Update on the situation, Monday January 29, at 9 p.m.
- The head of Hungarian diplomacy in Ukraine to prepare for an Orban-Zelensky meeting
The head of Hungarian diplomacy, Péter Szijjarto, met on Monday in western Ukraine with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, ahead of a European summit focused on financial aid to the country at war after the recent veto from Budapest. Balazs Orban, political advisor to the Hungarian Prime Minister, for his part, declared Monday morning on the social network that Hungary was open to releasing aid to Ukraine amounting to 50 billion euros from the European Union (EU).
- NATO Secretary General in Washington to discuss aid to Ukraine
Jens Stoltenberg was received in the morning by the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, before meeting in the afternoon with the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, as well as with the national security advisor, Jake Sullivan. He is expected in Congress on Tuesday to meet Republican and Democratic officials who are negotiating an agreement on a new budget for Ukraine.
- Ukraine says it is trying to” to broaden “ its bridgehead on the occupied bank of the Dnieper
“The Ukrainian Defense Forces continue their efforts to expand their bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region”affirmed the army staff in its morning report.
- Moscow claims the capture of a hamlet near Kupiansk, kyiv denies
The locality of Tabaïvka, “in the Kharkiv region, was liberated”, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram. The hamlet is located about thirty kilometers from the town of Kupiansk, an area in which Russian forces have been on the offensive since the summer. But the Ukrainian army had denied this capture a little earlier, without even waiting for official statements from the Russian authorities, the news having started circulating the day before on Telegram channels.
- In Russia, Vladimir Putin’s presidential candidacy validated
“The Russian Election Commission has registered the candidacy of Vladimir Putin for the post of president”declared the institution Monday on Telegram, in the run-up to the presidential election in March, a vote that the head of state should dominate, the opposition having been largely muzzled by repression.
- Ukrainian army says it shot down eight Russian drones overnight
The Ukrainian Air Force claims, in his morning assessmenthaving destroyed “eight Shahed-136/131 type strike drones” launched by Russia over the country overnight “in the Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Khmelnytsky and Rivne regions”.
- Drone attack foiled against Yaroslav refinery in Russia, regional governor says
Russian air defenses foiled a drone attack on Monday against the Slavneft-YANOS oil refinery in the city of Yaroslav, according to the regional governor.
- British intelligence assesses Russian armor losses and their ability to replace them
In his situation update of January 29, the British Ministry of Defense estimates that from February 24, 2022 to January 25, 2024, Russia lost approximately 2,600 main battle tanks and 4,900 other armored fighting vehicles in Ukraine. It appears that Russian ground forces lost about 40% fewer vehicles in 2023 than in 2022.