This live blog from CNBC on the progress in the war in Ukraine on January 4, 2023. See the latest updates here.
Russia is surprised as the death toll rises following a Ukrainian attack on one of its military compounds in Makiivka, a city in the partially Russian-occupied Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry said last Tuesday that the number of servicemen killed in the attack, which took place on New Year’s Eve, had risen to 89. Ukrainian and elsewhere resources say the real death toll is much higher.
Russia blamed unauthorized cellphone use for the attack, saying it allowed Ukraine to locate and beat its staff, though that explanation also questioned.
Ukraine has not noticed a respite in the war that will begin in 2023. Russia has hit the country with relentless moves since New Year’s Eve in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called an attempt by Moscow to “exhaust” his country with protracted offensives.
Ukraine’s president said late Tuesday that his country is in a position to launch new Russian offensives and said Moscow would “throw everything it has left” into the war.
Australia announced on Thursday that it would improve its defense functions by spending more than a billion Australian dollars ($700 million) on complex new rocket and missile systems, adding the US-made HIMARS that have been used effectively by the Ukrainian military.
In Ukraine, truck-mounted cellular HIMARS have proven to allow Ukrainian forces to reach key targets, adding a recent attack on a solitary construction that killed at least 89 Russian soldiers.
The Australian government said HIMARS it bought included launchers, missiles and educational rockets and would be in use until 2026. He said the formula has an existing diversity of 300 kilometers (186 miles), which is expected to increase with technological advances.
He said he had also signed a contract with Norwegian company Kongsberg to buy naval strike missiles for the navy’s destroyers and frigates, which would upgrade old Harpoon anti-ship missiles starting next year.
In recent years, Australia and the United States have become increasingly involved in developing China’s assertiveness in the Pacific.
– Associated Press
The Serbian president said the European Union’s calls for his country to sign sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine constitute “brutal” interference in the internal affairs of the Balkan state, which it has implemented to join the EU.
In his year-end address to the nation, Aleksandar Vucic praised his economic and political achievements and those of his country, comparing himself to a wolf that is domesticated under foreign pressure.
“Thank you so much for interfering in our affairs in such a brutal way,” he said, referring to Western appeals.
Despite officially seeking EU membership, Serbia has ignored calls to align its foreign policy with the 27-nation bloc, adding to join foreign sanctions opposing Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
EU member states are suggesting that the club candidacy of Serbia be suspended until it is in line with the bloc’s foreign policy.
– Associated Press
U. S. President Joe Biden said sending Bradley combat vehicles to Ukraine was thought to help Ukrainians fight the Russian invasion.
“Yes,” Biden replied when asked if the option was on the table.
— Reuters
Russia says Moscow’s war in Ukraine is an anti-NATO combat and that Western countries are “a bunch of BS,” a spokesman for Biden’s management said.
“This is a Russian invasion of Ukraine,” the spokesman for the U. S. National Security Council said. U. S. S. John Kirby. ” And Russia is the one that started. Russia is the one that inflicted large-scale violence against the Ukrainian people. “
Kirby added that the U. S. “will continue to supply [Ukraine] with the types of systems and assistance it wishes to protect,” adding the coveted High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.
—Jacob Pramuk
According to a senior US administration official, heavy fighting around the largely ruined and Ukrainian-controlled city of Bakhmut is likely to persist for the foreseeable future, with the final results doubtful as the Russians have made slow progress.
— Reuters
Kherson police said local citizens were held in cells and rooms for days, tortured with electricity and batons and forced to write patriotic texts in Russian. Kherson is the only regional capital captured through Russia since the invasion, and Ukraine liberated it last year.
— Pierre Crom | fake images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron had a “long and detailed conversation” about efforts for Ukraine’s defenses against Russian attacks.
“We have agreed on further cooperation in particular for our air defense and other defense capabilities,” Zelenskyy said in a message on his Telegram channel.
France and other European countries have funneled aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor last year. Zelenskyy has advocated air defenses as Russia hits his country with missile strikes.
—Jacob Pramuk
The Russian-appointed governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region said a Ukrainian attack on the Russian-occupied city of Vasilyevka left five dead and 15 wounded, according to an NBC News translation.
—Jacob Pramuk
The Czech Republic has approved a bill for defense spending to return to NATO’s target of 2% of gross domestic product as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues.
