Friday, January 19

Russia’s war against Ukraine

Air defense at work in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy Oblast in the evening of Jan. 17. (Sumy Oblast Military Administration/Telegram)

Minister: France to deliver more Caesar howitzers, guided bombs to Ukraine.

French arms manufacturers will produce 78 Caesar howitzers by the beginning of 2025 to supply them to Ukraine, the country’s Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Jan. 18 in an interview for Le Parisien.

6/10 Ukrainian refugees hope to return, study says. More than half of Ukrainians surveyed said they plan to return to Ukraine in the future, a 2023 study by Vox Ukraine released Jan. 16 says.

Ukraine reportedly hits oil depot near Saint Petersburg with homegrown drone. Ukraine’s Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshin said later the same day that the drone had been produced in Ukraine, a rare public acknowledgment of an attack on Russian soil by a Ukrainian official.

NATO to conduct largest drills in decades with 90,000 troops. NATO will launch its most extensive military exercise in recent decades, involving about 90,000 troops, U.S. General Christopher Cavoli, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, said on Jan. 18.

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European Parliament backs resolution calling for suspending Hungary’s EU voting rights. The resolution, supported by 345 MEPs with 104 voting against and 29 abstaining, calls on the European Council to examine whether Hungary is committing a “serious and persistent breach” of the bloc’s values under Article 7.2 of the EU treaty.

WSJ: Biden makes concessions to Republicans on immigration to secure Ukraine aid. U.S. President Joe Biden made concessions on immigration policy to Senate Republicans to deflect criticism and secure backing for Ukraine aid, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Jan. 18.

Ambassador names alternatives to EU funding Ukraine if Hungary blocks aid.

According to Ukraine’s ambassador to the EU Vsevolod Chentsov, the backup options include an extrabudgetary fund to which all EU members can make their contributions.

Zelensky: All Russian missiles have dozens of critical foreign-made parts.

Russia uses dozens of critical components from abroad to produce all its missiles, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Jan.18, referring to a report by Foreign Intelligence Service chief Oleksandr Lytvynenko.

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Recent campaigns against journalists raise concerns about press freedom in Ukraine

Investigative journalists in Ukraine came under two attacks in just the past week, one involving a threatening home visit and another using covert surveillance.

Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

Ukraine war latest: Ukraine reportedly hits oil depot near Saint Petersburg with homegrown drone

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) hit an oil depot near the Russian city of Saint Petersburg in an overnight drone attack,  Ukrainska Pravda reported on Jan. 18, citing an unnamed source in intelligence.

Photo: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Human cost of war

1 killed, 2 injured in Russian shelling of Kupiansk. Russian forces struck the town of Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast on the morning of Jan. 18, hitting a multi-story building, killing one person, and injuring the other two, oblast governor Oleh Syniehubov reported.

International response

US slaps new sanctions over Russian oil price cap breach. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on Jan. 18 sanctions against the shipping company Hennesea Holdings Limited for violating the $60 per barrel price cap on Russian crude.

Norway allocates $190 million to boost defense production for own needs, Ukraine. The Norwegian government announced on Jan. 17 the allocation of 2 billion Norwegian kroner ($190 million) to increase defense production capacities, namely regarding artillery shells. Oslo said it is hiking its production capacity to meet the needs of Norway, Ukraine, and allies.

Hungarian official: Deal with EU on Ukraine aid still far off. The positions of Hungary and the European Commission on 50 billion euros ($54 billion) for Ukraine remain far apart, making a potential agreement uncertain, the Telex news portal reported on Jan. 18, citing Hungarian minister Gergely Gulyas.

Kuleba seeks to organize talk between Zelensky, Xi. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is working to set up a call between President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, the minister said in an interview with Bloomberg on Jan. 18.

Cameron compares situation in Europe to 1930s, warns against appeasement. U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has meant that the current reality is “like being a Foreign Minister or a leader in Europe in the 1930s” in a podcast published by Politico on Jan. 18.

Ukrainians criticize historic UK security agreement as weak, but encouraging. A new bilateral security agreement between Kyiv and London is getting mixed grades in Ukraine.

Media: European parliament party proposes EU create Defense Commissioner position. The draft manifesto of the European People’s Party (EPP), the largest party in the European Parliament, proposes the European Commission create an EU Defense Commissioner position to improve defense coordination in the bloc, Euractiv reported on Jan. 18.

ISW: Russia, Central African Republic in negotiations to house Russian military base. Russia is in negotiations with the Central African Republic (CAR) to establish a Russian military base in the country, aiming to further exert influence in the region, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote in its assessment on Jan. 18.

In other news

Russians register nearly 30,000 companies in Georgia since start of full-scale invasion. Georgia was the most popular country for Russian entrepreneurs to start their businesses abroad in 2022, with the country recording almost 30,000 new companies registered by Russians since February 2022, Forbes Russia reported on Jan. 18.

Court makes second arrest in Hrynkevych’s corruption scandal. The court ordered the arrest of a second defendant implicated in a defense procurement corruption scandal involving Lviv businessman Ihor Hrynkevych, said Nadiia Maksymets, the spokesperson for the Prosecutor General’s Office, in a comment for Ukrinform on Jan. 18.

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