A Russian drone attack killed two residents in Kyiv during the first hours of 2025, hours before Moscow’s gas transit to Europe via Ukraine was cut off.

Wednesday’s midnight attack – a rare strike on the heart of the Ukrainian capital – followed Mr Zelensky vowing in a new year’s message that he would do everything possible to bring the war to an end over the next 12 months.

He later described the end of Moscow’s gas exports via Soviet-era pipelines running through Ukraine as “one of Moscow’s biggest defeats”.

Ukraine’s state emergency services said two people were killed, six wounded and four pulled from the rubble after the Russian drones were fired towards Kyiv as the country rang in the new year under the cloud of war for a third time since Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Journalists in the city heard multiple powerful explosions early on Wednesday morning. Local officials said the damage was caused by falling debris, suggesting the drones had been intercepted.