Here is the situation on Wednesday, January 8:
Fighting
- Kyiv said its forces are still actively fighting in Kurakhove, a strategic town in Ukraine’s east that Russia said it had seized. Moscow applauded the capture of the “important logistics hub,” claiming that it would allow Russian forces to “take the eastern Donetsk region at an accelerated pace”
- In its first substantive remarks two days after Russian reports of a renewed Ukrainian thrust in the area, Ukraine added that it was “commencing new offensive actions” in the western Kursk region of Russia.
- In the past 24 hours, there have been 218 clashes on all front lines, according to the Ukrainian General Staff in Kyiv. In the Kursk region alone, the army repelled 94 Russian attacks.
- The Ministry of Defense of Russia stated in a statement that its troops had attacked Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region, and it had also listed six locations where its forces claimed to have defeated Ukrainian brigades and seven additional locations, including one on the Ukrainian side of the border, where it claimed to have attacked Ukrainian troops and equipment.
- The Ukrainian Army also said it launched a “precision strike” on a Russian Army “military command post” near Belaya, in the Kursk region.
- Ukraine’s Southern Defence Force said its troops destroyed two Osa surface-to-air missile systems in unspecified areas in the south of the country, United States-based defence think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports.
- According to the ISW, geolocated video footage shows that Russian forces currently occupy the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, or Toretsk, about 71% of the town.
Following several weeks of longer-range, faster Russian offensive operations and gains in the area, NEW: Russian forces recently advanced in northwest Toretsk. ???? (1/6) pic. twitter.com/WkmvfuGAcr
- According to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, UN spokesman, hundreds of people, including children, have been killed or injured in Ukraine during the first week of January.
- In the past three days, “homes, gas facilities, and electricity infrastructure have been damaged in several front line regions, exposing civilians to heightened health risks as temperatures dropped below zero in some parts of Ukraine”, Dujarric said.
- More than 60 residential buildings have been damaged in the Kherson region alone, in the south of the country, he said.
Regional security
- Sweden claimed that its navy had assisted in the recovery of the anchor of a alleged Russian “shadow fleet” oil tanker, which is suspected of causing damage to the Baltic Sea’s ground’s cables and cables.
- The Eagle S tanker carrying Russian oil was seized by Finland last month on suspicion that it had dragging its anchor across the seabed to damage the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power line and four telecom cables.
- According to the Yle public broadcaster, Finnish authorities used a special Swedish vessel to help with the tanker’s anchor, citing the Swedish Navy.
Crime
- In March of this year, a German couple admitted to killing a Ukrainian refugee and her mother in order to steal her baby. The two defendants admitted to killing the 27-year-old Ukrainian and her 51-year-old mother on the first day of the trial in Mannheim District Court. In a statement read out by lawyers, the man said, “I regret everything I have done.” His wife added, “I made a big mistake”.
Politics and diplomacy
- According to the government of Slovakia, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico will meet with European Commission representatives in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the end of the Russian gas transit through Ukraine.
- Donald Trump, the president-elect, claimed that Joe Biden had changed Washington’s mind regarding the country’s membership in NATO and that he understood how Moscow was reacting to its neighbor’s joining the military alliance. “Somewhere along the line, Biden said, ‘ No. They]Ukraine] should be able to join NATO’. Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feelings about that”, Trump said.
- Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, had cancelled a meeting, which he described as “extremely important”. Kellogg, a decorated retired three-star general, will reschedule the meeting, Sybiha said.
- Kaja Kallas, the head of the European Union’s foreign policy, has accused Russia of using its natural gas supply as a “warrior weapon” and starting a “hybrid war” against Moldova, where Transnistria’s separatist region has been without Russian gas since January 1.
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