Two dead, seven injured in Russian New Year’s morning drone strike on Kyiv
A Russian drone attack on Kyiv’s Pecherskyi district on January 1, 2025, killed two prominent Ukrainian scientists. It injured seven other civilians when drone wreckage struck a residential building, according to Kyiv City Military Administration, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, State Emergency Service of Ukraine and Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office. The attack of Russians claimed the lives of Ihor Zyma, a renowned neurobiologist, and his wife, Olesia Sokur, a biologist.
“Prominent neurobiologist Ihor Zyma and his wife, biologist Dr Olesia Sokur, were tragically killed in an enemy UAV strike. The couple had dedicated nearly their entire lives to science, having worked for many years at the Institute of Biology and Medicine at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv,” Oksen Lisovyy, Ukraine’s Minister of Education and Science, wrote on Facebook.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported that the drone debris partially destroyed the top two floors of the building and sparked a fire. The State Emergency Service said the attack damaged the attic floor of the five-storey residential building, burning approximately 20 square meters.
Additional drone wreckage fell on a non-residential building in the same district, causing a roof fire.
Russian forces launched multiple attacks on Kherson throughout January 1, leaving one dead and two injured.
The first strike occurred at midnight when a 46-year-old woman sustained a blast injury, concussion, and shrapnel wounds. She remains under medical supervision in moderate condition.
A second attack around 10:00 critically injured a 76-year-old woman, who was hospitalised with blast injuries, concussion, and shrapnel wounds to her leg.
In a subsequent strike on the same district, Russian forces killed a male resident, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson Military Administration. Roman Mrochko, head of the Kherson City Military Administration, added that the killed man was a volunteer who was constantly helping to rebuild the community.
ZMINA consistently reports on ongoing international crimes in the Kyiv and Kherson Oblasts.
Ukraine urges the international community to unite in restoring global security under the UN Charter and strengthen sanctions against Russia to enforce compliance with international law. Following Russia’s initial invasion in 2014, Ukraine has pursued the liberation of its territories within its internationally recognized 1991 borders while developing comprehensive reintegration strategies and policies for all liberated areas.
Earlier, over 1,300 Russian military companies and 2 million industry workers still operate, many of them without international restrictions, a member of the Sanctions Policy Working Group of the Crimean Platform Expert Network, Bohdan Bernatskyy, told at the Third Parliamentary Summit of the Crimea Platform in Riga.
