Ukraine intercepts ALL of New Years Day drone’s sent at them from the Russians….
It does appear that during the winter at least, the Russian’s are NOT doing MAJOR ground offensive actions…..
They have made small moves at Bakhmut and Kherson……
Advantage Ukraine?
Here’s what we know:
President Volodymyr Zelensky said his military began the new year by putting up stiff resistance to Russia’s aerial attacks.
-
Ukraine says it shot down all the drones Russia launched over the new year.
-
In Russia, critics of the military avoid directing their ire at Putin after the Makiivka attack.
-
Activist who removed Banksy mural from Kyiv suburb could face prison, police say.
-
A U.S.-made long-range rocket system has helped give Ukraine momentum in the war.
-
Firefighters in embattled Bakhmut are ‘doing what we did before the war, which is helping people here.’….
…
Russia is preparing a prolonged air campaign using Iranian-made drones in an effort to exhaust the Ukrainian people, President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Monday. “We will do everything” for this campaign to fail, he said.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
- Russia’s Defense Ministry said 63 service members were killed in the strike in Donetsk shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day. Ukraine’s armed forces said at least 400 Russian soldiers were killed and hundreds more injured. In addition, “military equipment of various types” was destroyed or damaged, Ukraine said. Russian officials said Ukrainian troops carried out the attack with U.S.-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). The Washington Post could not independently
- Moscow’s acknowledgment of the attack has “generated criticism towards the Russian military command,” the Institute for the Study of War think tank reported. Russian military bloggers have questioned why a large group of service members was apparently stationed in one location. They also criticized claims from Kremlin-backed officials that some soldiers inside the building were using their cellphones, which allowed Ukrainian forces to locate them more easily. Alexander Khodakovsky, commander of Russia’s Vostok Battalion, said that while “what happened cannot be changed,” if it were to happen again, “those whose inaction leads to such consequences” should be punished.
- Satellite images shared by Planet, a company that has provided hundreds of images of Russian military activities in Ukraine, appear to show the building targeted in the Makiivka strike, intact on Dec. 20, 2022, and destroyed as of Jan. 3. Both images were captured around 10 a.m. local time. “The region is particularly cloudy at the moment, so unfortunately there are not daily clear images,” Gabrielle Brophy, a Planet spokeswoman, said in an email. “The ones shared were the best/most recent comparison images.”
- The relatively warm and sunny winter weather in Ukraine has led to reduced daytime demand on the country’s beleaguered electricity grid, the national energy company said Tuesday. But Ukrenergo said it expected demand to rise again overnight and would introduce some consumption limits to prevent the grid from becoming overwhelmed.
- Ukraine’s General Prosecutor’s Office said at least 452 children have been killed and 876 injured during the war. The number is in line with figures previously released by international institutions but is probably an underestimatebecause reliable casualty figures are difficult to obtain in conflict zones. Ukrainian prosecutors said more than 3,000 educational institutions have been damaged in the fighting, over 300 of which were destroyed.
- More than 20,000 Ukrainian troops participated in trainings in partner countries in 2022, according to figures released by Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, the most senior uniformed official in the Ukrainian military. Ukrainian personnel are being trained in 17 European countries, he said.
- A suspect in the removal of a wartime mural by British street artist Banksy from a facade in Ukraine’s Kyiv region could face more than a decade in prison, Reuters reported.
- Pro-Russian forces have probably increased the pace of infantry assaults against Ukrainian positions near Bakhmut, the eastern Ukrainian city at the center of the heaviest fighting in recent weeks, the British Defense Ministrysaid.
- The governor of Kherson said Russian forces attacked the region dozens of times on Monday. Yaroslav Yanushevych said on Telegram that multiple locations were struck in the region, which Moscow illegally claimed to annex in September. Two people were killed and nine injured in the strikes, he said. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said its forces attacked Russian military positions in Kherson over the weekend, causing casualties among service members and damage to equipment. Russia’s Defense Ministry did not acknowledge the strikes. The Post could not independently verify the claims.
- More than 80 Iranian-made drones have been shot down in Ukraine so far in 2023, Zelensky said in his nightly address Monday — a sign Ukraine could be stepping up its anti-drone defenses. Ukraine and the West have repeatedly accused Iran of supplying unmanned aerial vehicles to Russia for use in the war. Tehran has denied those claims…