In a New Year's Eve address to his nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would do everything it could in the new year to end the war with Russia.
"And every day in the coming year, I, and all of us, must fight for a Ukraine that is strong enough. Because only such a Ukraine is respected and heard, both on the battlefield and at the negotiating table," Zelenskyy said.
"May 2025 be our year. The year of Ukraine. We know that peace will not be given to us as a gift, but we will do everything to stop Russia and end the war. This is what each of us wishes for," he said.
In 2024, Ukraine gave up seven times more ground than it did in 2023: about 4,000 square kilometers, mostly in the east, according to data from the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. At the same time, Ukraine took several hundred square kilometers of Russian territory in Kursk.
Earlier Tuesday, Russian officials said debris from a destroyed Ukrainian drone fell on an oil facility in the Smolensk region, causing a fire.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it shot down a total of 68 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 10 over Smolensk.
Intercepts also took place over the Bryansk, Crimea, Krasnodar, Tver, Rostov, Kursk and Kaluga regions, the ministry said.
There were no other reports of damage or casualties from the attacks.
Ukraine's military said it shot down six of the 21 missiles Russia launched overnight, while also destroying 16 of 40 Russian drones.
Serhii Popko, head of Kyiv's City Military Administration, said debris from destroyed missiles damaged three buildings in the Ukrainian capital.
In the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine, officials said a missile attack targeted infrastructure sites in the town of Shostka.
Some information for this story was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
