Summary
Here is a summary of the latest developments in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as we close the blog for today:
Ukraine has denied Russia’s claim that Putin’s forces have captured Soledar. On Friday, as Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had taken full control of the salt mining town. Ukrainian officials denied the Russian claim, suggesting they were still holding on and counterattacking, with the Ukrainian military spokesperson Serhii Cherevatyi reporting “ongoing battles”.
Soledar is ‘Verdun for 21st century’ according to a top Ukraine official. Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the president of Ukraine, likened the fight for the town to the longest and bloodiest battle in the first world war.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut and Soledar in the east would be armed with everything they need to keep Russian troops at bay in some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.
Hundreds of civilians remain trapped in Soledar, Ukraine has said. Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk, told Ukrainian state TV that 559 civilians remained in Soledar, including 15 children, and could not be evacuated.
Satellite images taken by Maxar Technologies show the destruction inflicted upon Soledar. The Guardian has a series of striking images from inside the eastern Ukrainian town.
Ukraine is confident Britain will announce it plans to send about 10 Challenger 2 tanks to Kyiv shortly, a move it hopes will help Germany finally allow its Leopard 2s to be re-exported to the embattled country. A formal announcement is anticipated on Monday but Ukrainian sources indicated they understood that Britain had already decided in favour.
President Vladimir Putin’s move to replace his top commander in Ukraine after a few months is a sign of military disarray and his growing impatience in a war Russia is not winning, analysts said. The defence ministry in Moscow said Wednesday it had, again, replaced its top commander in Ukraine, putting army chief of staff Valery Gerasimov in charge. It is the latest of several major shake-ups of Moscow’s military leadership.
Germany will continue to “weigh every step carefully” and consult with its allies on further weapons deliveries to Ukraine, chancellor Olaf Scholz has said. The German leader is facing mounting pressure to approve German-made battle tanks for Kyiv. Scholz said Berlin would keep its “leading position” as one of Kyiv’s top supporters but said he had no intention of being rushed on “such serious things that have to do with peace and war, with the security of our country and of Europe”.
A US envoy has called for Serbia to sign on to sanctions against Russia. Counselor Derek Chollet expressed strong concern on Thursday about the activities of the Russian private military contractor Wagner Group and its alleged attempts to recruit soldiers in Serbia and elsewhere in the world.
A former Russian deputy minister of defence has suggested the country could increase the upper age limit for conscription from 27 to 30 for this year’s spring draft campaign. Andrey Kartapolov, the head of the State Duma defence committee, suggested the change could take place without altering the lower bar for conscription of 18 years.
A US navy veteran has been released after almost a year in Russian detention, according to his family. Taylor Dudley, 35, of Michigan, was taken into custody by Russian border police last April after crossing the border from Poland into Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania.
A Ukrainian soldier has had successful surgery to remove an unexploded grenade from his chest, senior officials in Kyiv have said. Surgeons removed the weapon from just beneath the heart of the injured serviceman, while two sappers ensured the operation was conducted safely, said Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy minister of defence.
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In other European news, an explosion has hit a gas pipeline connecting Lithuania and Latvia.
The blast happened in northern Lithuania, according to the country’s gas transmission operator, Amber Grid.
Lithuania’s public broadcaster, LRT, showed footage of a fire in the area.
Police were preparing to evacuate a nearby village, Baltic news agency BNS reported.
There were no injuries or fatalities reported, BNS added.
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In comments issued through his press service on Friday, and apparently aimed at Russia’s defence establishment, Yevgeny Prigozhin – the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group – complained about “infighting, corruption, bureaucracy and officials who want to stay in their positions” and what he called constant attempts to “steal victory” from his organisation.
Prigozhin, who has harshly criticised the failings of the regular army, issued a premature claim earlier this week that Soledar had already fallen, and said the fighting there was exclusively being waged by his men – the Wagner mercenary group.
Ukraine has denied Russian forces have seized control of Soledar and said its forces were holding out.
In response to Prigozhin, Russia’s defence ministry late on Friday issued a second statement seeking “to clarify” the situation and acknowledging the role of the Wagner group fighters in Soledar.
“As for the direct storming of Soledar’s city quarters occupied by the armed forces of Ukraine, this combat task was successfully accomplished by the courageous and selfless actions of volunteers from the Wagner assault detachments,” it said.
