Russian army attempting to advance through its own corpses in Bakhmut, army chief says
The top of Ukraine’s armed forces said fighting within the Luhansk and Donetsk areas around Bakhmut stays intense and difficult.
“Heavy fighting” is happening between Svatove and Kreminna in Luhansk, in addition to toward Lysychansk, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny said on Telegram Tuesday.
He said probably the most difficult situation stays in the realm of Soledar, Bakhmut and Mayorsk, where “the Russian army is definitely attempting to move forward through its corpses, but units of the Defense Forces are holding back the advance,” Zaluzhny said on Telegram, in line with a Google translation of his comments.
Emergency service staff extinguish a fireplace after shelling on the Bakhmut front line in Ivanivske, Ukraine on Jan. 2, 2023.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Bakhmut has been the epicenter of attritional warfare for several months, with Russian forces gaining little ground of their bid to capture the town, which analysts say has little overall strategic value for Russia.
Despite that, Russia continues to expend weaponry and manpower on its offensive operation within the pocket of Donetsk that is an element of the broader Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which Moscow says it desires to “liberate.”
Zaluzhny said Ukraine continued to carry positions around Avdiivka within the Donetsk region and was continuing counteroffensive actions.
“We’re reliably holding defensive lines within the Zaporozhzhia direction and are making efforts to guard Kherson from enemy shelling,” he said. The situation on the border with Russia’s ally Belarus is fully under control, he added.
— Holly Ellyatt
Infrastructure, apartments and kindergarten damaged in Zaporizhzhia attack, officials say
A missile attack on the town of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine has targeted an infrastructure facility, destroying nearby warehouses and damaging apartment buildings, in line with Ukrainian officials.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said on Telegram Wednesday that one person had been injured within the rocket attack on the town. He said Russian forces had used S-300 missiles, in line with a Google translation of his comments. Tymoshenko’s post contained images and video footage purportedly showing the destruction following the attack.
An Ukrainian soldier returns to the front line after taking a rest in an underground shelter within the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine.
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Anatoliy Kurtev, the acting mayor of Zaporizhzhia, urged residents of the town to take shelter, saying on Telegram earlier today that Russian forces were “on the defensive” within the Zaporizhzhia area. He said eight high-rise buildings had been damaged in the course of the attack.
“In keeping with preliminary information, 8 high-rise buildings were damaged in one in every of the districts of the town … Their windows were blown out and their balconies were destroyed. As well as, the kindergarten constructing was damaged. There, too, the windows were broken and the roof was partially damaged,” he said on Telegram.
Further information in regards to the attack continues to be being established, the officials said. CNBC was unable to right away confirm the reports.
— Holly Ellyatt
Ammunition likely being stored near Makiivka troop accommodation, UK says
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday it’s likely that ammunition is being stored near a Russian military complex that was destroyed in a Ukrainian attack on Latest Yr’s Eve, highlighting unsafe and unprofessional practices by the Russian army.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said 89 Russian servicemen had died within the attack on the constructing that was getting used as a university and temporary accommodation for newly conscripted soldiers. It is a rare admission of multiple losses by Russia, which blamed the attack on personnel using mobile phones, saying this had enabled Ukraine to focus on the placement.
A Russian soldier who was a part of a 300,000-strong mobilization program launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin, seen here in September 2022.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Britain’s Ministry of Defense remarked on Twitter that Ukraine had completely destroyed a college constructing in Makiivka in Donetsk “which Russia had almost actually taken over for military use.”
“Given the extent of the damage, there’s a practical possibility that ammunition was being stored near to troop accommodation, which detonated in the course of the strike creating secondary explosions.”
It noted that the constructing was only 7.7 miles from the Avdiivka section of front line, “one of the crucial intensely contested areas of the conflict.”
“The Russian military has a record of unsafe ammunition storage from well before the present war, but this incident highlights how unprofessional practices contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate,” U.K.’s defense ministry added.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia able to ‘throw all the things they’ve left’ on the war, Zelenskyy says
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits the Kharkiv region for the primary time since Russia began attacks against his country, on May 29, 2022.
Ukrainian Presidency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday night that Kyiv is ready for renewed offensives and mobilization by Russia.
Zelenskyy said on Telegram that he had spoken together with his counterparts in Canada, the Netherlands, U.K. and Norway on Tuesday, with the conversation specializing in “what Ukraine immediately needs most immediately — on the eve of those recent mobilization processes being prepared by the terrorist state.”
A burned civilian vehicle allegedly shot by Russian occupying forces on Jan. 3, 2023 in Oleksandrivka, Ukraine.
Pierre Crom | Getty Images News | Getty Images
“Right away is the moment when, along with our partners, we must always strengthen our defense. We have now little doubt that the current masters of Russia will throw all the things they’ve left, and all they’ll muster, into attempting to turn the tide of the war, and at the very least delay their defeat. We have now to disrupt this Russian scenario. We’re preparing for it,” Zelenskyy said, adding that “any attempt at their recent offensive must fail.”
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia blames use of mobile phones for deadly Makiivka attack
Russia has been left reeling because the death toll rises following a Ukrainian strike on newly conscripted soldiers in Makiivka, a town within the partially Russian-occupied eastern Donetsk region in east Ukraine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday night that the death toll from the attack, which took place on Latest Yr’s Eve, had risen to 89, in line with reports by Russian state news agencies.
It had previously said 63 soldiers had died within the attack, which struck a university for conscripts in Makiivka, in a rare admission of multiple losses.
It blamed the unauthorized use of mobile phones for the strike, saying their use had allowed Ukraine to locate and strike its personnel.
