The fighting in the Ukraine war intensified. Kremlin chief Putin wants Donbass to be taken by March. The news ticker.
- Russia’s Plans: Putin wants Donbass to be taken by March
- Missile Attack: Russia bombs Dnipro – and denies the attack
- Editor’s note: Read the latest developments from the Ukraine conflict in our news ticker. The information processed here Ukraine war come partly from the warring parties in Russia and Ukraine. They can therefore not be independently checked in part.
+++ 4.35 p.m.: After a Russian missile hit a high-rise building in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the emergency services are still looking for several missing people. The rubble of the house has been removed to 90 percent, said the military governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Resnichenko, on Tuesday. There might still be people lying there. 45 dead have been pulled from the rubble so far; around 80 people were injured, including 16 children. In the morning there were still 40 deaths. Six children were among the dead.
Ukraine gets credit
+++ 1.50 p.m.: Ukraine has received a new aid loan of 3 billion euros from the EU once morest conditions. In view of the Russian aggression, it is now crucial to support the country in covering its financing needs, said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday regarding the payment of the money. The 3 billion euros are the first installment of the new loan program totaling up to 18 billion euros that was agreed by the EU member states in December for this year. From March, 1.5 billion euros are to be paid out monthly
Russia wants to rebuild the army
+++ 12.41 p.m.: Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has announced that the Russian army will be restructured in order to implement the increase in troop levels demanded by the Kremlin. Only through structural changes in the armed forces is it possible to guarantee Russia’s security, Shoigu said at a Defense Ministry meeting on Tuesday. Against the background of the Ukraine war, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin announced shortly before New Year’s Eve that he would increase the number of soldiers from 1.15 to 1.5 million.
Zelenskyj adviser resigns
+++ 11.40 a.m.: After a wave of public outrage, the external adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office, Oleksiy Arestovych, resigned. “I want to show an example of civilized behavior,” the 47-year-old wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. The reason for the resignation was his statement in a live Internet broadcast on Sunday night. Arestovych named Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses as a possible reason for the impact of a Russian missile on a residential building in the city of Dnipro.
Zelenskyj comments on the Russian missile attack
+++ 10.33 a.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has denounced the deadly attack on an apartment building in Dnipro in the east of the country as a “war crime”. “Every person responsible for this war crime will be identified and brought to justice,” said the head of state in his daily video address on Tuesday night. Kyiv blames Russia for the attack – Moscow rejects this.
Russia is having increasing difficulties
+++ 9.38 a.m: According to British secret services, the Russian army has difficulties in precisely targeting its attacks in the war once morest Ukraine and in assessing consequential damage in advance. Examples from the war showed that Russia has weaknesses in its ability to attack with long-range weapons, the British Ministry of Defense said in its daily briefing on Tuesday
Update from Tuesday, January 17, 2023, 6:55 a.m.: In a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin is said to have blamed the Ukrainian side for the recent intensification of fighting. The Kremlin announced on Monday (January 16) following the phone call that it was counting on an intensification of the fighting “with the help of Western sponsors”. Kyiv is showing a lack of willingness to negotiate – for example with the rejection of a ceasefire ordered by Putin for the period of the Orthodox Christmas celebrations in early January.
Ukraine War: Missile from Russia failed to launch
Update from Tuesday, January 17, 2023, 9:05 a.m.: After the rocket attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the Ukrainian Air Force Command is now open Facebook informed that the Kh-22 missiles fired in the attack by Russia might not be shot down by the country’s air defenses. According to Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat, this missile with a 950-kilogram warhead was designed to destroy aircraft carrier groups at sea: “Such a missile was used to hit a densely populated city. There is no explanation or justification for this act of terrorism.”
Ukraine war: Putin blames Ukrainian side for intensification of fighting
Ukraine had dismissed the move from Moscow as hypocritical, and many international observers also spoke of Putin’s purely propaganda gesture. The shooting continued from both sides. Ukraine has repeatedly emphasized that it is willing to negotiate – but only if Russian soldiers return territory occupied in violation of international law.
