Blasts heard in Kyiv, around Ukraine in early hours of New Year's Day

Numerous blasts were heard in Kyiv and in other places around Ukraine and air raid sirens wailed across the country in the first couple hours after midnight on New Year's Day, Qazet.az reports.

As the sirens wailed, some people in Kyiv shouted from their balconies, "Glory to Ukraine! Glory to heroes!" Reuters witnesses reported.

Fragments from a missile destroyed by Ukrainian air defence systems damaged a car in the capital's centre, but preliminarily there were no wounded or casualties, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Kyiv's city military administration said that 23 Russian-launched "air objects" had been destroyed.

The attacks came minutes after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's New Yearmessage of wishes of victory for his country in the war that is in its 11th month, with no end in sight.