[Korrespondent] 23:13 In the spring, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are planning a "serious" counteroffensive, and the fighting on the front line will be "the hottest" in March, Budanov predicts. More details in the material New counterattack.
23:09 Zelensky announced successes in the Bakhmut direction: “Today I want to commend our fighters in the Bakhmut direction, in particular the special forces of the GUR Shaman, as well as the border guards of the Lugansk detachment, who, together with the fighters of the International Defense Legion of Ukraine, inflict numerous losses on the enemy and knock out the invaders from their positions on the outskirts of Bakhmut ... The invaders are constantly increasing their forces in the Donetsk region - they are doing it now. And every such day with our successes is a new proof of the madness of the very idea of attacking Ukraine. If only such news from the front can restore a sense of reality to everyone in Russia will have to ensure this as much as possible."
22:45 Zelensky said in an evening video message that France is taking European defense support to Ukraine to a new level: "We will get more armored vehicles, and in particular French-made wheeled tanks. This is what sends a clear signal to all our partners: there is no rational reason now the fact that Western-style tanks have not yet been delivered to Ukraine. Precisely before the new Ramstein, such a signal is extremely relevant."
22:29 Russia's war against Ukraine is approaching the "war of attrition" phase, both sides are at risk of shell starvation. About who has more chances in it - in the material War of attrition .
22:25 US State Department spokesperson Andrea Kalan said that Washington will provide Ukraine with new air defense systems: "Although Russia tried to sow fear and chaos on New Year's Eve, we see that the Armed Forces of Ukraine fought these attacks very effectively. We will continue to help, and we we see how the Ukrainian military effectively uses air defense systems to protect their country."
22:22 Biden confirmed that the United States is discussing the supply of American M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Bloomberg journalist Jennifer Jacobs from the White House pool said.
21:07 The United States intends to provide Ukraine with additional military assistance "in the coming days and weeks," said White House spokesman John Kirby. According to him, HIMARS installations may be included in the new assistance packages.
20:59 Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has lost 60% of the total stock of battle tanks, as well as 70% of missiles suitable for ground targets, according to a report by the commander of the EU Military Mission, Admiral Herve Blezhan. He estimates that at least 60,000 Russian troops were killed and three times as many wounded, which means that about 250,000 Russian troops are now incapable of fighting.
20:26 Speaker of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Yuriy Ignat said that it is incorrect to compare the cost of the missiles with which Ukraine shoots down Iranian drones and the drones themselves: "It is clear that the missiles that are used - NASAMS, Iris-T - are expensive missiles ... Will we to use them, will we take to the skies a fighter jet to shoot down "shaheeds"? It's expensive, but we will. It's about life, about preserving critical infrastructure and facilities that a kamikaze drone can hit." He stressed that a strike with a drone carrying up to 40 kg of explosives could cause significant damage and death.
20:23 The Russians will continue to form additional assault units in the near future and will focus their main efforts on capturing Liman, Soledar, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Maryinka, Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said, citing military intelligence. The second wave of partial mobilization in the Russian Federation is likely to begin in the first quarter of 2023.
In view of the depletion of stocks of precision-guided missiles, the Russian Federation will look for sources of missile supplies among countries friendly to the Kremlin, and will also use attack / loitering UAVs more often, Maliar added.
19:32 Zelensky said that he had a "long and detailed" conversation with Macron: "Thanked for the decision to transfer light tanks and Bastion to Ukraine, as well as for stepping up work with partners in the same direction. We agreed on further cooperation to significantly strengthen our air defense and other defense capabilities. We also agreed to work on the implementation of the peace formula."
19:07 Macron promised Zelensky that France would supply armored vehicles to Ukraine, the press service of the Elysee Palace reported.
19:01 The offensive grouping of Russian troops continues its creeping offensive in the Donetsk region. Numerous assaults on Ukrainian positions continued even on New Year's Eve, and over the first three days of the new year, the intensity of hostilities gradually increased, said Alexander Syrsky, commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
At the same time, he added that the Defense Forces managed to thwart the plans of the enemy: even in conditions of superiority in forces and means, the Russians could not fulfill the task set by their command - to capture Soledar and surround Bakhmut before December 26. And despite the fact that the enemy in the hottest sectors of the front has an advantage in armament and the military, the level of their irretrievable losses is much higher than in Ukraine.
18:53 Zelensky said that he had discussed the defense needs of Ukraine with Danish Prime Minister Matte Frederiksen, and familiarized himself in detail with the situation at the front.