Ukraine war: Putin wants Donbass to be taken by March
+++ 10:00 p.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin the newly appointed commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, Valery Gerasimov, ordered to take the Donbass by March. This was announced by Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military intelligence service. Yusov also said Putin has not given up on his plans to destroy Ukraine as an independent state and Ukrainians as a nation. He therefore believes that Putin is preparing Russia for a long war once morest Ukraine. The Donbass – i.e. the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk – represents a region in the south-east of Ukraine, which borders on Russia.
Ukraine War: Zelenskyy survives more than 12 assassination attempts since war began
+++ 9.15 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has survived more than 12 assassination attempts by Russian troops since the beginning of the Ukraine war in February 2022. This is reported by the British newspaper The Independent citing Ukrainian officials.
War in Ukraine: Russian forces shell Ukrainian positions and communities
+++ 7:25 p.m.: Russian forces reportedly carried out eight attacks on Monday (January 16) and shelled more than 20 Ukrainian positions and communities in Kharkiv, Zaporizhia and Kherson Oblasts throughout the day. This was announced by the Ukrainian General Staff on Facebook. A Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile struck an apartment building near the city of Starobilsk in Luhansk Oblast, killing two civilians. Russian forces also shelled settlements in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, including the frontline towns of Bakhmut, Soledar and Avdiivka.
Ukraine War: Ukraine and Russia work on large POW exchange
+++ 6.55 p.m.: Meanwhile, Ukraine and Russia are working on a large POW exchange that might involve as many as 1,000 people. This is what Şeref Malkoç, Ombudsman of Turkey, told CNN Türk. “At the meeting I attended, the Ukrainian ombudsman handed over a list of 800 people to the Russian side. The Russian ombudswoman gave her Ukrainian counterpart a list of 200 people. The exchange is not limited to this list. It is a list of wounded and prisoners,” Malkoç said.
Ukraine War: Russia may have hundreds of Raduga Ch-22 missiles
+++ 5.45 p.m.: Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat stressed Monday (January 16) that Ukraine’s air defenses were unable to shoot down incoming Russian Raduga Ch-22 missiles. Ihnat added that Russia’s inventory of such missiles might number in the hundreds. At the same time, according to the official, Ukraine used to have Ch-22 missiles in its own arsenal, but part of them were handed over to the Russian Federation in the form of gas debt payment, while another part was disposed of.
War in Ukraine: Moscow denies Russian rocket attacks on houses
Update from January 16, 2023, 3:33 p.m.: The Kremlin has denied reports that Russian rocket attacks have hit homes in Ukraine. Earlier, local officials in Dnipro said at least 40 people were killed in the attack on an apartment building in the southern and central Ukrainian city on Saturday.
In a phone call to reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Russian forces are not attacking residential buildings or social infrastructure facilities. The attacks are aimed at military targets that are either obvious or camouflaged.”
Kremlin denies tensions between army and mercenary group Wagner
The Kremlin has no tension whatsoever between the Russian army and the paramilitary Wagner group denied in Ukraine. “This conflict only exists in the newsroom,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. Russia recognizes its “heroes who serve in the armed forces” as well as those “who come from the paramilitary group Wagner,” he emphasized: “Everyone is fighting for their fatherland.”
The discrepancies between the Russian army and the Wagner group, noted by numerous observers, had come to light in the past few days during the battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Soledar: The head of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had repeatedly claimed that only his troops were fighting in the city Units once morest the Ukrainian Armed Forces. As Prigozhin on Wednesday the Taking Soledars reported, the Russian Ministry of Defense initially objected and two days later itself reported the capture.
Prigozhin then published a message attacking those “who are constantly trying to steal our victories.” In a rare move, the Russian Defense Ministry then issued a public statement praising the “courage” of the Wagner fighters in Soledar.
Any information regarding the tensions between the Russian army and the Wagner group is “the product of information manipulations that are partly the product of our enemies and partly the product of our friends,” said Kremlin spokesman Peskov.
At least 30 dead following attack on Dnipro
The death toll following a Russian rocket attack on a block of flats in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro continues to rise. According to current information, 30 people died in the attack and 30 were injured so far. Around 40 people are believed to be under the rubble. Some of them scream, rescue workers report. (talk with agencies)
