombardment, with rescuers in Kyiv reporting on Monday that they had recovered at least eight more bodies from underneath the rubble.
Shelling blamed on Ukraine in the centre of Belgorod on Saturday killed 21 people, including three children, local officials reported.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that started with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Zelenskyy says no signs Russia wants peace
In an interview published by the Economist on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the notion that Russia was winning the nearly two-year-old war was only a "feeling" and that Moscow was still suffering heavy battlefield losses.
Zelenskyy also said there were no real signs that Russia was interested in peace and that any indication that Russia wanted talks signified that it was running out of weapons and soldiers.
"I see only the steps of a terrorist country," he told the Economist.
Zelenskyy also said that hitting Russian strength in Crimea was critical to reducing attacks on Ukraine, as was defending cities in the east of the country.
Separately, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with Zelenskyy on Monday about the situation on the ground and Ukraine's needs in the coming months, according to the Prime Minister's Office.
Trudeau "reiterated Canada's commitment to continue working with Allies and partners to provide Ukraine with as much as it takes, for as long as it takes," the office said.
Canada expects its military assistance to Ukraine to surpass $800 million in the current budget year, with aid set to decline substantially in subsequent fiscal years.
With files from The Associated Press and CBC News