Ukraine Daily
Friday, January 20
Russia’s war against Ukraine
Emergency service workers rescue a dog from the rubble of a house after shelling in Chasiv Yar, as Russia-Ukraine war continues on Jan. 18, 2023. (Photo by Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Ukraine condemns antisemitic statement by Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has condemned Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent statement, which compared Russians with Jews killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust and the West with Adolf Hitler. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Oleh Nikolenko urged Israeli authorities and Jewish organizations to react to Lavrov’s words.
Israeli media: Foreign minister Cohen to visit Ukraine. Cohen would reportedly become the most senior Israeli official to visit Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. “In our first call, Eli Cohen and I discussed cooperation within international organizations, ways to counter shared security threats,“ Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter.
European Council President Charles Michel en route to Kyiv. European Council President Charles Michel is on his way to Kyiv to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, and members of the Ukrainian parliament, he said in a video published on Twitter on the morning of Jan. 19.
CIA director makes unannounced visit to Kyiv. CIA Director William J. Burns briefed President Volodymyr Zelensky on his forecast of Russia’s upcoming military plans, the Washington Post reports, citing a U.S. official. According to the newspaper, they also discussed how long Ukraine could count on continued aid from the U.S. and Western allies.
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Zelensky says he’s not sure Putin ‘still alive.’ “I’m not sure that Russia’s president, who sometimes appears (on TV with visual effects), is really him,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said when asked about the possibility of peace talks at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos on Jan. 19.
ISW: Russian military ‘may be setting conditions’ for attack on Ukraine from Belarus, although not in nearest future. The Institute for the Study of War predicts that Russia’s attack on Ukraine from Belarus is more plausible at the end of 2023. “There are no observed indicators that Russian forces in Belarus have the command and control structures necessary for the winter or spring 2023 attack against Ukraine about which Ukrainian issued warnings in late 2022,” the ISW writes.
Reuters: EBRD expects record 2022 loss due to Russia, Belarus portfolio. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development had around $1 billion in its Russia and Belarus-focused portfolio before Russia unleashed its full-scale war against Ukraine. This portfolio is “fully provisioned”, according to president Odile Renaud-Basso, who spoke to Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Jan. 19.
Read our exclusives
Explainer: What we know about helicopter crash that killed children, top officials.
In the morning on Jan. 18, a helicopter carrying Ukraine’s Interior Ministry top officials crashed next to a kindergarten and an apartment building in Brovary, a city just east of Kyiv, claiming the lives of 14 people, including all 10 people onboard.
Photo: Sergei Chuzavkov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Meta: Azov Regiment no longer meets criteria for dangerous organization on Facebook, Instagram.
This means that Azov Regiment members will be allowed to have accounts on Meta platforms, while content posted by other users about Azov Regiment will no longer be removed, Meta’s spokesperson told the Kyiv Independent.
Photo: Hugo Amaral/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Ukraine war latest: European nations pledge more military support, ask Germany to give Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Jan. 19 heightened pressure on the West to supply heavy tanks to Ukraine on the eve of a meeting at Ramstein Air Base, where allies are set to announce new defense aid packages for Kyiv.
Photo: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images
Pain, shock in Dnipro’s main hospital as families pray for loved ones after Russian attack.
Rushing to the hospital shortly after a Russian missile hit an apartment building in Dnipro on Jan. 14, Mykyta Pavlovskyi prayed that his mother’s injury wasn’t fatal.
Photo: Courtesy
Here are the victims of Russia’s brutal strike on apartment building in Dnipro.
A Russian missile killed 46 people after smashing straight into an apartment building in the city of Dnipro on Jan. 14.
Photo: Courtesy
The human cost of Russia’s war
Governor: Russian attacks on Donetsk Oblast kill 4, injure 3. Russian forces killed four civilians and injured three civilians in Donetsk Oblast over the past day. Kyrylenko added that it is not currently possible to determine the number of victims in Russian-occupied Mariupol and Volnovakha.
General Staff: Russia has lost 118,530 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24. Russia had reportedly also lost 3,136 tanks, 6,235 armored fighting vehicles, and other equipment since the start of the invasion.
International response
Biden administration announces $2.5 billion security assistance package for Ukraine. The Biden administration announced $2.5 billion in military aid for Ukraine in one of its largest packages yet.
Estonia to provide Ukraine with record military aid package worth 113 million euros. The package will include dozens of 155-mm and 122-mm howitzers, thousands of shells and trucks for them, over a hundred Carl Gustaf anti-tank weapons, and more than a thousand units of ammunition for them, according to EER.
Lithuania to send Ukraine air defense, helicopters, ammunition. Lithuania’s latest military aid package includes dozens of L-70 anti-aircraft guns, two Mi-8 helicopters, and ammunition, the country’s Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas said on Jan. 19.
Sweden announces $419 million military aid package for Ukraine, including Archer artillery system. Under the three-part package, Sweden will also deliver about 50 of its Stridsfordon 90 infantry fighting vehicles, NLAW anti-tank weapons, mine-clearing equipment, and assault rifles, according to Reuters.
Reuters: Denmark to send Ceasar self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine. “We have been in continuous contact with the Ukrainians about the Caesar artillery in particular and I am happy that we have now received broad support from the Danish parliament to donate it to Ukraine’s freedom struggle,” Defence Minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen said in a statement.
UN to allocate around $4 million for demining of Mykolaiv Oblast. Ukraine’s Reintegration Ministry reported on Jan. 19 that the UN plans to allocate money to purchase mechanized demining equipment and train operators to deactivate explosives in Mykolaiv Oblast.
Polish media: Hungary blocks 500 million euro EU military aid package for Ukraine. Hungary has blocked half a billion euros worth of in military aid in the seventh such package allocated to Ukraine as part of the European Peace Facility, a high-ranking E.U. diplomatic source told the Polish RMF FM.
9 European nations commit to upping defense aid to Ukraine as tension high over German Leopard decision. Nine European nations have signed a joint statement known as the Tallinn Pledge, committing to providing Ukraine with the support that it needs to liberate all its territory currently occupied by Russia.
Pentagon confirms supplying Ukraine from stockpiles in Israel, South Korea. “We have been working with the Republic of Korea and Israel when it comes to withdrawing from our stocks and communicating that with them,” Sabrina Singh, principal deputy spokesperson for the U.S Department of Defense, said during a daily press briefing.
US asks its forces in South Korea to give weapons to Ukraine. According to U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), which has about 28,500 service people in South Korea, such a request is a part of U.S. efforts to help Ukraine with its supplies. USFK didn’t specify what equipment and how much has been requested or already delivered.
European Parliament supports creation of special tribunal for Russian war crimes in Ukraine. The European Union’s parliament has adopted a resolution calling on member states to back the creation of a special international tribunal on Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine. The document was approved on Jan. 19 by 472 votes in favor, 19 against with 33 abstentions, according to the parliament’s report.
In other news
NABU charges ex-head of Naftogaz Andriy Kobolyev with misappropriation of funds over gargantuan bonus. According to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, Kobolyev violated the law when he paid himself a bonus of Hr 229 million in 2018, which equaled close to $10 million.
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