01/03/2023
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 04:00 Ukraine: 40 percent of the occupied territories liberated +++
According to information from Kyiv, 40 percent of the territories that Russia had occupied since the invasion of Ukraine are back in Ukrainian hands. “The armed forces have liberated 40 percent of the areas occupied during the full-scale invasion and 28 percent of all areas occupied by Russia since 2014,” Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny told Telegram. The current front line is 1,500 km long. 600,000 people had been evacuated from the contested areas, it said.
+++ 02:43 EPP boss Weber: “Scholz and Macron miss the historic course” +++
As a lesson learned from the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the head of the European People’s Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, calls for much more intensive military cooperation in the EU. “The EU states must now finally tackle the construction of a European defense union,” says Weber of the Bayern media group. There must be common EU rules for the export of armaments so that a common European defense industry can emerge. “And we need joint projects such as the establishment of a missile defense shield for the EU. Chancellor Scholz and French President Macron are in the process of missing a historically decisive course,” criticizes Weber.
+++ 01:37 ice rink in eastern Ukraine destroyed +++
An ice rink in the town of Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region has been destroyed in a Russian missile attack, the Ukrainian ice hockey club Donbass with. The hall has so far served Ukrainian championships, international competitions, as well as cultural and mass events, the statement said. It was previously reported that a rocket had hit the city, injuring two people.
+++ 00:41 EU-Ukraine summit takes place in Kyiv +++
Contrary to initial information, the summit announced by the EU with Ukraine will not take place in Brussels but in Kyiv. This was announced by the Presidential Office in Kyiv after a phone call between Head of State Volodymyr Zelensky and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. At the meeting planned for February 3, the EU will not be attended by the heads of state and government, but only by von der Leyen and EU Council President Charles Michel. It is likely to be about continued support for Ukraine in the war against Russia.
+++ 23:28 Russia reports shooting down of Ukrainian drones over Sevastopol +++
After days of Russian kamikaze drones approaching Ukrainian cities, the air defenses of the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula are fighting Ukrainian drones. Two Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down over the naval port of Sevastopol, the Russian state agency TASS reports. “Our air defense continued to repel the attacks,” Moscow-appointed governor Mikhail Rasvozhayev was quoted as saying. Sevastopol is the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The port has been the target of Ukrainian drone attacks on several occasions, most recently on December 30.
+++ 22:26 Bonduelle denies reports about packages for soldiers +++
French vegetable canner Bonduelle has denied reports that it supplies the Russian army. Photos on the Russian online network VKontakte showing soldiers with canned Bonduelle and a greeting card with New Year’s wishes for a “rapid victory” in Ukraine are fake, the company says. “We don’t distribute packages to soldiers.” The group of companies, on the other hand, confirms its participation in the “Baskets of Goodwill” campaign. The campaign, organized by the Russian food bank, aims to collect products for the needy and “is not connected to the army,” emphasizes a spokeswoman. Bonduelle is one of the few French companies that continued to do business in Russia after the war began. “The Bonduelle Group continues its activities in Russia with the sole aim of ensuring access to food for the population of Russia and neighboring countries,” emphasizes the group.
+++ 22:06 Selenskyj: Drone attacks should drain Ukraine +++
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia wants to drain Ukraine with lengthy drone attacks. Ukraine has information that Russia is planning attacks with Iranian drones, says Zelenskyy in his nightly video message. Russia is banking on exhausting Ukraine’s population, air defenses and energy infrastructure. Ukraine must do everything to ensure that Russia does not achieve its goal.
+++ 21:44 air alarm active in several parts of the country +++
In Ukraine there is evening in several parts of the country air alert. These include the regions of Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk in the east, as well as Cherson, Zaporizhia and Mykolaiv in the south.
+++ 21:27 governor: market shot at, five injured +++
Russian troops are said to have shelled a market in the southern Ukrainian city of Beryslav. At least five people were injured, writes the governor of the Kherson Oblast, Yaroslav Yanushevych, on Telegram. Three of them are in serious condition. The shelling was believed to have come from a tank in the neighboring town of Kakhovka, on the other side of the Dnieper River.
+++ 8:46 p.m. Did Russian soldiers reveal their location through their cell phones? +++
Did Russian soldiers reveal their location to the Ukrainian army by using their cellphones on New Year’s Eve? At least that is what an anonymous source of the pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk claims to the Russian state news agency Tass. The Ukrainian rocket attack on the soldiers’ quarters in Makiivka was possible because the soldiers who had just arrived used their mobile phones intensively. This enabled the Ukrainian army to locate them. Several journalists who support the offensive launched by Russia criticize the Russian military command on Telegram. According to them, the soldiers’ phones should have been taken away on site. In addition, it should have been avoided that they were in a single building. According to media reports, those killed were reservists. Moscow speaks of dozens of dead, Kyiv, however, of hundreds.
You can read earlier developments in the Ukraine war here.