“This factor allowed the enemy to locate and determine the coordinates of the placement of military personnel for a missile strike,” the ministry said in a press release, reported by RIA Novosti.
Mourners gather to put flowers in memory of Russian soldiers who were killed in a Ukrainian strike on a university for newly conscripted Russian soldiers within the occupied city of Makiivka in eastern Ukraine on Latest Yr’s Eve.
Arden Arkman | Afp | Getty Images
The ministry said Ukraine had struck the constructing in Makiivka using missiles from a HIMARS rocket system and claimed that Russian forces had intercepted 4 of six rockets. It claimed it had destroyed the HIMARS rocket system from which the attack was carried out. CNBC was unable to confirm the defense ministry’s claims.
The attack has caused consternation in Russia, with mourners gathering in Samara, the region where the vast majority of the mobilized soldiers reportedly got here from.
— Holly Ellyatt
Moscow’s invasion is prone to inflict long-term economic decline on Russia
Moscow thought it could emerge from the Ukraine invasion with an even bigger role on the worldwide stage. But it surely’s growing more isolated and appears prone to face a long-term economic decline. CNBC’s Ted Kemp reports.
Russians indignant at commanders over Ukrainian strike that killed scores
Soldiers of the 59th brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fire grad missiles on Russian positions in Russia-occupied Donbas region on December 30, 2022 in Donetsk, Ukraine. Russia has tried to expand its control there because it invaded Ukraine.
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Russian nationalists and a few lawmakers have demanded punishment for commanders they accused of ignoring dangers as anger grew over the killing of dozens of Russian soldiers in one in every of the deadliest strikes of the Ukraine conflict.
In a rare disclosure, Russia’s defense ministry said 63 soldiers were killed within the Ukrainian strike on Latest Yr’s Eve that destroyed a short lived barracks in a vocational college in Makiivka, twin city of the Russian-occupied regional capital of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Russian critics said the soldiers were being housed alongside an ammunition dump at the location, which the Russian defense ministry said was hit by 4 rockets fired from U.S.-made HIMARS launchers.
TV footage showed an enormous constructing reduced to rubble as cranes and bulldozers picked through concrete debris lying several feet deep.
Ukraine and a few Russian nationalist bloggers put the Makiivka death toll within the lots of, though pro-Russian officials say those estimates are exaggerated.
Rallies to commemorate the dead were held in several Russian cities, including Samara, where some got here from, RIA Novosti news agency reported. Mourners laid flowers in the middle of Samara.
“I have never slept for 3 days, Samara hasn’t slept. We’re consistently in contact with the wives of our guys. It’s totally hard and scary. But we won’t be broken. Grief unites … We won’t forgive, and, definitely, victory will probably be ours,” RIA quoted Yekaterina Kolotovkina, a representative of a women’s council at a military unit, as telling one in every of the rallies.
— Reuters
Russia, shaken by Ukrainian strike, could step up drone use
Russian emergency staff remove the rubble of vocational school 19 destroyed by shelling in Makeevka, Donetsk People’s Republic, Russia. The armed forces of Ukraine attacked the vocational school constructing in Makeyevka of the Donetsk People’s Republic from the HIMARS MLRS on December 31 to January 1.
Sputnik via AP
Emergency crews sifted through the rubble of a constructing struck by Ukrainian rockets, killing at the very least 63 Russian soldiers barracked there, in the most recent blow to the Kremlin’s war strategy as Ukraine says Moscow’s tactics may very well be shifting.
An Associated Press video of the scene in Makiivka, a town within the partially Russian-occupied eastern Donetsk region, showed five cranes and emergency staff removing big chunks of concrete under a transparent blue sky.
Within the attack, which apparently happened last weekend, Ukrainian forces fired rockets from a U.S.-provided HIMARS multiple launch system, in line with a Russian Defense Ministry statement.
It was one in every of the deadliest attacks on the Kremlin’s forces for the reason that war began greater than 10 months ago and a humiliation that stirred renewed criticism inside Russia of the best way the war is being conducted.
The Russian statement Monday in regards to the attack provided few other details. Other, unconfirmed reports put the death toll much higher.
The Strategic Communications Directorate of Ukraine’s armed forces claimed Sunday that around 400 mobilized Russian soldiers were killed in a vocational school constructing in Makiivka and about 300 more were wounded. That claim couldn’t be independently verified. The Russian statement said the strike occurred “in the realm of Makiivka” and didn’t mention the vocational school.
— Reuters
Russia goals to ‘exhaust’ Ukraine with continued attacks, Zelenskyy says
“The morning is difficult. We’re coping with terrorists. Dozens of missiles, Iranian ‘Shahids’,” Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram official account, referencing the Iranian-made Shahid drones increasingly utilized by Russian forces.
Ukrinform | Future Publishing | Getty Images
Russia goals to “exhaust” Ukraine with a protracted stream of attacks across the country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.
“We must ensure – and we are going to do all the things for this – that this goal of terrorists fails like all of the others,” he said. “Now could be the time when everyone involved within the protection of the sky needs to be especially attentive.”
Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure have ramped up of late, marking three consecutive nights of bombardment in the most recent stream of attacks that began on Latest Yr’s Eve. The strikes goal Ukraine’s energy facilities particularly, leaving thousands and thousands of individuals without heating and power amid the bitter winter cold.
Russian forces are increasingly leaning on deadly Iranian-made Shahed drones, which have wrought havoc on Ukraine’s cities. Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian air defenses shot down greater than 80 of such drones in the primary days of January.
— Natasha Turak