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Burst riverbanks, thick mud and waterlogged fields could be seen for miles around north-west Ukraine’s border with Belarus on Thursday, making the prospect of a Russian assault from across the border unlikely for now, despite recent warnings from Kyiv.
On the sidelines of training exercises several kilometres south of the Russian border, soldiers from the unit based there told Reuters how the unusually mild winter had given them a considerable tactical advantage.
The unit’s spokesman, Serhiy Khominskyi, said that help in making the terrain unpassable had also come from an unlikely ally: the local beaver population.
“When they build their dams, normally people destroy them, but they didn’t this year because of the war, so now there is water everywhere,” he said.
Analyst Konrad Muzyka, who runs the defence consultancy Rochan Consulting, told Reuters that although a Russian troop buildup could be observed in Belarus, an attack into north-west Ukraine from Belarus would face enormous difficulties.
“It’s a horrible place to conduct an offensive operation. There are many watercourses there, very few roads,” he said.
“This makes it easy for Ukrainian forces to channel the movement of Russian forces into specific areas where they would be shelled by artillery.”
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Germany will continue to “weigh every step carefully” and consult with its allies on further weapons deliveries to Ukraine, chancellor Olaf Scholz has said.
The German leader is facing mounting pressure to approve German-made battle tanks for Kyiv.
Germany has given Ukraine substantial military aid since Russia invaded, including howitzers, Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and the first of four Iris-T surface-to-air missile systems.
Last week, it announced that it would send 40 Marder armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine and a Patriot air defence missile battery.
But critics have long complained of Scholz’s perceived hesitancy to take the next step on weapons deliveries.
On Friday, Scholz said Berlin would keep its “leading position” as one of Kyiv’s top supporters but he signalled he had no intention of being rushed on “such serious things that have to do with peace and war, with the security of our country and of Europe”.
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Russia is becoming too dependent on oil revenues to support its budget as it ramps up military spending, economists have said, warning the government may have to raise taxes if prices of crude fail to meet expectations this year.
The price of Urals oil URL-E, which is Russia’s main export, has plunged more than 20% since early December, when western nations led by the G7 imposed a $60 price cap on Russian oil exports to restrict Moscow’s ability to finance what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Given that the 2023 federal budget is based on a projected Urals price of just over $70 a barrel, and prices are currently trading closer to $50, this could prove problematic, Reuters reports.
As the price cap, western sanctions and EU embargo make it harder for Russia to export oil, Moscow has relied on China and India – the world’s largest and third-largest importers, respectively – to fill the gap.
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The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont has reported on the long-running battle for Soledar, amid a week of disputed claims about Russia taking control of the small salt-mining town.
His piece features some shocking before-and-after photos of the area showing the vast devastation caused by the conflict.
While the situation on the battlefield remained difficult to verify on Friday, by the week’s end, geolocation of reports by Russian war correspondents from Soledar suggested Russian forces were in control of large parts of the town.
Ukrainian forces, however, appeared to remain within Soledar’s municipal boundaries still fighting in the north-west, around the town’s salt mine and railway junction.
Crucially, Ukraine still appears to control the road beyond the town, connecting neighbouring Bakhmut and Soledar with Sloviansk and Kostyantynivka, whose capture would further threaten Ukrainian defenders in Bakhmut.
What is clear is that the battle for Soledar and Bakhmut has become emblematic of the current state of the war on Ukraine’s eastern front, and more widely symbolic of the state of Moscow’s offensive.
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Ukraine is confident Britain will announce that it plans to send about 10 Challenger 2 tanks to Kyiv shortly, a move it hopes will help Germany finally allow its Leopard 2 tanks to be re-exported to the embattled country.
A formal announcement is anticipated on Monday, but Ukrainian sources indicated they understood that Britain had already decided in favour, as pressure mounts on Berlin ahead of a meeting of western defence ministers next Friday.
Earlier this week, it emerged that Britain was considering supplying Ukraine with the tanks – following months of requests from Kyiv – with a final decision in the hands of the prime minister, Rishi Sunak.
A handful of Challenger 2 tanks, taken from the UK’s existing fleet of 227, would not in itself make much difference on the battlefield, but it would be the first time any western country has agreed to send its own heavy armour to Ukraine.
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A Ukrainian soldier stationed in the eastern city of Bakhmut has told CNN that Ukrainian units are still at the edges of Soledar.
