Summary of the day
Thank you for following the Russia-Ukraine war live blog today. It will be closed shortly but you can continue to follow the latest news on Ukraine here and on Russia here. Below is a closing summary of today’s key posts:
At least 25 people have been killed and 20 people were injured including two children, after shelling at a busy suburban shopping area in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, according to local officials who said shells had been fired by the Ukrainian military. Ukraine has not commented on the event and the claims could not be independently verified. You can read Sam Jones’s report on it here.
Russia called the shelling of a market in the suburb of Tekstilshchik, on the outskirts of Donetsk, on Sunday a “barbaric act of terrorism” and accused Ukraine of carrying out the attack with “the use of weapons supplied by the west”.
A fire that broke out at a chemical transport terminal at Ust-Luga port, near St Petersburg in Russia, after two explosions on Sunday was due to an attack by Ukrainian drones, BBC News reported. An official source in Kyiv told the BBC that the “special operation” of the SBU security service masterminded the attack with drones that were “on target”.
Russia’s capture of the village of Krokhmalne in the Kharkiv region is a “temporary phenomenon”, the Ukrainian ground forces command spokesperson, Volodymyr Fityo, said. Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday, in its morning summary, that Russian forces had taken control of the village.
North Korea is Russia’s largest arms supplier at present, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told the Financial Times in an interview published on Sunday. In the interview, Budanov also said Moscow was losing as many or more troops than it can recruit and that the Wagner group still exists, despite reports saying it had been dismantled.
Russian president Vladimir Putin showed his intention to visit Pyongyang soon, according to Reuters. The news agency cited a report by North Korea’s state media KCNA on Sunday. Last week, Putin met North Korean foreign minister Choe Son-Hui on her visit to Russia and during the meeting thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for his invitation to visit.
Europe needs to “step up” and provide more funding for Ukraine, the UK’s defence secretary, Grant Shapps, has said. Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Shapps said: “Europe needs to step up and do their part to make sure that Ukraine can continue to defend herself.”
Russian forces struck Zaporizhzhia oblast 95 times across 16 localities in the last day, reports the Kyiv Independent, citing regional governor Yurii Malashko. He said a 71-year-old man was injured in Huliaipole due to artillery shelling, where there were also two reports of destroyed residential buildings.
Russia has lost approximately 376,030 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces reported on Sunday. The number, which has not been independently verified, includes 760 casualties over the past day.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko, said the scale of Nato’s Steadfast Defender 2024 exercises marked an “irrevocable return” of the alliance to cold war schemes.
Slovakia’s new culture minister, Martina Šimkovičová, has reversed a ban on cooperating with Belarus and Russia, reports the Kyiv Independent, citing an article by the Slovakian publication Pravda on Saturday. Citing leaked documents, Pravda reported that the reversal would be effective from 22 January.
Russia’s state RIA news agency said on Sunday it had calculated that the west stood to lose assets and investments worth at least $288bn (£226bn/€264bn) if it confiscated frozen Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine and Moscow then retaliated.
Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk believes that tennis has forgotten the war in Ukraine and she hopes that the success of Ukrainian women at the Australian Open will generate further attention for the issue. You can read Tumaini Carayol’s piece on Kostyuk here.
Six people are missing after a private jet carrying out a medical evacuation from Thailand to Russia crashed in a remote area of Afghanistan after straying from its flight plan and disappearing from radar screens. It has not been confirmed as related to the Ukraine war. You can read Sam Jones’s report on it here.
Updated
'On target' Ukrainian drones used in Russian port attack, Kyiv source tells BBC
A fire that broke out at a chemical transport terminal at Ust-Luga port, near St Petersburg in Russia, after two explosions on Sunday, was due to an attack by Ukrainian drones, BBC News has reported.
An official source in Kyiv told the BBC that the “special operation” of the SBU security service masterminded the attack, with drones that were “on target”.