18:44 The enemy is concentrating its efforts on conducting offensive operations in Limansky, Bakhmutsky and Avdeevsky and is trying to improve the tactical situation in the Kupyansky direction. On Novopavlovsky, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson - he is on the defensive. It is carrying out engineering equipment of positions and mining of the area along the left bank of the Dnieper River, the General Staff said in an evening summary.
18:02 The "acting governor" of the occupied part of the Zaporozhye region, Yevhen Balitsky, said that as a result of the shelling of Vasilyevka, five people were killed and 15 were injured.
17:37 The Russians fired mortars at the center of Bakhmut today, two people were killed, the prosecutor's office of the Donetsk region reported.
17:16 Ukraine wants the UN to send peacekeepers to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, even without Russia's consent, said the head of Energoatom Petr Kotin: "The problem is that there is no solution at the IAEA level. The process is not moving forward. We would propose to bring this problem to new level." In his opinion, peacekeeping forces will be a way to end Russian control over the ZNPP. At an internal meeting on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials will discuss how to raise the issue of peacekeepers in the Security Council, Kotin said.
16:48 Podolyak said that the Russians must not only leave Ukraine, but also must extradite war criminals: "No one will stop ... until the Russians run away from Ukraine, return to the Ukrainians the houses and apartments stolen from them in Crimea, and will not extradite the authors" SVO"/war criminals, will not learn the meaning of the concept of "international law".
16:25 In the Bakhmut direction, the border guards repelled the assault and captured the positions of the Russians with a counterattack, the State Border Service reported. The invaders, under cover of artillery, tried to capture one of the forward positions of the Ukrainian defenders, but the assault failed. During the battle, nine Russians were killed, and about 20 more were wounded. The defense forces have advanced 300 meters and are entrenched in new positions.
16:02 Zelensky said that he had a conversation with Romanian President Klaus Johannis: “We agreed on steps to further develop Ukrainian-Romanian cooperation, primarily in the defense industry. He thanked for the solidarity and support of Romania in countering Russian aggression. We discussed the formula for peace and issues on the bilateral agenda day".
15:34 Budanov said in an interview with ABC News that Ukraine is planning a serious offensive in the spring and that the fighting in March will be "the hottest": "This will happen throughout Ukraine, from Crimea to Donbass. Our goal, and we will achieve it, - this is a return to the borders of 1991, in which Ukraine is recognized by all subjects of international law." In addition, according to him, the attacks will occur "deeper and deeper" inside Russia.
Budanov also said that hundreds of corpses of Russian soldiers are "just rotting" in an open field near Bakhmut, and Russian soldiers use these piles of bodies as a shield. According to the head of the GUR, Russia no longer poses a military threat to the world, the only remaining issue is a nuclear arsenal and an "uncontrolled regime" that will make "the whole world realize the need to denuclearize Russia."
14:55 Ukraine has agreed to supply about 1,800 transformers and more than 7,000 generators with a capacity of up to 100 kV, as well as 600 generators with a capacity of more than 100 kV, Kuleba said.
14:23 The "military commandant's office" fell under Ukrainian shelling in Vasilyevka, Zaporozhye region, there are dead and wounded, said Vladimir Rogov, a representative of the "authority" of the occupied part of the region. In addition, according to him, two people died as a result of a strike on a multi-storey building in Vasilyevka.
14:08 In a number of countries, they were surprised to learn about Russia's illegal presence in the UN Security Council, Kuleba said. According to the Foreign Minister, several countries have already supported Ukraine on this issue, others have made it clear that they share this opinion, but so far they are not speaking publicly, some countries are carefully studying the situation and raising archives. "In essence, we have begun the process of delegitimization of Russia's presence in the UN Security Council," the minister said.
Kuleba added that Ukraine is preparing for the next steps in this direction. In particular, Kyiv is working not only on regular official statements, but also on a broad public campaign.
13:20 Blackouts in Ukraine and the massive use of generators will provoke an increase in food prices, warned Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky. According to him, power outages at enterprises in many cases are critical. Vysotsky predicts a price increase of 3-5%.
13:09 Electricity consumption in Ukraine is growing due to a gradual decrease in temperature and the revitalization of business after the holidays, Ukrenergo reported. Therefore, to ensure balance in the energy system, consumption limits have been brought to all regions of Ukraine, which are valid from 8:00 to 00:00.
12:57 Kuleba said that preparations for the transfer of the Patriot system to Ukraine have already begun, its deployment is expected as soon as possible.
