TDespite the heaviest fighting in eastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj sees no way for the Russian attackers and promises reinforcements to the defenders. “Bachmut is holding on,” said the 44-year-old on Sunday in his daily video speech. Neighboring Soledar is also holding out, although the city is even more devastated and the situation is difficult.
“This is one of the bloodiest places on the front,” he said, describing the area around the two small towns that are part of Ukraine’s defensive wall in front of the Sloviansk and Kramatorsk conurbations in the Donetsk region.
According to Zelenskyy, on Sunday Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of the Ukrainian army, visited the troops in Bakhmut and Soledar to direct the defense and organize reinforcements and increased firepower against the enemy. Syrskyj is considered a hero in Ukraine, who is credited with the successes in defending Kyiv and recapturing the Kharkiv region. Deputy Ukrainian Defense Minister Hanna Maljar had previously spoken of a difficult situation in Soledar.
In addition, Zelenskyy again criticized the Russian shelling of Ukrainian cities in the Donbass. The city of Kramatorsk was said to have been fired upon during the alleged Christmas truce, and Cherson with incendiary ammunition immediately after the end of the Orthodox Christmas. Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin had announced a 36-hour unilateral ceasefire for the period of the Orthodox Christmas between Friday noon and the night between Saturday and Sunday. Kyiv has repeatedly called this “hypocrisy” and “propaganda”.
Selenskyj also addressed the prisoner exchange on Sunday in his speech. 50 soldiers, including 33 officers, were brought back. All Ukrainians would be freed, the President promised. He called on the soldiers to take more prisoners to increase the possibility of future prisoner exchanges.
All developments in the live ticker:
11:24 am – Russian Government Spokesman: Trusts information from the Ministry of Defense
The spokesman for the Russian government, Dmitry Peskov, demonstratively supports the Ministry of Defence. “The Kremlin has absolute confidence,” said Peskov. “I would like to recall the words of the President (Vladimir Putin) that the main source of information is the Ministry of Defense.” The Ministry had said that 600 Ukrainians were killed in Kramatorsk in a retaliatory strike for a Ukrainian missile attack with large Russian casualties. Reuters research contradicted this information. Russian bloggers also expressed doubts about the ministry’s portrayal.
Russian missile impact site in Kramatorsk, Ukraine (photo taken on January 9)
Source: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka
11:02 am – Putin wants to terminate anti-corruption deals with Europe
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin wants to withdraw from Russia’s participation in the Council of Europe’s Criminal Law Convention on Combating Corruption. According to the law database, the President introduced a law to this effect in Parliament. Putin justified the dismissal with discrimination against Russia.
The Council of Europe curtailed Russia’s full membership of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO). “In accordance with this decision, Russia’s membership of GRECO will be suspended, except in cases where GRECO conducts its observer mission on compliance with our country’s commitments, in which case Russia loses the right to participate in the discussion or adoption of reports and the right to vote,” says the explanatory letter to the law. This discrimination is unacceptable for Russia.
Since the start of its war of aggression against Ukraine, Moscow has already suspended its membership in a number of international organizations and reneged on international treaties. Russia has left the Council of Europe and, for example, no longer recognizes the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.
10:18 am – Governor: 60-year-old killed in rocket attack in eastern Ukraine
According to officials, a 60-year-old woman was killed in a Russian rocket attack on the town of Shevchenkove in eastern Ukraine. Several people were injured, said the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Synehubov. They would be treated in hospitals. The Suspilne broadcaster broadcasts videos of rescue workers clearing debris and showing a large crater.
09:39 a.m. – New attack on the district military replacement office in Russia
According to media reports in Russia, against the background of the Ukraine war, there was another attack on a district military replacement office. “In Bratsk, an unknown person used a Molotov cocktail to set fire to a military commissariat, damaging two floors,” Lenta.ru said. Bratsk is a large city in Siberia.
The fire happened at night. Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames before they spread to the entire building. The fire area is 50 square meters, the extent of the property damage is not yet known. The police are looking for the perpetrator, who is said to have recorded a surveillance camera.
Since the beginning of the war of aggression against Ukraine ordered by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin at the end of February, there have been a series of attacks against military objects in Russia. In particular, district military replacement offices, which are responsible for mobilizing the Russians for the war, have repeatedly been the target of attacks. Dozens of arson attacks have been officially registered since February.
07:46 – Ukrainian General Staff: Russian attacks on 14 locations in Donbass repelled
The current situation in Ukraine
Source: Infographic WORLD
According to the Ukrainian armed forces, they repelled Russian attacks on 14 cities and towns in the Donbass region in the east of the country. The city of Bachmut in particular remains contested, the general staff said in a situation report. The day before, the Russian military had carried out seven rocket attacks, 31 airstrikes and 73 multiple rocket launcher attacks. Russian troops are currently concentrating their attacks on eastern Ukraine. For months she and the Russian mercenary group Wagner have been trying to take over the small town of Bakhmut.
05:02 – OSCE chief: Russia as a member still “makes sense”
The Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Helga Maria Schmid, spoke out against Russia being excluded from the group. Keeping diplomatic channels open does not mean that there is agreement, said Schmid WELT. “In any case, from today’s perspective, I think it makes sense for Russia to remain a member of the OSCE.” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had called for Moscow to be excluded in view of the Russian war of aggression against his country. “One day we will need communication channels again,” said the top German diplomat.
According to Schmid, the OSCE is the only security organization in which everyone who is important to the European security architecture sits around the same table. The OSCE emerged out of confrontation during the Cold War and was founded by countries that had very different interests but wanted to prevent an escalation.
8:46 pm – Bosnian Serbs bestow their highest order on Putin
The Bosnian Serb leadership has bestowed its highest order on Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Putin is responsible for developing and strengthening cooperation and political and friendly relations between the RS (Republika Srpska) and Russia,” said the president of the Serb part of the Croatian-Muslim party, who openly advocates secession from Bosnia-Herzegovina existing Balkan state, Milorad Dodik, at the ceremony in Banja Luka.
The West has accused Moscow of working to destabilize Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was conceived as a three-nation state in the Dayton Peace Agreement after the war that ended in 1995 left at least 100,000 dead. At least tacitly, Moscow has backed Dodik’s separatist aspirations.
The timing of the awarding of the order was also a provocation for the other two Bosnian ethnic groups: the occasion is the “Day of the Republic of Srpska”, which the Bosnian constitutional court has classified as illegal. It commemorates the day the Bosnian Serbs declared their secession from the former Yugoslav Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992. The main celebrations are scheduled to take place on Monday around Sarajevo, the capital that has been under siege by Bosnian Serb fighters for three years in the war.
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