'A war for our history'

Ukraine defiant after Kremlin onslaught kills boy, 15, and destroys museum and university

- Will Stewart

RUSSIA launched a devastating assault on major Ukrainian cities as the New Year arrived, hitting Odesa, Kharkiv and Lviv.

A 15-year-old boy was killed and seven other people were injured when falling debris from a downed drone hit a residential building in Odesa, it was reported yesterday.

The attack came as Ukrainian troops targeted the Donbass Palace Hotel in Russian-held Donetsk six times straight after Vladimir Putin's midnight address to his people.

Explosions

Kyiv claimed that it had destroyed a record number of Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia, with 87 out of 90 downed.

University dormitories and a museum were hit and destroyed in Dublyany, near Lviv.