This is the live blog from Monday January 9, read the latest updates in our live blog Tuesday January 10 | The British are considering selling tanks to Ukraine
Ukraine expects EU to sanction Rosatom
14:07 | Kiev expects the European Union to include Russian state energy company Rosatom in the next round of sanctions, says Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
In a conversation with European Commissioner Frans Timmermans, he indicated that Russia’s nuclear energy sector should also be punished for invading Ukraine ten months ago.
Especially as Russia has owned Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant since March, and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree in October that operation of the plant will be transferred from Ukraine’s Energoatom to a subsidiary of Russia’s Rosatom.
Germany does not send Leopard tanks to Ukraine
12:40 | A German government spokesman said there were currently no plans to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Robert Habeck, Germany’s economy minister, said yesterday that Berlin cannot rule out supplying Leopard tanks – which are heavier fighting vehicles than Marders – to support Ukrainian forces in the future.
Habeck has previously said the country should send “all operational Marders” to Ukraine after announcing that Germany will ramp up military support to Kiev by supplying about 40 Marders.
Kremlin: Western arms shipments prolong Ukrainian suffering
11:45 am | New deliveries of Western arms to Kiev “would aggravate the suffering of the Ukrainian people” and would not change the course of the conflict, the Kremlin said on Monday.
As Ukraine seeks heavier weapons and anti-aircraft defenses from Western allies, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters at a daily briefing: “This delivery will not be able to change anything,” according to Reuters.
The Kremlin today also rejected a Ukrainian claim that a senior Russian official pitched the idea of a possible peace deal on Ukraine to European officials.
Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov told the country’s public broadcaster, according to Reuters, that Dmitry Kozak, deputy head of Russia’s presidential administration, has met with European officials in a bid to coerce Kiev, according to him , to sign an unfavorable peace agreement. When asked about Danilov’s claim, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was “another forgery”.
Ukraine sends additional troops to Bachmut area
10:15 am | Ukraine is sending additional troops to the east of the country, where, according to Kiev, the army is constantly fighting off Russian attacks on, among other things, the town of Bachmut. The Russian mercenary company Wagner Group has been trying to take Bachmoet for months.
The Ukrainian military reports on Monday morning that there have been more than 100 attacks in one day. Reinforcements have been sent to Soledar, a small village near Bachmut. According to the Ukrainian military, the situation is particularly difficult. Another attempt was made to take Soledar from different directions.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said in his daily video message on Sunday that Bachmoet and Soleder are able to hold their ground despite attacks on these places. He described the area between the two cities as “one of the bloodiest on the front”.
Russian missiles hit Kharkiv market region
10:10 am | A 60-year-old woman has been killed and several others injured in a Russian rocket attack on a market in the village of Shevchenkove in eastern Ukraine. Seven civilians were injured in the shooting, including a 13-year-old girl. Images are circulating on Twitter of a market in the Kharkov region allegedly hit by a Russian missile.
Putin is turning this into a Great Patriotic War
10:05 am | The Christmas truce announced by Russian President Putin, which no one else joined, was above all a symbolic announcement. That’s what retired lieutenant general and former army commander Mart de Kruif says. «The truce is for the stage and the stage is its own people. Putin is turning this into a Great Patriotic War.’
Russia bans maps that are not in line with official territorial integrity
07:10 | The Russian government has banned maps that challenge the country’s official “territorial integrity” as extremist material, Reuters reported.
The Russian government is backing a change to the law that would classify maps that challenge the country’s official “territorial integrity” as criminal extremist material. This was reported by the British newspaper The Guardian on the basis of what was reported by the Russian state news agency TASS.
The amendment to Russia’s anti-extremism law stipulates that “cartographic and other documents and images that question Russia’s territorial integrity” will be classified as extremist material, the agency said.
The new change, TASS reports without citing sources, came after its authors pointed out that some maps distributed in Russia dispute the “territorial affinity” of Crimea and the Kurel Islands.
Russia annexed Crimea to Ukraine in 2014, a move that Ukraine and many other countries consider illegal. Russia and Japan did not formally end World War II hostilities due to their stalemate on a group of islands off the coast of Japan’s northernmost island, Hokkaido. The Soviet Union captured these islands – known in Russia as the Kuril Islands and in Japan as the Northern Territories – at the end of the war.
This is the state of affairs on day 320 of the war:
Bachmoth
Ukrainian troops are repelling continued attacks on Bachmut in the eastern Donbass region and are holding their positions in nearby Soledar under difficult conditions, according to Volodimir Zelensky. The Ukrainian president said in his video speech on Sunday evening: “Bachmut is resisting in spite of everything. And even though most of the city has been destroyed by Russian attacks, our soldiers continue to resist Russian attempts to advance. Soledar resists, even if there are even greater devastations and it is very difficult.’
Kramatorsk
Russia says it has killed more than 600 Ukrainian soldiers in a “retaliatory attack” on the eastern city of Kramatorsk, but Ukrainian forces deny it. The mayor of the town, near the frontline town of Bachmoet, said there were no deaths in the attacks over the weekend, while a witness told Reuters on Sunday that buildings were damaged but not destroyed and there they were obvious signs of casualties. .
Zelensky denounced Russia’s failure to comply with the 36-hour ceasefire declared for Orthodox Christmas by launching attacks on Ukrainian cities, he said.
Exercises
Russia and Belarus have expanded their joint military exercises in Belarus, the country’s defense channel said on Sunday, as concerns grow that Moscow is pressuring its closest ally to join the war in Ukraine. The two countries have added weapons, soldiers and specialized equipment to the exercises, Reuters reported.
Top British politicians are calling for a special tribunal to investigate Russia for a “crime of aggression” against Ukraine.
The Russian government is backing a bill that would classify maps that challenge the country’s official “territorial integrity” as criminal extremist material, Reuters and Russia’s state-run Tass news agency reported yesterday.
About 50 Ukrainian soldiers who were released from Russian captivity on Sunday in a prisoner exchange posed for a photo upon their release.