12:33 Military intelligence of Ukraine announced the intensification of the resistance movement in Russia. So, on the night of January 4, the partisans once again stopped the movement of civilian trains and military trains on the section of the Trans-Siberian Railway near Krasnoyarsk. In 2023, this is at least the sixth case of the destruction of signaling, centralization and blocking blocks on the railway in different regions of Russia, which leads to violations in the schedules of military trains.
In 2022, about 40 such cases were recorded, as well as cases of destruction of railway transformers and locomotives. A significant activation of the rail guerrillas in Russia occurred after the announcement of partial mobilization.
11:57 Russia can prepare the next missile attack on Orthodox Christmas - January 6-7, Natalya Gumenyuk, speaker of OK Pivden, warned. At the same time, she stressed that you should be careful every day, and especially at night, because the Russians still have a supply of drones that they use at night.
11:53 The Russians have already used about 660 Iranian Shahed drones in the war against Ukraine, while the contract provides for 1750, said Vadim Skibitsky, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, in an interview with RBC-Ukraine. According to him, the next batch of deliveries is now expected: "We will still specify how much it will be. As a rule, before that they imported 250-300 pieces in batches. Let's see how it will be this time."
11:36 The Russians can now produce about 30 X-101 missiles per month, Kalibrov - 15-20 per month, Vadim Skibitsky, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine. They had about 60 calibers left in stock. “This, by the way, explains why a lot of fragments of missiles manufactured in 2022, in particular in the third quarter, are now being found. This suggests that they go to the troops immediately after production,” he explained.
In general, according to the regulatory documents of the Russian Federation, the strategic reserve should be 30% of the entire stock of missiles, Skibitsky noted: “But they have already passed this reserve for all types of missiles: for Iskanders, for Caliber, for Kh-101, Kh-555. That is, their stocks are already less than 30%. This indicates that it is really a problem for them to replenish their stocks.
As for the Daggers, according to the representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate, there are not so many of them in Russia: “If they shoot them too, then there will simply be nothing to frighten the world with. They are now using daggers to demonstrate and intimidate that they have such weapons that no one will not be able to shoot down. Accordingly, by doing this they maintain tension in terms of the possibility of using these weapons not only against us, but also against other European countries."
According to Skibitsky, the Russians are now preparing missiles for the next massive strike. Probably due to the lack of missiles, they will combine means to maintain the pace of strikes against infrastructure facilities.
10:55 Governor of the Rostov region Vasily Golubev commented on the information about the explosions that local residents heard on the evening of January 3. According to him, the air defense system went off 7 km from the village of Sultan Sala in the Myasnikovsky district. At an altitude of 2.5 km, "a small object in the form of a ball was found, which flew freely in the wind. A decision was made to eliminate it."
10:27 The invaders are gradually turning the seaport of Mariupol into a military base, said Petr Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of the city. So, at the end of December, all Mariupol residents (with the exception of individual collaborators) were fired from the port and workers from Russia were brought in. Work has begun on dividing the berths into conditionally civilian and military ones. Single non-system calls to the port of ships with building materials and containers of unknown content are recorded.
Andryushchenko also said that part of the workers from Mariupol were "seconded" to the Crimea, after which communication with them disappeared. Male residents of Mariupol who wished to obtain a Russian passport are now required to register with the military and are subject to mobilization without any exceptions.
10:03 In the Kherson region over the past day, as a result of Russian shelling, two people were killed, five more were injured, the head of the OVA, Yaroslav Yanushevich, said.
09:28 The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believes that Prigozhin is trying to shift the responsibility for the failures in Bakhmut to the Russian Defense Ministry. In particular, he recently stated that the Wagnerites cannot break through the Ukrainian defenses in Bakhmut, since every house in the city has become a "fortress." This is a significant turnaround for Prigozhin, analysts say, and the first time he has acknowledged that the Wagner PMC in Bakhmut has not actually been successful.
In addition, Wagner mercenaries told Prigozhin that they were unable to break through the Ukrainian positions in Bakhmut due to insufficient armor, ammunition and 100mm shells. The purpose of this statement is to remove personal responsibility from PMCs Wagner and Prigozhin, attributing their failure to capture Bakhmut to broader problems of Russian resource allocation, experts say.
09:23 British intelligence believes that the incident with the mass destruction of Russian troops in Makeevka underlines the unprofessional actions of the Russian army. Analysts recalled that as a result of the Ukrainian attack on the vocational school building in Makiivka, it was completely destroyed. Given the extent of the damage, there is a real possibility that munitions were stored near the troop quarters and detonated on impact, causing secondary explosions. At the same time, the building is located just 12.5 km from the Avdiyivka sector of the front, which is one of the hottest spots of the conflict.