Taras Berezovets, a captain in the Ukrainian Special Forces First Brigade, said paratroopers from 77th and 46th brigades were still on the western outskirts of Soledar.
He said remaining in Soledar made no military sense, because it was “completely destroyed. There is no single building which survived Russian shelling.” He added that he expected a decision to withdraw in the coming days.
Now, he said, the units see their mission as holding on as long as possible and killing as many mercenary Wagner fighters as possible.
He said much of the fighting over the last two weeks had involved street fighting in Soledar between small units of four to eight fighters.
Berezovets said he believed withdrawing from Soledar would not affect the ability of Ukrainian forces to resupply Bakhmut, a few kilometres to the south-west. He said two major roads into Bakhmut remained in Ukrainian hands, and Ukrainian fighter jets had been attacking Russian positions near Bakhmut during Friday.
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Reuters are also reporting that Ukraine has denied Russia has seized control of the town of Soledar and said Ukrainian units are still there.
“Our units are there, the town is not under Russian control,” Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command, told Reuters by telephone.
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Soledar is 'Verdun for 21st century' says top Ukraine official as he denies Russians have control
Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the president of Ukraine, has described the situation in Bakhmut and Soledar as the “battle of Verdun in the 21st century”.
The Battle of Verdun was the longest battle of the first world war, and led to huge casualties.
Yermak said:
The situation is difficult, even very difficult. This is the battle of Verdun in the 21st century. The fighting has been going on for several months, but our fighters manage to hold their positions.
The Russians release criminals from prisons who die as soon as they reach the frontline. Their bodies are left in place, they are not even removed, there are many human losses on the Russian side, much more than ours. We clearly value the lives of our soldiers more.
But before us is a human mass that is constantly attacking, attacking, attacking. Soledar is a place of street battles, wherever one of the parties does not control the city. The Russians are there, but they do not control the city. The situation is complicated, but our goal is to liberate our territories, fully restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
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US officials said a Russian victory in Soledar, or even in Bakhmut, a city 1o times larger where the Russians have so far been repelled, would mean little for the overall trajectory of the war.
“Even if both Bakhmut and Soledar fall to the Russians, it’s not going to have a strategic impact on the war itself,” US national security council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House.
“And it certainly isn’t going to stop the Ukrainians or slow them down.”
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Ukraine denies Russian claim that Putin's forces have captured Soledar
Ukraine has officially denied the statement by the Russian defence ministry on the capture of Soledar.
“The statements of the Russian MoD about the capture of the city are not true. There are battles in Soledar,” said Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman of the Eastern group of the Ukrainian army.
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The Associated Press has reported on the battle unfolding in the top echelons of military power in Moscow:
The fighting for the salt mining town of Soledar and the nearby city of Bakhmut has highlighted a bitter rift between the Russian defence ministry leadership and Yevgeny Prigozhin, a rogue millionaire whose private military force known as the Wagner Group has played an increasingly visible role in Ukraine.
Putin’s shake-up of the military brass this week was seen as a bid to show that the defence ministry still has his support and is in charge as the troubled conflict nears the 11-month mark.
On Wednesday Prigozhin rushed to declare his mercenary force had captured Soledar, arguing the prize was won exclusively by Wagner. The defence ministry has challenged that characterisation, describing action by airborne troops and other forces in the battle, and claimed credit for taking the town on Friday.
Ukraine hasn’t confirmed Soledar’s fall.
The 61-year-old Prigozhin, who was known as ‘Putin’s chef’ for his lucrative catering contracts and was indicted in the US for meddling in the 2016 presidential election, has expanded his assets to include Wagner, as well as mining and other spheres.
He has scathingly criticised the military brass for blunders in Ukraine, saying Wagner was more efficient than regular troops.
He has found a powerful ally in Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has deployed elite troops from his southern Russian region to fight in Ukraine and also assailed the military leadership and the Kremlin for being too soft and indecisive.
While both have pledged loyalty to Putin, their public attacks on his top generals openly challenged the Kremlin’s monopoly on such criticism, something that Russia’s tightly controlled political system hadn’t seen before.
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Russia’s defence ministry has said its forces have taken control of the salt-mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, although this claim has not been verified.
The ministry claimed Russian forces had captured the town, long the focus of heavy fighting and bombardment, on Thursday evening.