The Associated Press also cited local media reports that Ust-Luga port had been attacked by Ukrainian drones, causing a gas tank to explode. The blaze was at a site run by Russia’s second largest natural gas producer, Novatek, 165km south-west of St Petersburg.
The blast caused a large fire at the Ust-Luga terminal, but no injuries, Russian officials said.
Updated
North Korea is Russia's largest arms supplier at present, says Ukraine military chief
North Korea is Russia’s largest arms supplier at present, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told the Financial Times (FT) in an interview published on Sunday.
A “significant amount” of artillery ammunition was transferred to Russia by North Korea, according to Budanov, who said it had “allowed Russia to breathe a little”. Budanov added: “Without [North Korea’s] help, the situation would have been catastrophic.”
“This has always been considered beneath them, it’s an indignity,” Budanov said of Russia’s need to seek military assistance from countries such as North Korea.
In the interview with the FT, Budanov also said Moscow was losing as many or more troops than it can recruit and that the Wagner group still exists, despite reports saying it had been dismantled.
On the topic of Yevgeny Prigozhin – the head of the Wagner mercenary group confirmed dead by Russian investigators after a plane crash in August 2023 – Budanov said: “I’m not saying he’s not dead or that he’s dead. I’m saying that there’s not a single piece of evidence that he’s dead.”
Updated
My colleague Sam Jones has more on the private jet that went missing on a flight from Thailand to Russia [see earlier post here].
Six people are missing after a private jet carrying out a medical evacuation from Thailand to Russia crashed in a remote area of Afghanistan after straying from its flight plan and disappearing from radar screens.
A regional spokesperson said the crash happened on Saturday in a mountainous area near Zebak district in Badakhshan province, adding that a rescue team had been dispatched but would take 12 hours to reach the crash site.
Zebak, a sparsely populated rural, mountainous area, is about 150 miles (250km) north-east of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.
Russian aviation authorities said two passengers and four crew members were onboard the charter ambulance flight, which was travelling from Utapao airport, near Pattaya, to Moscow via India and Uzbekistan.
Shelling of market in Russian-occupied Ukraine 'a barbaric act of terrorism', says Russian foreign ministry
Russia has called the shelling of a market on the outskirts of Donetsk on Sunday a “barbaric act of terrorism” and accused Ukraine of carrying out the attack with “the use of weapons supplied by the west”.
“The Russian side categorically condemns this treacherous strike against the civilian population,” the Russian foreign ministry said.
Local officials say at least 25 people were killed by the shelling in Russian-occupied Ukraine on Sunday.
A further 20 people were injured in the strike on the suburb of Tekstilshchik, including two children, said Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-installed authorities in Donetsk. He said the shells had been fired by the Ukrainian military.
Updated
Russia’s state RIA news agency said on Sunday it had calculated that the west stood to lose assets and investments worth at least $288bn (£226bn/€264bn) if it confiscated frozen Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine and Moscow then retaliated, according to a report on Reuters.
After Vladimir Putin sent forces into Ukraine in February 2022, the US, UK and other allies prohibited transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry, blocking about $300bn of sovereign Russian assets in the west.
US and British officials have worked in recent months to jumpstart efforts to confiscate Russian assets immobilised in Belgium and other European cities in order to help reconstruction in Ukraine, parts of which lie in ruins.
RIA cited data which it said showed that direct investment by the EU, the G7 nations, Australia and Switzerland in the Russian economy at the end of 2022 totalled $288bn.
It said EU nations held $223.3bn of the assets, of which $98.3bn was formally held by Cyprus, $50.1bn by the Netherlands and $17.3bn by Germany. It said the top five European investors in the Russian economy also included France with assets and investments worth $16.6bn and Italy with $12.9bn.
Among the G7 countries, it named Britain as one of the largest investors, citing data at the end of 2021 which showed British assets in Russia were worth about $18.9bn. It said the US had $9.6bn worth of Russian assets at the end of 2022, Japan $4.6bn and Canada $2.9 bn.
