In the Cherson region in southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military claims it has inflicted heavy losses on the Russian armed forces with an artillery attack. The Ukrainian General Staff reported in its situation report that the Ukrainians had scored a hit against enemy troops and military equipment near the town of Chulakivka. “The enemy’s losses amount to 500 dead and injured,” it says. The attack had already taken place on New Year’s Eve. The information provided by the military could not be independently verified. Both warring parties often speak of high losses on the opposing side. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, Russian units in Fedorivka were also hit a day later. The number of victims there is still being checked. Fedorivka and Chulakivka are both located on the south-eastern side of the Dnipro River in the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region.
+++ 08:39 Fritz about hitting the Russians: “So many soldiers in one place are amazing” +++
For the first time in a week, there have been no night-time drone attacks on Ukraine. ntv reporter Gordian Fritz reports on site that Russia is increasingly targeting roads and train stations to cut connections. Ukraine, meanwhile, manages a sensitive blow against Moscow’s troops.
+++ 08:04 Union Group Vice Johann Wadephul: Lambrecht no longer tenable +++
The criticism of Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht does not stop. Union parliamentary group leader Johann Wadephul also sharply criticized the SPD politician after her controversial video message at the turn of the year. Lambrecht is no longer tenable, says Wadephul in the ARD “Morgenmagazin”. She no longer has any support and is “in the wrong place”. Lambrecht does not understand that she does not appear as a private person in such a video, but as a representative of a central department of the federal government. The SPD politician does not know what her office requires. She doesn’t think first of the soldiers, but of herself, and finds no access to the office. The CDU defense expert also accuses Lambrecht of having no plan in day-to-day business. For Chancellor Olaf Scholz there is a need for action with regard to the Ministry of Defense. There are “numerous” politicians in the SPD, such as party leader Lars Klingbeil and the military commissioner Eva Högl, who could “certainly” fill the office better.
+++ 07:21 CDU defense expert Otte criticizes Lambrecht’s New Year’s Eve video +++
The deputy chairman of the Bundestag Defense Committee, Henning Otte from the CDU, has criticized Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht for her recent video on New Year’s Eve. “With this video, the Minister of Defense lacks the necessary feeling for the security situation and the seriousness of her responsibility for the troops,” he told the editorial network Germany. In addition, there is “not a word in it about how you will adapt the combat structures of the Bundeswehr to the increased NATO requirements or what management decisions you intend to make in the new year – one year after the outbreak of war in Europe”. Otte continued: “Obviously none. That’s too little and too unambitious.”
+++ 06:57 City Day calls for more support for Ukraine refugees +++
In view of the ongoing war in Ukraine, the North Rhine-Westphalian Association of Cities is demanding clear guidelines from the state as to how many places for refugees are to be kept on site. “The state must take political responsibility and must no longer duck away,” says the state chairman of the city council, Essen’s mayor Thomas Kufen. “If the country increases its capacity to at least 70,000 admission places, we’ll get through the winter,” calculated the CDU politician. So far, the state government has announced an increase in capacity in the state reception facilities to initially 34,500 places and an unspecified further expansion. “It helps that the country is significantly expanding the number of places in its own reception facilities. But we need more speed and a big leap,” says Kufen.
+++ 06:10 Plans for the purchase of Israeli anti-aircraft missiles are progressing +++
The German government’s plans to purchase the Israeli “Arrow 3” air defense system are making progress. In the meantime, there has been a release from the USA for information to be passed on to Germany, as was explained to the German Press Agency from security circles in Berlin. It is about answering technical aspects of the weapon system, for which components are supplied from the USA. Therefore, approval from the US government is required for the sale. With the release, a significant milestone for the short-term procurement of the system has been reached, they say. The procurement of the “Arrow” system is one of the armaments projects with which Germany is reacting to the changed security situation in Europe after the Russian attack on Ukraine. The declared goal is better protection of their own country, but also of allies.
+++ 05:29 NATO target on defense spending is discussed again +++
Some of the NATO allies want to tighten the common targets for defense spending. “Some allies are determined to make the current target of 2 percent a minimum,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. There should be an agreement at the next regular NATO summit in July. The current two percent target envisages that all NATO countries approach the target of spending at least two percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense by 2024.
+++ 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 kilometers 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 been used for 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.