3:15 p.m. – Russian editor-in-chief of the Kuban channel found dead, apparently poisoned
Zoya Konovalova, editor-in-chief of the Internet editorial department of the Russian state television and radio station Kuban, was found dead in her home. Diana Gorban, president of the Krasnodar regional branch of the Russian Union of Journalists, told the Tass news agency. Konovalova was 48 years old and was said to have been poisoned, the Kuban broadcaster Telegram reported. The independent news site Yugopolis recalls that Konovalova had a son and a 15-year-old daughter.
2:46 p.m. – Patriarch Kirill: “Faith in God will lead Russia to victory”
“Faith in God will lead to victory and that the empire of evil cannot be eternal.” This was stated by Patriarch Kirill of the Orthodox Church of Moscow and All Russia after the liturgy held in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow on the eve of Orthodox Christmas (tomorrow is Christmas in Russia). As Tass reports, Kirill said: “Every religious holiday reminds us that God is almighty, that God has defeated the devil, that in the person of the Lord human evil has been defeated.” Our faith is optimistic, in it there must be none Discouragement, do not give fear of difficulties. If God is with us, then the truth is with us, victory is with us. The feast of the Nativity of Christ teaches us all this.”
1.43 p.m. – GB Secret Service: The number of deceased Russian soldiers could exceed half a million by the end of the year
“The average daily number of Russian casualties in Ukraine increased by almost 300 in 2023. If the numbers continue at their current pace next year, Russia will have lost over half a million people in Ukraine. This is reported by the British Ministry of Defense on X in an intelligence update on the war in Ukraine.
11:00 a.m. – Kiev: “Russian Saki air base in Crimea hit”
The Ukrainian Air Force announces that it struck the Russian Saki air base in western occupied Crimea overnight, rendering it unusable. Air Force commander Nikolai Oleshchuk said this in Telegram, citing Ukrainian media. “All targets were hit!” Unfortunately, our Air Force remained in Crimea without a checkpoint!” joked General Oleshchuk at the announcement, praising the work of the “pilots of the Ukrainian Air Force” in the Crimean operation. The Russians said they fired four Ukrainian rockets over Crimea, while witnesses said they heard loud explosions. The Ukrainian media reminds that the Saki base, next to the city of Novofedorovka, is the headquarters of the 43rd Russian Aviation Regiment, which operates in support of Russian troops in southern Ukraine and is equipped with Su-24 bombers and Su-30 fighters. Recently, on January 4, explosions occurred in Sevastopol and Yevpatoria, also in Crimea, which was militarily occupied and annexed by the Russians in 2014.
10:05 a.m. – Isw: Possible new Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region
Russian forces may step up their efforts to take Kupiansk in the coming weeks as their forces in the region are less tested than those trying to advance elsewhere. According to Ukrinform, this emerges from the latest report from the think tank Institute for the Study of War (Isw). Analysts believe that Russian troops have created the conditions for intensifying their operations in the Kupiansk direction, trying to capture areas that are more important from an operational point of view than those on which they are currently focused. Ukrainian officials said Russian forces plan to capture Kupiansk and Borova in the winter of 2024. “The capture of these cities would likely force Ukrainian forces to abandon the eastern bank of the Oskil River in Kharkiv Oblast and create conditions for future Russian offensive operations along the Kupiansk-Svatove-Kreminna line,” analysts believe.
8:33 a.m. – Kiev: “800 Russian soldiers were killed yesterday”
The Ukrainian military reportedly killed around 800 Moscow soldiers yesterday, bringing the total Russian death toll since the invasion on February 24, 2022 to 363,870. The unverified data was provided by the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
7:53 a.m. – Kiev: “Kherson was bombed 112 times in 24 hours”
Russian troops have shelled the Kherson region 112 times in the past 24 hours, killing one person and wounding five. This was announced by Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the regional military administration. “In the last 24 hours, the enemy launched 112 attacks and fired 671 shots from mortars, artillery, Grads, tanks, UAVs and aircraft, including a rocket attack.” “The enemy fired 39 shots at the city of Kherson,” Prokudin writes Telegram, reports Ukrinform.
– A Russian missile was fired from a jet (Russian Defense Ministry photo via AP)
6:18 a.m. – Russian attacks during the night in Donetsk and Khmelnytskyi
Russian forces launched two attacks on the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk overnight. The local authorities announced this and spoke of victims and damage. As local media quoted the head of the regional military administration Vadym Filashkin, “the Russian army bombed the city twice during the night, hitting an administrative building: garages and cars caught fire.” Anti-aircraft fire was also used in the Khmelnytskyi region of Ukraine there are explosions at night.
3:53 a.m. – Russia, UN Security Council meeting on January 22nd
Russia has called a meeting of the UN Security Council over the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine. Tass reports it. “A meeting on the supply of Western weapons has been requested for January 22,” the Russian news agency quoted a UN source as saying. Western countries had previously called for a Security Council meeting on January 10 in connection with arms deliveries to Russia attributed to North Korea. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected Washington's allegations that Pyongyang had provided military aid to Moscow.
3:36 a.m. – Moscow: “4 missiles aimed at the Crimean peninsula destroyed”
Russian forces destroyed four Ukrainian missiles aimed at the Crimean peninsula. This was reported by the Russian news agency “Ria Novosti”. Traffic on the Crimean Bridge was disrupted for about an hour after the attack.
3:15 a.m. – Kiev: Moscow has undoubtedly used North Korean missiles
“The mask has fallen, as part of its real war of genocide, the Russian Federation for the first time hit the territory of Ukraine with missiles from North Korea.” Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, writes this on X. Moscow “is attacking Ukrainians with missiles , which it receives from a state in which citizens are tortured in concentration camps. Never in history has the classic 'Axis of Evil' appeared so blatantly and grotesquely evil: Russia, Iran, North Korea.”
03:00 – Russia expands its missile arsenal thanks to North Korea and Iran
(by Guido Olimpio) Moscow is expanding its missile arsenal to advance its campaign against Ukraine. Industries have increased their production while weapons received from North Korea have already been deployed and more from Iran will soon arrive. An axis of war that unites Russia, Kim and the Ayatollahs, all of whom are also involved on other fronts.
02:38 – Von der Leyen: “We will propose an operational solution for funds”
“The Commission will propose an operational solution to the agreement on the Financial Support Facility for Ukraine. It will then be up to the Council to reach an agreement with Parliament.” This was stated by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in a statement joint press conference with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on the occasion of the start of the rotating Belgian EU Presidency.
1:05 a.m. – New sanctions against Russia: EU ban on diamonds from Alrosa, the world's largest producer
The European Union has banned the diamonds of the Russian group Alrosa and its CEO Pavel Alekseevich Marinychev. “In line with the diamond ban that we introduced with the 12th sanctions package (against Russia for the war of aggression against Ukraine, editor's note), the EU today adds Alrosa, the largest diamond company, to the list. Diamond mining in.” “The world and its CEO,” said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Platform
12:34 a.m. – Moscow: One injured in new Ukrainian bomb attack on Belgorod
One person was injured in a new Ukrainian bomb attack in Russia's Belgorod region today. This was announced by the governor of the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov. Artillery shells hit the town of Shebekino, which was attacked almost daily by Kiev's forces. The injured man, who was hit in the leg by shrapnel, was a factory guard, Russian agency Ria Novosti reported. Shebekino District borders the Kharkiv Region of Ukraine. At least 25 people, including five children, died in a Ukrainian bombing in the Belgorod region on December 30, according to local authorities.