This would allow its troops to cut off Ukrainian forces from the nearby, much larger, town of Bakhmut, it added.
Reuters was not able to immediately verify the defence ministry’s claim.
Ukraine said earlier on Friday that its forces were still holding out in Soledar after a “hot” night of fighting, in what has become one of the bloodiest battlefields of the entire war.
Both sides have endured heavy losses in the battle for the small town.
Moscow is seeking what would be its first big battlefield gain after half a year of humiliating retreats.
Kyiv says Russia is throwing wave upon wave of soldiers into a pointless fight for a bombed-out wasteland.
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The Ukrainian defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has said Ukraine has become a de facto member of the Nato alliance in an interview with the BBC.
Reznikov told the broadcaster he was confident Ukraine would receive weapons such as tanks and fighter jets – which the country has been pushing for – as Ukraine and Russia appear to be setting up for fresh offensives later this year.
“This concern about the next level of escalation, for me, is some kind of protocol,” Reznikov said.
“Ukraine as a country, and the armed forces of Ukraine, became [a] member of Nato. De facto, not de jure [by law]. Because we have weaponry, and the understanding of how to use it.”
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The suspected mastermind behind the removal of a Banksy mural in a Ukrainian town could face up to 12 years in prison if found guilty, Ukraine’s interior ministry has said.
The artwork, depicting a woman in a gas mask and a dressing gown holding a fire extinguisher, was taken off a wall in the town of Hostomel on 2 December, according to officials.
The ministry announced on its website that the man it believes orchestrated the operation had been handed a “suspicion notice”, Reuters reports.
The artwork by the renowned British artist had been valued at over 9 million hryvnia (£202,000/$243,900), the ministry statement said.
“The criminals tried to transport this graffiti with the help of wooden boards and polyethylene,” it said.
“Thanks to the concern of citizens, the police and other security forces managed to arrest the criminals.”
The mural was retrieved.
Banksy confirmed he had painted the mural and six others in places that were hit by heavy fighting after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.
Interesting thread from Minna Ålander at The Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) on whether its 200 Leopard tanks – which have a defined role of guarding against Russian forces – could be used in Ukraine. Here are a few of the tweets but find the whole thread on Twitter.
Interestingly, Finland is internationally considered to be leading the leopard initiative, largely to the credit of the MPs @AtteHarjanne & @adleande and their op-ed supporting a European leopard coalition.
— Minna Ålander 🌻 (@minna_alander) January 13, 2023
However, in Finland the matter is actually far from clear. Why ? 🧵
In the 🇫🇮 Defence Forces, each of the 200 leopard tanks has its specific & hard-to-replace wartime positioning and is crucial for national defence.
— Minna Ålander 🌻 (@minna_alander) January 13, 2023
Hence, many Finns oppose the idea that of all European Leo countries Finland, with its 1340km border with Russia, should deliver.
On the other hand, the argument in favour of also Finland participating in a potential European leopard consortium is that the war is in Ukraine, not at our border, and it will likely take Russia some years to build back a sufficient capacity to seriously threaten Finland.
— Minna Ålander 🌻 (@minna_alander) January 13, 2023
President @niinisto stated that if a Europe-wide initiative indeed emerges, Finland should contribute - albeit in limited numbers due to our special position still outside of NATO and with the long border to Russia. That is likely what Finland will do.https://t.co/wFqfYbA2ju
— Minna Ålander 🌻 (@minna_alander) January 13, 2023
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Ukraine has today said that its forces are still holding out in the eastern salt mining town of Soledar after a “hot” night of fighting in what has become one of the bloodiest battlefields of the entire war.
Reuters reports:
Both sides have endured heavy losses in the battle for the small town. Moscow is seeking what would be its first big battlefield gain after half a year of humiliating retreats. Kyiv says Russia is throwing wave upon wave of soldiers into a pointless fight for a bombed-out wasteland.
The Wagner ultra-nationalist mercenary company run by an ally of President Vladimir Putin has claimed to have taken the town. But Russia’s defence ministry has so far said little about the situation there, while a Russian-installed local official said on Thursday there were still pockets of resistance.
The Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar wrote on the Telegram messaging app:
The night in Soledar was hot, battles continued. The enemy threw almost all the main forces in the direction of Donetsk and maintains a high intensity of offensive. Our fighters are bravely trying to maintain the defence. This is a difficult phase of the war, but we will win. There is no doubt.
