encircle Bakhmout, Russia’s main objective

Cover image: Around Bakhmout, January 7, 2023. CLODOGH KILCOYNE/REUTERS

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskysaid on Monday January 9 that his troops were resisting “new assaults, even more violent” at Soledar, near Bakhmout, a city in eastern Ukraine that Moscow has been trying to seize for months. He assured that his troops had “gained extra time (…) for Ukraine ». The village of Bakhmouste is said to have been conquered by pro-Russian forces.
Two civilians died in Kramatorskin eastern Donetsk Oblast, hit by a Russian missile, announced Kirill TimoshenkoDeputy Chief of Staff to the President, on the evening of Monday, January 9.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholzsaid on Monday that he remained convinced of the need for Germany to coordinate arms deliveries to Ukraine with its allies, as pressure mounts on Berlin to send tanks to kyiv. Leopard 2 assault.
Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday evening the release of fifty Ukrainian soldiers, the first of the year, probably in the context of an exchange with Russian prisoners. “I am particularly grateful to those of our units who contribute to the exchange fundsaid the Ukrainian president. Everyone who captures the enemy on our land provides an opportunity to set some Ukrainians free. »
The Russian army said on Sunday that it carried out strikes, without specifying the date, on barracks in Kramatorsk, and inflicted heavy losses amounting to hundreds of deaths, “retaliations” to the Ukrainian bombardment of Makiivka. kyiv has denied an attack on military installations, and claimed that the Russian claim “does not correspond to the truth”.
In the region of Sumy alone, in northeastern Ukraine, the local administration reported in the early evening of more than a hundred shellings and strikes during the day on Sunday.
According to Denys Chmyhal, the Ukrainian Prime Minister, the war has led to the creation of a minefield which he estimates at 250,000 square kilometers on Ukrainian territory.
According to the British Ministry of Defence, Russians reinforce their positions in Zaporizhia Oblastin southern Ukraine, “especially between the towns of Vasylivka and Orikhiv”for fear of an offensive by the Ukrainian army.