Updated
One person injured after Russian forces struck Zaporizhzhia region 95 times, says official
Russian forces struck Zaporizhzhia oblast 95 times across 16 localities in the last day, reports the Kyiv Independent, citing regional governor Yurii Malashko. He said a 71-year-old man was injured in Huliaipole due to artillery shelling, where there were also two reports of destroyed residential buildings.
Russia conducted seven multiple rocket launcher attacks on Mala Tokmachka and Robotyne, as well as 26 drone strikes on Huliaipole, Orikhiv, Zaliznychne, Luhivske, Novoandriivka, Robotyne, Levadne and Poltavka, the Ukrainian news publication reported.
Sixty-two artillery shells hit Novodarivka, Novoandriivka, Mala Tokmachka, Charivne, Shcherbaky, Huliaipole, Lobkove, Kamianske, Piatykhatky and other settlements.
According to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson oblast regional military administration, the southern Kherson region was shelled 76 times on Saturday. The same day, Russia shelled the Sumy region 37 times. In both cases, no civilian casualties were reported.
Updated
My colleague, the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth, has written for the Observer about how Russia grappling with Lenin’s legacy 100 years after his death. You can read more here:
Sunday’s centenary of the death of Vladimir Lenin, one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century, will largely go uncelebrated in his home country of Russia this weekend, where the revolutionary leader stands accused of laying a “timebomb” underneath Russia and Ukraine that has exploded in the past decade.
There will be no parades or stirring speeches in Red Square. The obvious reason is that one of Lenin’s most strident critics is Vladimir Putin, who appears far more enamoured with the empire that Lenin’s revolutionaries overthrew.
Often portrayed in official Soviet culture as a grandfatherly, nurturing figure who ushered in the revolution of 1917, Lenin’s legacy is being repainted in darker hues, despite some pleas for the issue to be put to rest, both rhetorically and corporeally.
My colleague Tumaini Carayol is reporting on the Australian Open at Melbourne Park. He writes that Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk believes tennis has forgotten the war in Ukraine:
Kostyuk believes that tennis has forgotten the war in Ukraine and she hopes that the success of Ukrainian women at the Australian Open will generate further attention for the issue as she reached the quarter-finals of a grand slam tournament for the first time in her career.
“I hope so because it really seems for a lot of people that it’s over,” said Kostyuk. “Something incredible happened. Ukraine managed to not be [captured] in three days, in Kyiv as well. So it was like all a miracle. I feel it’s not a miracle any more, so why talk about it? Yeah, I hope that the [Ukrainian] girls can keep on doing what they’re doing and reminding as much as possible.”
On Sunday Kostyuk took a long awaited step forward in her career as she outclassed Maria Timofeeva of Russia 6-2, 6-1 in the fourth round. Kostyuk was once one of the most highly touted youngsters of her generation after she reached the third round of the Australian Open at 15 years old as a qualifier. Between her great athleticism, variety and her smooth, potent groundstrokes, her talent suggested that she was destined for a deeper run one day.
Updated
At least 25 killed in shelling at a market in Donetsk, say officials
The number of people killed by shelling at a market on the outskirts of the city of Donetsk in Russian-occupied Ukraine on Sunday has been revised again.
Local officials are now saying at least 25 were killed in the strike, reports AP.
A further 20 people were injured in the strike on the suburb of Tekstilshchik, including two children, said Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-installed authorities in Donetsk. He said the shells had been fired by the Ukrainian military.
Kyiv has not commented on the event and the claims could not be independently verified by the Associated Press.
Updated
Russia's capture of Krokhmalne is a 'temporary phenomenon', says Ukrainian military
Russia’s capture of the village of Krokhmalne in the Kharkiv region, is a “temporary phenomenon,” the Ukrainian ground forces command spokesperson Volodymyr Fityo said, reports the Kyiv Independent citing comments made on the Ukrainian digital broadcasting station Hromadske on Sunday.
