More civilian casualties in Ukraine, which was once again subjected to a barrage of Russian missiles in a phase of the war marked by the expansion of Ukrainian attacks across the border and in which there are no signs of peace. Kiev is convinced that the Kremlin wants “neither a frozen conflict nor peace,” explained Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba: “Those who propose a frozen conflict claim to act in the best interests of Ukraine and the world, but in reality they are helping “Vladimir Putin and ignores what Russia is today.” The Ukrainian leader also said he was “quite confident” that the EU would approve a new 50 billion aid package for Kiev, despite Hungary's reluctance.
“We don't have a Plan B,” he repeated in the event that these funds do not arrive. “We have to concentrate all our energy and intellectual efforts on one thing: making Plan A work.” But it is precisely when Plan B wants Brussels, albeit in an involuntary pun, bypassed Viktor Orban's veto: “The first option is that we reach an agreement among 27 on the revision of the common budget, but there is a plan B,” emphasized the Belgian Finance Minister Vincent van Peteghem listed the priorities of the rotating EU presidency. The Ukraine issue will be the focus of the extraordinary summit of heads of state and government on February 1. The issue will be discussed on Wednesday at the meeting of the Permanent Representatives of the 27 (Coreper II). “It will be an important appointment to understand how to work,” noted the Belgian minister, who limited himself to saying the content of a possible Plan B: “A Plan B without Hungary is a plan that involves the participation of 26 countries.” .
Meanwhile, the camp continues to claim civilian casualties: In the morning, the Russian army launched 59 different types of missiles and drones against Ukraine. Ukrainian defense shot down 18 missiles and 8 unmanned aerial vehicles. The target of the attack was civil and industrial infrastructure as well as military targets. The attack hit the Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia and Khmelnytsky regions. The number is at least four dead and several injured. Moscow claims to have used “long-range missiles fired from sea and aircraft, including the Kinzhal.”
The shelling also caused new damage to power grids in the Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions. Due to the security situation, emergency repairs are being carried out, but there is a high risk of power outages due to bad weather. Today's attacks have forced tens of thousands of people in hundreds of settlements to battle the cold.
The Kiev army warns that reconnaissance flights with drones are virtually impossible due to frost and fog and that this blinds the defense lines. Nevertheless, over 100 artillery shells rained down across the border in Russia's Belgorod region in the last 24 hours, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced, saying there were no casualties or damage. The evacuation call issued days ago in the face of increasing Ukrainian attacks led to the first transfer of civilians to safer areas: 300, apparently not many, but it is the most significant evacuation on Russian territory since the beginning of the conflict, now almost two years ago.
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What happened yesterday
There are updates at 9:46 p.m
US and allies condemn North Korea for supplying arms to Russia: “For the transfer of ballistic missiles”
The US and 47 other countries condemn North Korea for supplying weapons to Russia in the war against Ukraine. This was announced by the spokesman for the American National Security Council, John Kirby, in a press conference and emphasized that the issue would be brought to the UN tomorrow. “The foreign ministers of 47 countries and Secretary Blinken issued a joint statement condemning the transfer of ballistic missiles from North Korea to Russia,” the White House official stressed.
8:09 p.m
Meloni hears from Scholz before the Council, focusing on Ukraine and the G7
According to a statement from Palazzo Chigi, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz this afternoon. The two leaders reportedly discussed key international and European issues ahead of the extraordinary European Council meeting on February 1, with a particular focus on military and financial support for Ukraine. Prime Minister Meloni also presented the priorities of the Italian G7 Presidency.
6:49 p.m
Kiev: “Thanks to Modena, may it be a sign against Moscow’s propaganda, Russian hybrid wars have no place in Europe”
“We are deeply grateful for the decision of the Modena City Council for the decisive decision to cancel the Russian propaganda event dedicated to the supposedly “thriving” Mariupol during the Russian occupation. We hope that this precedent can create an incentive for a more active public response to Russian disinformation in Italy and serve as a signal for public institutions and local administrations to draw attention to the spread of Moscow propaganda and Kremlin manipulations that are affecting society Poisoned.” This was said by the Ukrainian Ambassador to Italy Yaroslav Melnyk in relation to the decision of the Modena City Council to revoke the concession for the Civic Hall, where on January 20th the exhibition/conference “Mariupol – Rebirth after the War” was to take place, the controversial pro-Russian event that became a political case.
6:27 p.m
Russia is seeking a ban on presidential elections in “unfriendly” EU countries like Italy
The consulates of “a significant number” of the 49 countries considered “unfriendly” to Russia, including Italy, as well as the rest of the EU, the United States, Britain and others, may not provide seats for it in next year's presidential election The newspaper “Vedomosti” expected that March would vote for Russians living abroad, citing diplomatic sources. The final decision has not yet been made, an “assessment” of the situation is underway and a decision will be made by the end of January, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. The measure would be justified for security reasons and with the decline in diplomats following the expulsions. Russian authorities are currently demanding that countries “ensure the security” of the elections and that the decision on the vote depends on the response.
4:47 p.m
Kiev: “There is a shortage of anti-aircraft missiles, we need help”
There is a shortage of anti-aircraft missiles in Ukraine: Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat denounces this, the Guardian quotes. “Ukraine has issued a significant reserve” of this ammunition and “it is clear that there is a shortage of anti-aircraft missiles,” Ihnat said in an interview on Ukrainian television. Last month, the US Congress failed to approve $50 billion in security aid for Ukraine as negotiators failed to reach an agreement. And Ukraine is separately waiting to receive a €50 billion package from the EU after Hungary blocked its approval.