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Ukraine’s security council chair Oleksiy Danilov tweeted about the plea for German tanks yesterday, and as the Economist’s Oliver Carroll points out – it’s not particularly subtle.
Subtle from Ukraine’s security council chair https://t.co/N4FNjlPBYZ
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) January 13, 2023
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In light of today’s move from France to send light combat tanks to Ukraine, The New York Times’ Lara Jakes and Steven Erlanger have also examined the possibility that other countries in the West will also break a taboo that was seen as too provocative earlier in the conflict.
They write:
Western officials increasingly fear that Ukraine has only a narrow window to prepare to repel an anticipated Russian springtime offensive, and are moving fast to give the Ukrainians sophisticated weapons they had earlier refused to send for fear of provoking Moscow.
Over the last few weeks, one barrier after another has fallen, starting with an agreement by the United States in late December to send a Patriot air-defense system. That was followed by a German commitment last week to provide a Patriot missile battery, and in the span of hours, France, Germany and the United States each promised to send armored fighting vehicles to Ukraine’s battlefields for the first time.
Now it looks likely that modern Western tanks will be added to the growing list of powerful weapons being sent Ukraine’s way, as the United States and its allies take on more risk to defend Ukraine — especially as its military has made unexpected advances and held out against withering assaults.
Ukraine’s most senior military commander, General Valery Zaluzhny, has said it needs some 300 Western tanks and about 600 Western armored fighting vehicles to make a difference, reports the NYT.
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France is hoping to deliver “AMX 10-RC” light combat tanks to Ukraine in two months’ time, the French armed forces minister Sébastien Lecornu said in a statement on Friday.
Reuters reports that the statement contained a summary of a phone conversation he had on Jan. 12 with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov, in which France also reiterated its general support for Ukraine.
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A close ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has suggested confiscating property and assets of Russians who discredit the country’s armed forces and oppose the war in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian Duma, said current measures, such as fines for those who speak out against what Moscow calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, were not strict enough.
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Putin has publicly scolded a senior minister and ally during a meeting broadcast on state television as sanctions from the stalling war in Ukraine caused fresh economic headaches for the Russian president.
Speaking during a live video call with officials on Wednesday, the Russian leader appeared agitated and berated deputy prime minister Denis Manturov, who is also his trade and industry minister and responsible for overseeing Russia’s weapons and defence industry and supplies of equipment for troops. Putin criticised him for working too slowly on the country’s aircraft contracts, according to a transcript of the call later published by the Kremlin:
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The conflict in Ukraine has come to be defined by the use of drones, AFP reports, ranging from small commercially-available models to larger aircraft, with both sides trying to outmanoeuvre each other.
“Both Russians and Ukrainians are now saying publicly that there are parts of the front where their military drones cannot operate, where their commercial drones can be jammed and rendered inoperable,” Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder said.
More now on Soledar: Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Thursday that Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut and Soledar in the east would be armed with everything they need to keep Russian troops at bay in some of the bloodiest battles of the war.
Kyiv said earlier its troops were fighting to retain control of the now-battered industrial towns in the east, which Russian mercenaries claimed earlier this week to have taken.
Both sides have conceded heavy losses in the fight for Soledar and the nearby larger town of Bakhmut, which is also key to Russia’s aim to wrest all of Donetsk away from Ukraine.
The Kremlin on Thursday praised the “heroic” work by Russian forces working to capture the eastern Donetsk region from Ukraine and on other fronts.
“Huge work has been done in Soledar, absolutely selfless heroic actions, not only in Soledar,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
“There is still a lot of work ahead. The main work is yet to come,” he added.
US envoy calls for Serbia to sign on to sanctions against Russia
A senior US envoy expressed strong concern Thursday about the activities of the Russian private military contractor Wagner Group and its alleged attempts to recruit soldiers in Serbia and elsewhere in the world.
US state department Counselor Derek Chollet also urged Serbia to introduce sanctions against its traditional Slavic ally Russia.
“We believe that countries should sign on to the sanctions, and the reason why we believe that is because Russia’s actions do not only have to be condemned, they have to be punished,” he said.
“Russia every day is prosecuting a brutal, unjustified war against Ukraine. We need to stand together, to ensure that this behavior, it’s clear that this behavior is unacceptable.”
