UAF – Ukrainian Forces
UAS – According to Ukrainian Sources
RF – Russian Forces
RS – According to Russian Sources
Summary of the Events
RF may have scored the only victory in taking Pidhorodne, but it was confirmed that UAF are still in Soledar.
Eastern Ukraine: (Eastern Kharkiv and Western Luhansk Oblast – UAF Counter-offensive)
Kupyansk – RF are trying to improve their position in the Kupyansk direction whereas UAF counterattacked at Senkivka.
Svatove – RF were repelled from assaults on Stelmakhivka and Novoselivske. Russian engineers have arrived in Svatove to examine the potential of blowing up a dam in a nearby reservoir to slow down UAF advances.
Kreminna – RF attempted assaults near Makiyivka, Dibrova, and Bilohorivka. UAF are operating assault groups in the Serebrianka Forest SW of Kreminna.
Donetsk Oblast: (Russia’s Main Objective)
Soledar – RS claim that RF have now reached Rozdolivka which is four miles NW of Soledar. Even if that were true, RF are still a long way from effectively encircling Bakhmut. To accomplish this, RF must establish control over the T0513 Siversky-Bakhmut highway and reach the E40 Slovyansk-Bakhmut highway. Since RF are only moving on average a thousand feet a day, it will be a long time before they accomplish that. And even if they were to accomplish this, UAF would still have roads to supply troops in Bakhmut.
Satellite information confirms that RF have advanced into Soledar, but that UAF are still in control of most of the city. RS also claim that RF are fighting on the streets of Soledar, Krasna Hora, Krasnopillya, Blahodatne, Rozdolivka, and Vesele, and have captured Pidhorodne. All of this is not confirmed, but likely based on what is happening in Soledar. A journalist posted a geolocated image of him in front of the Soledar salt mine proving UAF still hold the northwest portion of Soledar. UAS deny they are withdrawing from Soledar and claim they have repelled all Russian attacks.
Bakhmut – Geolocated footage also confirms that RF have advanced into Klishchiivka (4 miles SW). UAS reported that they repelled RF assaults on Klishchiivka and Ozerianivka. Drone footage shows the corpses of RF strewn over the battlefield around Bakhmut showing the large loss of attrition over the operation to take Bakhmut.
Avdiivka – RF may be trying to bypass Avdiivka’s strong defenses and attack Pervomaiskyi instead. UAS confirmed that RF are attacking Pervomaiskyi but are being repulsed. RF were also repelled in assaults near Marinka and Pobieda. RF repelled UAF assaults on Krasnohorivka and Heorhiivka, but it shows that UAF are no longer just on defense in the Donetsk theater.
Southern Ukraine: (Eastern Kherson, Southern Zaporizhia, and Western Donetsk)
Despite President’s Putin call for a unilateral ceasefire, RF continue shelling west of Hulyaipole, and along the Dnipro River in Western Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk Oblasts. A Russian drone was shot down over Kamianske in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
RF continue to establish control over the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) by forcing nearly half of the employees to obtain Russian passports. Russia is not having as much fortune forcing ZNPP to sign employee contracts with the Russian company Rosatom who has taken over control of the plant. Less than 2% have signed the contract.
RS claim that RF shot down a Ukrainian drone over Sevastopol, Crimea where Russia’s Black Sea fleet is stationed.
Belarus
There has been no evidence of a Russian strike force forming in Belarus which would be necessary for an invasion of Ukraine from Belarus.
Russian Mobilization
Estonian intelligence reported that a printer in Krasnodar Krai has received an order for 5000 mobilization call-up slips supporting the belief that Russia is preparing for a second mobilization. Ukrainian intelligence reports that Russia is planning on mobilizing another 500,000 troops, but this time will have to turn to residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg and risk large protests.
Russia has never stopped their first mobilization drive and has been building up territorial defense forces under a false fear that Ukraine may attempt to invade Russia. These troops are obviously being trained to join in the war on Ukraine territory.
Russia is planning on imposing a one-time business tax to raise funds to conduct the war and fill a hole in the national budget.
Russian military leadership continues to struggle over low morale of their troops. A video was posted of mobilized troops from Belgorod Oblast asking to go home claiming they are being used as cannon fodder. Soldiers of the 568th Howitzer Artillery Battalion released a video complaining that they have been assigned to the Donetsk People’s Republic 1st Army Corps as infantryman for which they have never been trained. And several Russian soldiers on training exercises in Belarus have escaped and are hiding somewhere in Minsk.
A Russian military recruiting center in Rostov-On-Don was set on fire by Russian teenagers using Molotov cocktails.
Life in Occupied Ukraine
Russian occupation authorities transported 300 Ukrainian children from Luhansk Oblast to Moscow under guise of medical treatments on Saturday. Teachers are being paid bribes to provide the authorities with lists of children for medical examinations.
Russian occupation authorities are collecting data on all movements of civilians within occupied territory. All movement must be registered including the identity of anyone being visited.
Russian occupation authorities have eradicated the Ukrainian hryvna as currency in Enerhodar by threatening heavy fines and the confiscation of property. Ukrainian citizens continue to be forcibly evacuated from Enerhodar, which houses the ZNPP, and then their property is confiscated by the Russian occupation authorities.
All Ukrainian television stations once broadcasting in Melitopol and Pryazovsk have been taken over by Russian-language programming. Remember, one of the reasons Russia claimed they had the right to invade was that Ukraine was suppressing the Russian language. But that was not true as the Russian language is protected as one of the national languages. But Russia is suppressing the Ukrainian language.
An internet chatbot has been created in the occupied territories to encourage local residents to identify Ukrainian partisans operating in Melitopol.
Other News
Russia conducted an information operation on January 7 showing Ukrainian soldiers in uniform attending Christmas services in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra which Ukraine recently took away from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) and turned over to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The message is that the heretical UOC has declared war on the Russian Orthodox Church with whom the UOC-MP is subservient. But the truth is that the Ukrainian government has not interfered with either church celebrating Christmas on January 7 and removed control of the Lavra from the UOC-MP because they were supporting Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Russia has used up over 80% of their strategic missiles they had at the beginning of the renewed conflict. And the number of new missiles produced has not increased in intensity which shows that Russia did not plan well for the invasion and thought it would be over soon. Their factories have still not been retrofitted for large-scale production of weaponry. Russia has also depleted nearly 90% of the drones they received from Iran but will soon receive another 1000.
Russia and Ukraine had another military prisoner exchange. Fifty Ukrainian soldiers, thirty-three of them officers, returned home.