“We simply don’t report on the repulse of 100-200 meters, and for Russian propagandists, any victory must be presented to explain why they lost 7,055 soldiers at the front in the Khortytsia zone of responsibility in January alone,” Fityo said during the live televised broadcast.
He added that the frontlines shift daily and that the loss of the small village, which had a prewar population of 45, is a “temporary phenomenon.” Fityo also said that Ukrainian troops had been moved to prepared reserve positions to hold the defence and prevent Russia from advancing further.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday, in its morning summary, that Russian forces had taken control of the village of Krokhmalne.
Here are some of the latest images coming from Ukraine and Russia on the newswires:
Updated
Slovakia’s new culture minister Martina Šimkovičová has reversed a ban on cooperating with Belarus and Russia, reports the Kyiv Independent citing an article by the Slovakian publication Pravda on Saturday.
Citing leaked documents, Pravda reported that the reversal would be effective from 22 January. The Slovakian ministry issued the ban on communicating and cooperating with Belarus and Russia a week after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022. This did not affect the performances of Russian artists or organizations that spoke out against the war.
The Kyiv Independent reported that Šimkovičová told journalists that there are dozens of military conflicts in the world that artists and culture should not be paying for. The Ukrainian news publication said Šimkovičová had been dropped by a private Slovakian TV channel after sharing anti-refugee content on social media. Šimkovičová, it states, had also shared homophobic, pro-Russian and anti-establishment messaging.
Ukrainian digital broadcasting station Hromadske reported that Šimkovičová worked for several TV channels that emphasise conspiracy theories.
Further information has come in on claims by Russia that it had captured the small village of Krakhmalnoye in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine.
“The village of Krakhmalnoye in the Kharkiv region was liberated,” the Russian defence ministry said in its daily bulletin on operations in Ukraine, citing “successful active operations”, reports AFP.
A spokesperson for Ukrainian land forces, Volodymyr Fitio, interviewed on Ukrainian television on Sunday, said the capture of the village had “no strategic importance”.
“These are five houses”, he said, adding that Ukrainian forces were still holding the frontline. According to AFP, about 45 people lived in the village before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Krakhmalnoye is about 30km (nearly 20 miles) kilometres south-east of the regional hub of Kupiansk – an important railway junction that had a prewar population of about 30,000 people – which Russian forces have been pushing to take over.
About 3,000 people were evacuated from the north-east Kharkiv region after authorities urged people to evacuate in recent days, citing worsening Russian attacks in the area.
Russia has lost more than 376,000 troops since start of the war, says Ukraine
Russia has lost approximately 376,030 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of the war the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces reported on Sunday. The number, which has not been independently verified, includes 760 casualties over the past day.
The figures, which cover the period from the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022 up to 21 January 2024, also include details such as the number of weapons, vehicles and defence systems Ukraine says Russia has lost. According to the release, this includes 6,181 tanks, 11,466 armored fighting vehicles, 11,862 vehicles and fuel tanks, 8,875 artillery systems and 968 multiple-launch rocket systems among others since the start of the war.
Updated
Europe needs to 'step up' and provide more funding for Ukraine, says UK defence secretary
Europe needs to “step up” and provide more funding for Ukraine, the UK’s defence secretary Grant Shapps has said.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Shapps said:
Britain has, again, as with all of those other things, led the way with a £2.5bn package and a security agreement, a cooperation agreement with president Zelenskiy and Ukraine.
Now … not just the US, but Europe needs to step up and do their part to make sure that Ukraine can continue to defend herself.”
In less than 24 hours, the UK took action against the Houthis & uplifted our support to Ukraine to record levels.
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) January 20, 2024
In doing so we dashed the hopes of tyrants like Putin, who naively believed we could be distracted by multiple crises.
