Here is the situation as it stands on Thursday, January 5, 2023:
Fighting
- Heavy fighting around the largely ruined Ukrainian-held city of Bakhmut is likely to persist for the foreseeable future, according to a senior US administration official.
- Putin has sent a warship towards the Atlantic and Indian oceans armed with new hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles, which he said were unique worldwide.
- The Ukrainian foreign minister says that Patriot air defence systems being sent by the United States are expected to be deployed in Ukraine soon.
- Russia says that mass production of new electronic warfare and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems will start in the next few months.
- Ukraine says Russia had launched seven missile strikes, 18 air raids and more than 85 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems in the past 24 hours on three cities – Kramatorsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Diplomacy
- France’s President Emmanuel Macron told his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy his government would send light AMX-10 RC armoured combat vehicles to help in the war against Russia, a French official said after a phone call between the two leaders.
- Russia says Italy is not an “honest broker” or possible mediator in peace talks with Ukraine due to its position against Moscow.
- Ukraine’s efforts to increase grain exports are focused on faster inspections of ships rather than including more ports in the initiative, a senior Ukrainian official said.
- A former Russian deputy prime minister has sent a piece of shrapnel from a French howitzer to Macron.