The Russian military already had a history of hazardous ammunition storage long before the current war, but this incident highlights how unprofessional actions lead to a high level of casualties among Russian military personnel, intelligence notes.
09:10 In the Donetsk region over the past day, as a result of enemy shelling, one civilian was killed - in Kurakhovo. Five more people were injured in the region, Pavel Kirilenko, head of the OVA, said.
08:45 The General Staff announced the approximate losses of the enemy as of the morning of January 4.
- personnel - about 108,910 (+720) people liquidated,
- tanks - 3038 (+2),
- armored combat vehicles - 6106 (+6),
- artillery systems - 2039 (+6),
- MLRS - 424 (+0),
- air defense systems - 215 (+1),
- aircraft - 283 (+0),
- helicopters - 270 (+0),
- UAV operational-tactical level - 1842 (+3),
- cruise missiles - 723 (+0),
- ships/boats - 16 (+0),
- automotive equipment and tankers - 4745 (+10),
- special equipment - 181 (+0).
08:33 The "Governor" of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said that two drones were allegedly shot down near the Belbek airfield.
08:21 The invaders are focusing their efforts on conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut and are trying to improve the tactical position of their troops in the Kupyansky, Limansky and Avdeevsky directions. In the Novopavlovsk, Zaporozhye and Kherson directions, the enemy is on the defensive, the General Staff said in a morning report .
Over the past day, units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine repelled the attacks of the invaders in the areas of the settlements of Stelmakhovka and Belogorovka in the Lugansk region and Soledar, Krasnaya Gora, Bakhmut, Mayorsk, Maryinka, Novomikhailovka, Pobeda and Krasnogorovka in the Donetsk region.
The defeat of the enemy was confirmed on January 2 in the areas of the settlements of Tokmak, Melitopol, Berdyansk, Pologi and Vasilyevka of the Zaporozhye region: two ammunition depots were destroyed, up to ten pieces of military equipment of various types, two occupiers' deployment points were hit, up to 260 military personnel were liquidated and wounded.
06:16 The Ukrainian military to repel Russian attacks with drones are forced to use missiles, which are much more expensive than the drones themselves, writes The New York Times. So, using a missile to shoot down a drone costs seven times more than launching one. Such an imbalance over time could benefit Russia and cost Ukraine and its allies dearly.
04:26 Ukraine managed to create an inexpensive version of the MacGyver virtual combat control system, which the Pentagon has spent decades developing, writes The Wall Street Journal. The improvised Ukrainian network of drones, fighter jets and weapons linked via satellite communications and special software gives the Armed Forces of Ukraine an advantage in intelligence , coordination and accuracy compared to the Russian army.
03:53 Putin, by his decree, ordered the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation to show documentaries about the war in Ukraine and about "the fight against the spread of neo-Nazi and neo-fascist ideology" in cinemas.
03:26 The United States held talks with Israel on the possibility of stopping the leakage of weapons from Iran, including the supply of kamikaze drones to the Russian Federation, said US State Department spokesman Ned Price. According to him, Washington is using existing leverage to prevent Tehran from implementing schemes for the supply of weapons abroad. "The United States is aligning its approach with allies and partners around the world to stop the flow of military technology from Iran to Russia, as well as other rogue states," the State Department spokesman added.
00:38 The Russians attacked Zaporozhye neighborhoods with missiles. As a result of the impact, a fire broke out at a civilian infrastructure facility. According to preliminary data, one person was injured. Residential buildings located nearby were also affected, said the head of the OVA Alexander Starukh.
00:22 The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced that the death toll in Makiivka of the Russian military has grown to 89 , among the dead is the deputy commander of the regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Bachurin. The department said that the Russian military allegedly destroyed the HIMARS launcher, from which Ukrainian troops hit Makiivka, with return fire. And as a result of strikes on Druzhkovka, four more HIMARS launchers were allegedly destroyed.
The Russian Defense Ministry called the main reason for the death of Russian servicemen in Makeevka "massive use by personnel in spite of the ban on mobile phones", which "allowed the enemy to locate and determine the coordinates of the location of servicemen for launching a missile strike." As a result of the investigation, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation promised to bring the guilty officials to justice. Also, the department "takes the necessary measures to exclude similar tragic incidents in the future."