The UK can and will act wherever we need to. pic.twitter.com/UYMhE5kRSx
Russian forces have taken control of Krokhmalne in Kharkiv region, says defence ministry
Russian forces have taken control of the village of Krokhmalne in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday, reports Reuters.
No other information has been reported on this story by the news agency. We will update with more detail as it comes in.
At least 18 people killed in Donetsk by Ukranian shelling, say officials
At least 18 people were killed and 13 injured after Ukrainian forces shelled the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, said local officials reports the Associated Press.
Local officials reported that at 18 people were killed on Sunday by shelling at a market on the outskirts of the city of Donetsk.
A further 13 people were injured in the strike on the suburb of Tekstilshchik, said Alexei Kulemzin, the city’s Russian-installed mayor. He said that the shells had been fired by the Ukrainian military. Kyiv has not commented on the event and the claims could not be independently verified by the Associated Press.
Emergency services continue to work on the scene, said Denis Pushilin, the Russian-appointed head of the Donetsk region said on Sunday
Pushilin said that the relevant specialists were also trying to collect fragments of the weapons used in the attack, reported Reuters.
Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian regions which Russia claimed to have annexed last year in a move condemned as illegal by most countries at the UN general assembly. It does not fully control any of the four regions.
Updated
Russian private jet believed to have crashed in Afghanistan
A Russian private jet carrying six people is believed to have crashed in a remote area of rural Afghanistan, reports Associated Press.
The crash happened on Saturday in a mountainous area near Zebak district in Badakhshan province, according to regional spokesperson Zabihullah Amiri. He said a rescue team had been dispatched to the area.
Badakhshan police chief’s office also confirmed the report of the crash in a statement on Sunday. Russian civil aviation authorities said a Dassault Falcon 10 went missing with four crew members and two passengers. The plane had been operating as a charter ambulance flight.
It has not been confirmed as related to Ukraine war.
NATO's Steadfast Defender exercises mark return to Cold War schemes, Russia says
Russia’s deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko has pushed back against Nato exercises announced several days ago.
The scale of Nato’s Steadfast Defender 2024 exercises mark an “irrevocable return” of the alliance to cold war schemes, Grushko told the state news agency RIA in remarks published on Sunday, according to Reuters.
Nato said on Thursday it was launching its largest exercise since the cold war involving about 90,000 troops, rehearsing how US troops could reinforce European allies in countries bordering Russia and on the alliance’s eastern flank if a conflict were to flare up with a “near-peer” adversary.
“These exercises are another element of the hybrid war unleashed by the west against Russia,” Grushko told RIA.
“An exercise of this scale … marks the final and irrevocable return of Nato to the cold war schemes, when the military planning process, resources and infrastructure are being prepared for confrontation with Russia.”
Nato did not mention Russia by name in its announcement. But its top strategic document identifies Russia as the most significant and direct threat to Nato members’ security.
Updated
Fire breaks out at Russia’s largest liquefied natural gas producer Novatek
A fire broke out at a terminal of Russia’s largest liquefied natural gas producer Novatek on the Baltic Sea on early Sunday, according to the governor of the Leningrad region, amid reports of drone sightings in the area, Reuters reports.
“No casualties as a result of a fire at Novatek’s terminal in the port of Ust-Luga. Personnel were evacuated,” Alexander Drozdenko said on the Telegram messaging app early on Sunday. “A high alert regime has been introduced in the Kingiseppsky district (which includes the port),” he said, noting that the blaze was “localised”.
Drozdenko did not say what caused the fire at the Novatek terminal at the port of Ust-Luga in the Russian part of the Gulf of Finland, about 170 km (110 miles) west of St Petersburg and 35km from the Estonian border.
Local official Yuri Zapalatski said the fire started just before 02:45 am local time, reports Agence France-Presse.
Russian news outlet Shot reported on Telegram that people in the area had heard a drone followed by several explosions. St Petersburg-based news outlet Fontanka said at least two drones were spotted in the sky flying towards St Petersburg before the reports of the fire at the terminal.
