The Swedish government will send troops to Latvia to join forces with a Canadian-led force to prevent a Russian attack, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced at an annual defense conference in Saden. Although Sweden’s accession to NATO has not yet been completed, the government has signaled that it is ready to contribute to NATO deterrence and the defense of the Baltic states. “Sweden and its neighbors live in the direct shadow of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” says Kristersson. “But Russia’s threats, disinformation and cyberattacks are an attempt to destabilize all of Europe.”
+++ 05:20 Kiev: Compulsory military service for Ukrainian women is not part of the military reform +++
According to official information, a Ukrainian draft law on military mobilization does not provide for the drafting of women or a lottery. “I can definitely say that there will be no draft lottery and no mobilization of women,” said deputy chairman of the parliament’s security committee, Yehor Chernev, on state radio. “There will be no unconstitutional regulations.” However, the draft reform, which would allow the government in Kiev to conscript more Ukrainians and increase penalties for those who refuse to serve, has drawn criticism. 22 months after the start of the war, the number of Ukrainians volunteering for military service is falling.
+++ 03:18 General Staff: Almost 40 Russian attacks repelled within one day +++
Ukrainian forces repelled 18 Russian attacks on the left bank of the Dnipro and almost 20 on the other six sectors of the front within 24 hours. As the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces announced on Facebook, there were a total of 55 battles on the front. The situation in the east and south of the country remains difficult, according to the situation report from Monday evening.
+++ 01:05 Kuleba: Allies do not pressure Ukraine into talks with Russia +++
Ukraine’s allies are not pushing Kiev to start negotiations with Russia about freezing the war, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. “Our allies are not asking us to start talks with Russia to freeze the war – neither in meetings with (Western) delegations nor in closed-door meetings,” the Ukrainian foreign minister said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper “El País”. “Those who suspect a frozen conflict argue that they are acting in the best interests of Ukraine and the world, but in reality they are helping Putin and ignoring what today’s Russia is,” Kuleba continued. The Kremlin leader is not interested in a frozen conflict or in peace.
+++ 23:58 Russian official: Three people injured in attack on Belgorod +++
A Russian official said several people were injured in a Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Belgorod Oblast this evening. As the Ukrainian newspaper “Kyiv Independent” reports, ten projectiles were intercepted by the air defense. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov claimed that three people were injured by falling debris.
+++ 23:02 Zelenskyj after recent Russian attacks: “Terror state will feel response” +++
According to its own statements, Ukraine does not want to leave Russia’s latest serious attacks unanswered. “The terrorist state will definitely feel our response,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his evening video speech. Four people were killed and 45 others injured in the areas of Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi and in his home region of Kryvyi Rih. This is one of the reasons why negotiations with international partners in the coming weeks will be aimed at strengthening Ukrainian air defense, says Zelensky. “Many steps are being taken and I am confident that we will be able to strengthen our state. Our air defense system. Our work with partners on drones.” In the morning, Russia bombed Ukraine with dozens of rockets, cruise missiles and drones for the second time in just a few days. However, fewer of the total of almost 60 projectiles were intercepted than usual – partly because parts of the country that were not as well protected as the capital Kiev were bombed.
+++ 22:12 Kiev needs hundreds of thousands of soldiers – but the new mobilization law falls through +++
The Anti-Corruption Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament declares the government’s draft law on mobilization as a risk of corruption. This is what Anastasiia Radina, chairwoman of the committee, says to the Ukrainska Pravda on record. The official says the committee concluded that conscription was necessary in Ukraine, but that some provisions of the bill on mobilization pose corruption risks. Radina does not initially provide any details. She added that representatives of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and the General Staff took part in the meeting. They agreed with the committee’s conclusion and promised to correct the deficiencies. With the bill, the government wants, among other things, to increase fines for men who violate military registration regulations. Men who do not appear for examinations should even be given prison sentences. The government recently declared that it wanted to mobilize around 450,000 more men to fight the Russian invasion.