The US envoy this week launched a tour of several Balkan nations in a visit focused on international efforts to help normalise relations between Kosovo and Serbia after weeks of heightened tension. The former Serbian province declared independence in 2008, something Serbia and Russia don’t recognise.
‘Small pockets of resistance’ from Ukraine in Soledar, says Moscow-installed official
A Russia-installed official in Donetsk, Andrey Baevsky, said there were still “small pockets of resistance” from Ukraine inside the city, claiming Russian-backed troops had nearly full control.
Baekvsky, who is a Lieutenant Colonel and the deputy of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic’s parliament, told the Russian state-owned media agency “At the moment, indeed, there are still separate small pockets of resistance in Soledar, [but] our guys continue to crush the enemy in these places.”
“In general, the operation [has] developed successfully and the western outskirts of Soledar are already completely under our control,” he added.
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Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Sullivan.
A Russia-installed official in Donetsk, Andrey Baevsky, said there were still “small pockets of resistance” from Ukraine inside the city, claiming Russian-backed troops had nearly full control.
Baekvsky, who is a Lieutenant Colonel and the deputy of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic’s parliament, told the Russian state-owned media agency “At the moment, indeed, there are still separate small pockets of resistance in Soledar, [but] our guys continue to crush the enemy in these places.” He said western Soledar was under full Russian control.
Ukrainian forces are “holding on” as “fierce fighting” continues in the town, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said on Thursday.
We’ll have more on this shortly. In the meantime here are the other key recent developments:
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut and Soledar in the east would be armed with everything they need to keep Russian troops at bay in some of the bloodiest fighting of the war. Kyiv said earlier its troops were fighting to retain control of the now-battered industrial towns in the east, which Russian mercenaries claimed earlier this week to have taken.
Hundreds of civilians remain trapped in Soledar, Ukraine has said, as bloody fighting continues over control of the largely destroyed salt mining town. Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk, told Ukrainian state TV that 559 civilians remained in Soledar, including 15 children, and could not be evacuated.
Satellite images taken by Maxar Technologies show the destruction inflicted upon Soledar. The Guardian has a series of striking images from inside the eastern Ukrainian town.
President Vladimir Putin’s move to replace his top commander in Ukraine after a few months is a sign of military disarray and his growing impatience in a war Russia is not winning, analysts said. The defence ministry in Moscow said Wednesday it had, again, replaced its top commander in Ukraine, putting army chief of staff Valery Gerasimov in charge. It is the latest of several major shake-ups of Moscow’s military leadership.
More than a dozen senior EU officials will meet members of the Ukrainian government in Kyiv on 2 February, a day before the EU-Ukraine summit, a European Commission spokeswoman said Thursday.
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s air force command has warned of the possibility of missile attacks from Belarus. In a televised statement today, Yurii Ihnat said it was from Belarusian territory that most of the ballistic missiles were launched at the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. During a visit to Lviv on Wednesday, Zelenskiy called for his forces to be “ready both at the border and in the regions” near Belarus amid fears Russia may launch a fresh assault from the north.
The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has claimed his forces have found the body of one of two British voluntary aid workers reported missing in eastern Ukraine. In a statement published on his Telegram channel late on Wednesday, Prigozhin did not mention the name of the dead man but said documents belonging to both Britons had been found on his body.
A former Russian deputy minister of defence has suggested the country could increase the upper age limit for conscription from 27 to 30 for this year’s spring draft campaign. Andrey Kartapolov, the head of the State Duma defence committee, suggested the change could take place without altering the lower bar for conscription of 18 years.
The commander of Russia’s ground forces, Oleg Salyukov, visited Belarus on Thursday to inspect the combat readiness of a joint force stationed there, the Belarusian defence ministry said. Salyukov was yesterday named as one of the deputy commanders of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in the latest of a series of reshuffles. His visit came as Russia and Belarus have expanded their joint military training exercises in Belarus.
A US navy veteran has been released after almost a year in Russian detention, according to his family. Taylor Dudley, 35, of Michigan, was taken into custody by Russian border police last April after crossing the border from Poland into Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania.
A Ukrainian soldier has had successful surgery to remove an unexploded grenade from his chest, senior officials in Kyiv have said. Surgeons removed the weapon from just beneath the heart of the injured serviceman, while two sappers ensured the operation was conducted safely, said Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy minister of defence.