Baza, a Russian news outlet known for its security services contacts, posted on Telegram footage of big flames shooting into the sky over what seemed like an industrial complex.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
Updated
Russian president Vladimir Putin showed his intention to visit Pyongyang soon, according to Reuters. The news agency cited a report by North Korea’s state media KCNA on Sunday.
Last week, Putin met North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui on her visit to Russia and during the meeting thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for his invitation to visit, KCNA said citing a foreign ministry official.
Russia thanked North Korea for its support and solidarity in the Ukraine war, and the two also expressed serious concerns over provocative acts by the US and its allies against Pyongyang’s sovereign rights while agreeing to cooperate in regional affairs, the report said.
The cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow will be in line with the UN Charter and other international laws, it added.
• This post was amended on 21 January 2024 because an earlier version referred to Choe Son Hui as a man rather than as a woman.
Updated
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Russian president Vladimir Putin showed his intention to visit Pyongyang soon, North Korea’s state media KCNA reported on Sunday.
Putin also thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for his invitation to visit as he met North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui who visited Russia last week, KCNA said citing a foreign ministry official.
Meanwhile, a fire broke out at the terminal of Russia’s largest liquefied natural gas producer Novatek on the Baltic Sea, the governor of the Leningrad region said early on Sunday.
In other developments:
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy fears that if Donald Trump returns to the White House next year he could make unilateral concessions to Russia that override Ukraine’s interests and branded the former US president’s claims he could stop the war in 24 hours as “very dangerous”.
Zelenskiy has also spoken of putting together “new bilateral agreements” that will “reanimate” the system of international law. He added that new military packages will be delivered “in the coming weeks and months”.
Slovak prime minister Robert Fico said on Saturday that Ukraine was under the absolute control of the US. The populist politician, who is against military aid to the war-torn country and opposes sanctions against Russia, also reiterated his opposition to Ukraine’s bid to join Nato. “Ukraine is not an independent and sovereign country,” Fico told public broadcaster RTVS. “Ukraine is under the total influence and control of the US.” Slovakia is a member of both Nato and the European Union. Despite Fico’s criticism, it was only Hungary that vetoed the €50bn of aid that other EU members had voted to give Kyiv last December.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has reported that Ukraine maintains a presence on the left bank of the Dnipro River and has continued to repel Russian attacks despite “logistical concerns”.
Russian lawmakers have prepared a bill allowing for the confiscation of money and property from people who spread “deliberately false information” about the country’s armed forces, a senior member of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin said on Saturday, Reuters has reported.
Russia has lost 375,270 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces claimed on Saturday. The number, which has not been independently verified, includes 750 casualties over the past day.
Russian troops have reinstalled mines along the perimeter of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which it occupies in the occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast, the International Atomic Energy Agency has said.
The wife of a Russian soldier delivered an emotional appeal for his return from Ukraine on Saturday at the election headquarters of Putin – it was a defiant gesture by Maria Andreyeva in a country where open criticism of the war is banned.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, has referenced a quote from Winston Churchill in an interview with Le Figaro. Discussing the war in Ukraine, he said: “Give us the tools and we will finish the job.”
Romanian protesters have ended their blockade at the Porubne-Siret crossing along the Romanian-Ukrainian border the Kyiv Independent reported, citing the border guard service. Romanian farmers and truck drivers had been protesting against high business costs.
Russian forces launched seven Shahed-136/131 attack drones against Ukraine, four of which were shot down by Ukraine’s air defences, according to an update from the general staff.
Russia has accused Ukraine of being behind a drone strike that sparked a huge inferno at an oil depot in western Russia on Friday, the latest in a series of escalating cross-border attacks. Russian officials and news reports said four oil reservoirs with a total capacity of 6,000 cubic metres (1.6m gallons) were set on fire at the oil refinery after the drone reached Klintsy, a city of 70,000 people located about 60km (40 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
