At least four killed, six injured in Russian drone strikes across Ukraine

Jan. 2 (UPI) -- At least four people were killed and six injured overnight in southern and eastern Ukraine after a major Russian airborne assault involving scores of drones launched from multiple directions.

Two of the civilian deaths and all of the injuries occurred in Kherson province after civilian infrastructure, high-rise buildings and houses were targeted all across the region, according to Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

One person was killed in the city of Mirnohrad, 35 miles northwest of Donetsk, the region's governor, Vadym Filashkin, reported in a post on social media.

Further to the west in Zaporizhzhia province, a civilian was killed in the town of Stepnohirsk, 25 miles southeast of Zaporizhzhia, provincial Gov. Ivan Fedorov said on his account on Telegram.

Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov reported damage to civilian infrastructure and buildings in the front-line province, but no deaths or injuries.

The Ukraine Air Force said that 72 drones were launched from the direction of Russia's Kursk, Bryansk and Oryol provinces to the northwest and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Krasnodar Territory, south of Ukraine.

"As of 08:30, 47 Shahed attack UAVs and other types of drones have been confirmed downed in Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts," the Air Force posted on social media.

"Due to the active counteraction of the defense forces, 24 enemy decoy UAVs disappeared from radar without any negative consequences. One UAV is still in the air."

The Air Force said its warplanes managed to fend off the assault with the help of electronic warfare units, mobile fire groups and anti-aircraft missile troops.

Thursday's onslaught followed an even bigger attack on New Year's Day involving more than 110 drones that killed two people and injured six in the capital, Kyiv, and damaged the National Bank of Ukraine building, downtown.

The deceased were named on social media by Education and Science Minister Oksen Lisovyi as two prominent Ukrainian scientists, neurobiologist Ihor Zyma, and his wife, biologist Olesia Sokur.

The couple both held senior positions at the Institute for Biology and Medicine at the Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv.

The central bank said in a Facebook post that debris from a downed attack drone set ablaze the roof of one of its buildings in the Pechersk district of the capital.

"The fire was quickly eliminated with the help of State Emergency Service staff, there are no victims. The windows on the upper floors are damaged. All operating systems and services of the National Bank are fully functional, without changes," the bank said.

On Wednesday, Ukraine said it was no longer permitting Russian gas to transit Ukraine on its way to European Union markets on national security grounds.

Ukraine's Ministry of Energy made the announcement ending a five-decade-long arrangement at 7 a.m. local time after refusing to extend an agreement between Ukraine's natural gas company -- Gas TSO of Ukraine -- and Russia's Gazprom that expired Dec. 30.

The Ukraine Energy Ministry said Europe -- which relied on the gas piped across Ukraine for around 5% of its needs -- had "already made a decision to abandon Russian gas," but with winter still to peak, some countries, in central Europe in particular, may be forced to seek out supplies from more expensive sources.