+++ 21:52 Russia is said to have abducted 19,500 Ukrainian children +++
Ukraine estimates that more than 19,500 children were illegally trafficked to Russia during the war. This is what the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, says. “Russia has committed terrible crimes during its war against Ukraine, but the deportation and violent abduction of children, our most vulnerable, is among the most cruel crimes against humanity since World War II,” Yermak said in a statement. The number mentioned is based on UN information. Around 3,900 of these children are said to be orphans or without parents. Yermak accuses Russia of the systematic deportation and resettlement of Ukrainian children. This is part of the state’s policy to destroy their identity. Moscow refuses to provide Ukraine or international institutions with information about the fate of the children. So far it has only been possible in isolated cases to bring Ukrainian children back to their home country.
+++ 21:30 Only one in five Ukrainians works – Merz believes that citizens’ money for war refugees is a mistake +++
CDU leader Friedrich Merz is calling for a tougher approach so that more Ukrainian refugees work in Germany and the state is thereby relieved of the financial burden. While only 20 percent of Ukrainian refugees are in the labor market in the Federal Republic, the rate is 60 percent in the Netherlands and 90 percent in Poland, said Merz at the New Year’s reception of the Düsseldorf Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK). Merz is critical of the fact that Ukrainian refugees are entitled to citizen’s benefit and therefore receive more state benefits than asylum seekers. “It was probably a mistake that we decided two years ago – immediately after the start of the refugee crisis from Ukraine – between the federal and state governments that the Ukrainian refugees would also go into citizen’s benefit almost immediately and not initially receive asylum seeker benefits for a certain period of time .” Merz cites this as an example of state transfer systems that cannot and should not be maintained financially. Instead, the state should send strong signals to people: “We want you to return to the job market as quickly as possible.”
+++ 21:02 There’s a “bang” in the Urals: Another successful sabotage operation on the Russian railway line +++
A railway section near the city of Nizhny Tagil in Russia’s Ural region was hit by a “bang”, Russian news agencies Tass and RBC report, citing transport prosecutors. In Russian media, the term “bang” is often used as a euphemism for an explosion. According to Russian media agency Baza, the explosion occurred near the San-Donato train station, near an oil depot. Last month, a Ukrainian source told Reuters that Ukrainian domestic intelligence had detonated explosives on a Russian railway line deep in Siberia. No one is said to have been injured in the current incident and no damage was caused. Russian news agency RBC quoted Russian Railways as saying traffic in the area was “restricted” and some trains could be delayed, Reuters reports.
+++ 20:23 “Significant blow”: Ukrainian secret service obtains secret data from Russian arms company +++
The Ukrainian secret service (GUR) claims to have received 100 gigabytes of data on classified information from the Russian company Special Technological Center (STC). This is a defense company that has been subject to sanctions since 2016. This is what the GUR reports on his website. This database, estimated to be worth $1.5 billion, includes records on 194 objects: blueprints, technical tasks, patents, software and much more. This should cover both existing and planned military developments. The STC, known for producing military equipment used by the Russian army for its invasion of Ukraine, specializes in the production of, among other things, numerous modifications of the Orlan drones and numerous instruments for electronic warfare and reconnaissance. According to Ukrainian intelligence, the acquisition of this information is a “significant blow against terrorist Moscow.” However, he did not reveal how the secret service obtained the data.
+++ 19:45 Only a few attacks on Russian territory – Reisner: Russians are five times superior when it comes to ammunition +++
Recently, Moscow has increasingly complained about Ukrainian attacks on the Russian border region of Belgorod. However, these are nothing more than isolated needle pricks. In an interview with ntv.de, Colonel Markus Reisner reveals why Ukraine is not putting more pressure on Russian territory. “It has hardly any other options. On the one hand, it has a major shortage of ammunition compared to Russia. The ratio is currently around 2,000 artillery shells from the Ukrainian side to 10,000 from the Russian side per day,” said Reisner. “On the other hand, it lacks extensive systems (…) such as Taurus or sufficient ATACMS to effectively counter Russian attacks.” In addition, the Ukrainian missile strikes are no longer as efficient as they were months ago, explains Reisner: “And the systems they have are being shot down or destroyed by the Russians in very high numbers. An estimated 50 percent of the long-range Ukrainian precision munitions All air-to-ground systems are jammed by the Russians and thus go off course or are shot down.”
You can read all previous developments here.