Summary: Russia continued its reign of terror over the skies of Ukraine launching 135 drones and 107 missiles at Ukraine over the last two days. Fifteen innocent civilians were killed as their homes and apartments were targeted, and another 137 suffered injuries.
Sloboda Front – Initiative Russia – Current Target: Recapture Kupyansk
Russian forces claimed to have advanced near Synkivka and captured an unspecified position on the left bank of the Oskil River. This has not been confirmed.
Siversky Donets Front – Initiative Russia – Current Targets: Zherebets River, Siversk, Spirne, Khromove, Bohdanivka, and Ivanivske
Zherebets River – Russian forces have made confirmed advances west of Karmazynivka and Ploshchanka which lie along the front half-way between Svatove and Kreminna.
Around Bakhmut – Russian forces have made confirmed advances in the northern and eastern outskirts of Bohdanivka (4.5 miles W of Bakhmut) and have advanced north of Kurdyumivka (9 miles S of Bakhmut) towards Andriivka (7 miles S of Bakhmut).
Donetsk Front – Initiative Russia – Current Targets: Avdiivka, Pervomaiske, & Novomykhailivka
No confirmed or claimed advances were made in this sector over the last two days.
Zaporizhia Front – Initiative Russia – Target: Recapture Robotyne
No confirmed or claimed advances were made in this sector over the last two days.
Left Bank Front – Initiative Russia – Current Target: Recapture Krynky
No confirmed or claimed advances were made in this sector over the last two days.
Monday, January 1
Russia claimed that Ukrainian forces fired artillery and mortars at the Palace hotel in occupied Donetsk killing four civilians and injuring 13. Ukraine did not take credit for the attack. Video was released of the damage though. The attack is highly suspicious as Ukraine does not attack such targets. Several Russian journalists and milbloggers were staying there and it may have been a strike by Russian forces to silence some of the milbloggers who have been critical of the Russian Defense Ministry.
Putin promised to intensify drone and missile attacks on Ukraine in retaliation for the alleged Saturday drone attack on Belgorod, Russia, which Russia claimed killed 25 civilians and injured 109 others. Ukraine has not taken credit for that attack. True to his word, Russia launched 100 drones at southern and western Ukraine, with Ukrainian air defense systems intercepting a record 87 drones. Three drones hit three skyscraper apartment buildings in Odesa killing one teenager. A man who ran outside to save his dog was injured. Another man was killed from falling debris that hit several apartment buildings and homes causing fires. Debris also fell on Kyiv damaging four homes and four cars.
Lviv lost two heritage sites that honored two World War II partisan commanders who fought against Russian occupiers – Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych.
A drone hit a two-story residential building in Sumy killing two people and injuring another. The casualty toll may rise as they sift through the rubble.
In addition to the drone attacks, Russia launched eight missiles on Kharkiv. And closer to the front, settlements were bombarded with artillery, mortar, and rocket attacks. An elderly man in Pivdenne (17 miles south of Bakhmut) and another man was killed in Kupyansk. Along the Kherson front, an elderly woman was killed and another injured in the village of Veletenske (11.5 miles downriver from Kherson). Three elderly people in the villages of Novokairy (just west of Kherson) and Komyshany (53 miles upstream from Kherson) were also injured.
As workers continue to clear the rubble from last Friday’s massive attack, another five bodies were found in Kyiv raising the death toll to 28 in Kyiv alone. This makes it the largest number of civilian casualties caused by a single attack in Kyiv since the start of the renewed Russian invasion in 2022. It also raises the death toll around the nation to 49 from all attacks last Friday.
During a press interview while visiting a military hospital, Russian President Vladimir Putin shared that Russia is not at war with Ukraine, as Ukraine is Russian territory, but is at war with its enemies in the West, and Ukraine is just the first step in the defeat of the West. In other words, Ukraine is the only one fighting to defend the West now.
President Zelensky and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussed security of Ukraine over a phone call. Zelensky thanked Trudeau for the air defense systems they had delivered to Ukraine allowing them to intercept a record 87 drones in one day.
Norway’s Defense Ministry, acknowledging that the weaponry donated by the West is not enough to defend Ukraine, has loosened their export rules imposed on their commercial defense industry that allows them to sell weaponry directly to the Ukrainian government.
Tuesday, January 2
The day barely began when Russian shelling of Kherson caused the death of a woman sleeping in her home. Drones and missiles were again launched at Kyiv and Kharkiv in the early morning hours and throughout the day. A total of 35 drones and 99 missiles were launched. Ukrainian air defense did a commendable job shooting down all the drones and 72 of the missiles, but there were just too many and innocent civilians suffered. With the US ending its supply of air defense systems, Ukraine will soon be at the complete mercy of this monster.
A total of five innocent civilians were killed while sleeping and another 130 injured. One woman was killed instantly as a missile struck a multi-story apartment building in Kyiv, and the other died later in the hospital. Missile debris caused damage in Kyiv falling on residential buildings, shopping centers, and warehouses, but there were no casualties. Also struck were energy infrastructure leaving 260,000 residents of Kyiv without power and heat in the midst of a cold winter. In Kharkiv, one woman was killed, and another 41 people were injured, with 17 of them being hospitalized. A school was also attacked but was unoccupied at the time. The following pictures are the results of the US cutting off its support of Ukraine leaving our skies defenseless. I hope Americans had a wonderful New Years because we surely did not.
Russia also launched two bombs against a residential building in Orikhiv, from which the Ukrainian counteroffensive along the Zaporizhian Front was launched, injuring an elderly woman.
Artillery, mortar, and rocket attacks against frontline cities along the Donetsk Front killed two civilians in the city of Chasiv Yar (7.5 miles W of Bakhmut) and another civilian was killed in Krasnohorivka (4.5 miles N of recently captured Marinka).
Ukrainians were not the only victims of the attacks today. A Russian bomber was forced to make an “emergency” release of its ordinances over the Russian village of Petropavlovka, Voronezh Oblast, damaging seven homes. Fortunately and amazingly no one was hurt as at least one home was completely destroyed.
President Zelensky held a phone call with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak about the needs to bolster Ukraine’s air defense systems after 500 missiles were launched over the last five days alone.
The latest attacks have created fear amongst countries who feel they are the next victims of Russia. Lithuania and Latvia made an international appeal to provide Ukraine with more air defense systems, and Poland scrambled their F-16s to defend their own airspace. The EU denounced the attacks as well.
The Ukrainian Parliament officially rejected the draft law submitted by the Ukraine Ministry of Defense as reported last week. The main issue was the unconstitutional suspension of constitutional rights on citizens who dodge the draft. The Parliament will begin working on their own proposal.
After a Panamanian ship hits Russian mines in the Black Sea, the UK dispatched to mine hunting ships to clear the shipping lanes, but Turkey refused them entrance through the Turkish Straits as is their policy during times of war.
Over 19,000 children from occupied regions have been forcefully removed from Ukraine to Russia. One of the most notable is the Group of 31 which made international news after Russia had captured Mariupol and deported the 31 children hidden under the city protected by the last remaining Ukrainian soldiers. Many of these children were adopted by Russian families, but most were placed in Russian orphanages. The deportation of any children from a war zone is a war crime. Oleksandr Naumkin, who was 17 at the time, was one of those children placed in an orphanage. Today he became the sixth of the Group of 31 who have been returned to Ukraine under international pressure.
