Today
kyiv IN THE VATICAN
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmyha has arrived at the Vatican.
BABARIKO HOSPITALIZED
Imprisoned opponent Viktor Babariko was hospitalized, AFP said, after being beaten up in detention. The man is one of the opposition figures in the country, and a former presidential candidate. He is currently serving a long prison sentence for corruption. It is also hit with Western sanctions for allowing Russian troops to launch their invasion of Ukraine from its territory.
IMAGES OF THE ZAPORIJIA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
To find the full development of British intelligence as well as satellite images of the Zaporizhia power plant, it’s here ↓
ZAPORIJIA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
“Russia probably built these positions because it is increasingly concerned about the prospects of a major Ukrainian offensive,” the intelligence services said in their daily report. That said, they believe that it is “unlikely” that the reactors will suffer “direct catastrophic damage (…) because the structures are very heavily reinforced”.
A LINE OF DEFENSE AT THE ZAPORIJIA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
In its daily update, British intelligence warns of the establishment of “Russian defensive positions” in the Zaporijia nuclear power plant. “Russian forces have established combat positions with sandbags on the roofs of several of the plant’s six reactors,” he said, based on satellite imagery. While Russia has been in control since March 2022, this is the “first hint of reactor integration into tactical defense planning”.
MARIOUPOL IN RUINS
The Google Earth app has updated its satellite images of the city of Mariupol, one of the first Ukrainian cities bombed early in the invasion and left in ruins. New images showing the extent of the damage.
UKRAINE, THE MOST MINED TERRITORY IN THE WORLD
About 30% of Ukrainian territory will have to be surveyed and possibly demined, according to a report from the think tank Globsec. In a report, the think tank says Ukraine has become “the largest mined territory in the world”, overtaking Afghanistan and Syria, which will make its mission “complex, costly and almost impossible to achieve”.
Especially since the Russian troops are described as “sadly creative when it comes to leaving mines”, for example planting explosives “in animals or corpses”.
UPDATE ON THE SITUATION
It’s 9 am, the opportunity to offer you an update on the highlights of the last 24 hours ↓
RUSSIAN DEFENSE
Satellite images coming to us from Russia show an “extensive network of fortifications” installed by Moscow, stretching from western Russia to eastern Ukraine and Crimea” and which were built in forecast of the expected Ukrainian counter-offensive, indicates Reuters.
The news agency says it has examined thousands of defensive positions, both inside Russia and along Ukrainian front lines, and has concluded that Russia is the most heavily defended in the southern region of Zaporizhia and at the gates of the Crimean peninsula.
RUSSIAN STRIKE IN MYKOLAIV
Here is the video posted by Volodymyr Zelensky on Telegram of the damage after the Russian strike on Mykolaiv.
BALANCE SHEET IN MYKOLAÏV
The Russian strike on Mykolaiv would have injured 23, according to Volodymyr Zelensky, including a child. “The invader of the country keeps proving that the main purpose of this war is the terror and destruction of Ukrainians and everything Ukrainian,” he wrote in the comments of the video. “At night, Russia bombarded Mykolaiv with four Kalibr missiles launched from the Black Sea. High-precision weapons targeted private houses, a historic building and a high-rise building.”
FRANCE IN THE EYE OF MOSCOW
French politicians are a prime target for Russian spies, according to French counterintelligence chief Nicolas Lerner. Questioned on February 2, behind closed doors, by the parliamentary commission of inquiry into political, economic and financial interference by foreign powers, the head of the DGSI revealed that he had “detected attempts to approach on the part of certain intelligence agents across the political spectrum”. “According to my information, there are individual approaches and some people have been able to enter into a relationship that French law does not allow – I have a few examples in mind,” he launched in a report which has just been published. be made public. He also specified that he had to carry out “sensitization” actions with deputies after having “detected contacts with Russian intelligence officers under diplomatic cover”.
MOSCOW PREPARES ITS DEFENSE
Russia is preparing to respond to the Ukrainian counter-offensive. The Russian defense extends from Kherson, in the south, to the northeast of Ukraine, that is to say between 800 and 900 kilometers, on several lines of depth. An accumulation of “layers of fortifications and trenches”, explains to AFP Brady Africk, of the think-tank American Enterprise Institute. “This includes anti-tank ditches, barriers, pre-made defense lines like ‘dragon’s teeth’ and trenches for men.”
“The goal for the Russians is to take the hit,” summarizes Pierre Razoux, academic director of the Mediterranean Foundation for Strategic Studies (FMES).
RUSSIAN STRIKE
A Russian missile killed one person and injured more than a dozen in the early hours of Thursday in Mykolaiv, a city in southern Ukraine, authorities said. “Around 1 a.m., residents of Mykolaiv heard four loud explosions,” city mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said on Telegram. “We already know that one of the missiles hit a high building. Another hit a detached house.” He added that some homes in the city were without power.
“So far, we know of 15 wounded and one dead,” said Vitaliy Kim, head of the regional military administration.
GOOD MORNING
Welcome to this live broadcast on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.