2:49 p.m
Kiev: Air defense under pressure due to ongoing Russian airstrikes
Russia's recent escalation in missile and drone attacks is straining Ukraine's air defense systems. This was said by Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat in a speech on national television. “Intense Russian air strikes force us to deploy an appropriate amount of air defense assets,” he explained. “That’s why we need more of it. “Russia continues to expand its capabilities to carry out air strikes.” At the moment, Inhat added, “we are completely dependent on the supply of guided anti-aircraft missiles, both for Soviet and Western systems.”
2:16 p.m
A woman was killed in the bombing in the village of Gornal
The governor of Russia's Kursk region on the border with Ukraine said a woman died when Kiev forces shelled the village of Gornal. Tass reports it. “This afternoon the village of Gornal in the Sudzhansky district was shelled by Ukraine. A woman died from shrapnel. I express my condolences to the family and friends of the deceased,” wrote Governor Roman Starovoyt on his Telegram channel. Two houses were damaged after the bombings. Shortly before, the Russian official had reported the downing of four drones in the skies over the region.
1:41 p.m
Putin opens new criminal case against Khodorkovsky
Former oligarch and then-dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who has been abroad since his release from prison in 2013, is also wanted in Russia for spreading false information about the armed forces, in addition to allegations made two years after he was expatriated for complicity in the assassination of Nefteyugansk mayor Vladimir Petukhov and the attempted murder of entrepreneur Yevgeny Rybin in the years he was building his empire with Yukos. Khodorkovsky was declared a foreign agent in May 2022. The new accusation is related to an article signed by the dissident on compensation for the families of soldiers killed in the war.
1:40 p.m
Drone attack on energy infrastructure in western Russia, three civilians injured
Three civilians were injured in an attack by two drones that hit energy infrastructure in Oryol, western Russia, today. This was announced by the governor of the region, as Tass reported.
12:25 p.m
Kharitonov will be a presidential candidate against Putin, who is registered as a communist candidate
The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation has registered deputy Nikolai Kharitonov as a candidate for the Communist Party's presidential election, who will face President Vladimir Putin, who is favored in the March election. Ria Novosti reports about it. Kharitonov opposed some of Putin's domestic policies, but not the invasion of Ukraine. Kharitonov's candidacy joins those of Leonid Slutsky of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party and Vladislav Davankov of the New People's Party, which was approved by the commission last week. Although the communist candidate usually receives the second most votes in elections, Kharitonov is not believed to pose a major challenge to Putin: in the 2004 elections he received only 13.8%. The current Kremlin leader has dominated Russia's political system and media for the past two decades. During this time, prominent opposition politicians such as Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin, who could have challenged him in elections, were imprisoned. Putin won by a landslide in previous elections in which independent election observers say they found widespread voter fraud.
12.04
Hackers spread the data of account holders at a Russian bank; the attack dates back to October
The Ukrainian hacker group Kiborg has published on its website the entire database of the Russian bank Alfa Bank, the largest private bank in the Federation. According to Kiborg, the published data includes names, telephone numbers and bank account numbers of customers belonging to individuals and legal entities working with the bank, which is owned by Russian-Israeli oligarch Mikhail Fridman and has been sanctioned by the US because of his ties to Putin since 2004. The banking institution denies being a victim of the hacker attack, but Kiborg claims to have acted in collaboration with another group of Ukrainian hackers calling itself NLB. The cyberattack that Kiborg allegedly used to obtain the data of millions of Russian citizens and organizations occurred last October. Meanwhile, Ukrainian media, citing a source in the Kiev security service, reported another cyberattack by the Ukrainian hacker community Blackjack against an Internet provider in the Moscow region. In the attack, hackers are said to have deleted 20 terabytes of company information and downloaded another 10 gigabytes of data from mail servers and databases containing customer data.
10:52
Ukrainian hacker attack, part of Moscow without internet and television
A group of Ukrainian hackers, probably with the support of the secret service, hacked the Moscow Internet provider “M9com” and “destroyed” the servers, leaving part of the Russian capital without Internet and television. Sources told RBC-Ukraine that about 20 terabytes of data were deleted. In addition, the hackers downloaded more than 10 GB of data from the company's mail server and customer databases, which was made available online. According to the sources, the hackers acted with the intention of avenging the December 12 cyberattack on the Ukrainian telecommunications company Kyivstar.
10:15 a.m
The Kremlin: Ukraine used American, German, French and Italian missiles to hit Russian civilian targets
The Kremlin accuses Portal: Ukraine used American, German, French and Italian missiles to hit Russian civilian targets
08:10
Russian attack in the south, residential area hit. Regional authorities: “Five houses damaged in Marhanets”
Russian forces attacked the Marhanets community in the Nikopol district of southern Ukraine last night, causing damage to a residential area, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Serhiy Lysak announced, Ukrinform reported. “After midnight, Marhanets was hit in the Nikopol district. The enemy attacked the city with heavy artillery,” Lysak wrote on Telegram, adding that five residential buildings and two cars were damaged. No casualties were reported.
07:56
Raid against the Russian city of Belgorod, 3 seriously injured
Another Ukrainian attack on Belgorod, a Russian city on the border between the two countries. According to the region's governor, Vlacheslav Gladkov, at least three people, two men and a woman, were seriously injured in an attack that night. The governor himself announced that “ten aerial targets” were intercepted and shot down.