Defense Minister Jana Cernochova said the move would “ensure sound investment for primary strategic defense projects in the future. “
Cernochova said the war in Ukraine “has made it clear that we will have to be in a position for existing and long-lasting conflicts and that is why an immediate modernization of the army is surely necessary. “
Although Czechs will spend 1. 52% of GDP on defense this year, the 2% target is expected to be reached in 2024 once the bill is approved in parliament, where the ruling coalition has majorities in both chambers.
NATO members agreed in 2014 to dedicate themselves to the 2% spending target until 2024. Currently, nine of the 30 members of the Western army alliance meet or exceed this goal.
– Associated Press
Ukraine’s efforts to increase exports under the Black Sea grain deal with Russia are lately focused on getting ships inspected faster than adding more ports to the initiative, a senior Ukrainian official said.
Ukraine is one of the world’s top grain producers and exporters, but production and exports have fallen since Russia invaded the country last February and began blocking its seaports.
Three major Ukrainian Black Sea ports in the Odessa region were unblocked in July as part of a move between Moscow and Kyiv negotiated through the United Nations and Turkey. According to the agreement, all ships are jointly inspected on the Bosphorus.
Kyiv accuses Russia of wearing down inspections too slowly, causing weeks of ship delays and cutting off the source of Ukrainian grain to foreign markets. Russia has denied slowing down the process.
— Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday sent a frigate to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans armed with new Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles that he said were in the world.
In a video convention with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Igor Krokhmal, commander of the frigate dubbed “Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov,” Putin said he would send it armed with hypersonic zircon weapons.
“This time, the shipment is supplied with the newest hypersonic missile formula, ‘Zircon,’ which has no analogues,” said Putin, who is involved in a confrontation with the West over its war in Ukraine.
“I would like to wish good fortune to the ship’s team in their service for the good of the motherland. “
Shoigu the Gorshkov would sail to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea.
“This ship, armed with ‘Zircons,’ is capable of launching precise and hard movements against the enemy at sea and on land,” Shoigu said.
Shoigu said hypersonic missiles, known as Tsirkon or Zircon, can defeat any missile defense system. The missiles fly at nine times the speed of sound and have a diversity of more than 1,000 km, Shoigu said.
Russia, China and the United States are immersed lately in a hypersonic arms race. Due to their speed (more than five times the speed of sound) and maneuverability, those weapons are considered an advantage for any opponent.
The target of a hypersonic weapon is much more complicated to calculate than that of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
— Reuters
The port of Mariupol is being converted into a military base, according to an adviser to the mayor of the occupied city.
“The occupiers are turning it into a military base,” Petro Andriushchenko said on Telegram.
“At the end of December, the entire population of Mariupol was liberated from the port (except for some specialist-collaborators) and brought from Moscow. It has begun to divide the berths into conventional civil and military berths,” he said.
Andriushchenko said the port had noticed remote and abnormal arrivals of ships wearing fabrics of structure and boxes of unknown contents. He also noted that some of the port staff were transferred to Crimea in December and that contact with them was lost and their relatives did not know their whereabouts. CNBC was unable to determine the claims.
Mariupol occupied entirely through Russian forces last May following a prolonged siege with Ukrainian fighters holed up in the city’s Azovstal metal factories. Russia’s relentless bombardment of the city until its capture left much of it in ruins.
—Holly Ellyatt
The head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions around Bakhmut it remains intense and difficult.
“Heavy fighting” is positioning itself between Svatove and Kreminna in Luhansk, as well as towards Lysychansk, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhny, said on Telegram on Tuesday.
He said the most complicated scenario remains in the region of Soledar, Bakhmut and Mayorsk, where “the Russian army seeks to advance through their corpses, but the sets of the Defense Forces are slowing the advance,” Zaluzhny said on Telegram, according to Google. Translation of your comments.
Bakhmut has been the epicenter of a war of attrition for several months, with Russian forces gaining little ground in their attempt to capture the city, which analysts say has little overall strategy for Russia.
Despite this, Russia continues to spend weapons and manpower on its offensive operation in the pocket of Donetsk, which is part of the wider Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, which Moscow says it must “liberate. “
Zaluzhny Ukraine continues to occupy positions around Avdiivka in the Donetsk region and continues its counter-offensive actions.
“We reliably maintain the defensive lines in the direction of Zaporozhzhia and strive to protect Kherson from enemy bombardment,” he said. The scenario on the border with Russia’s ally, Belarus, is completely under control, he added.
—Holly Ellyatt
According to Ukrainian officials, a missile strike in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia targeted infrastructure, destroying nearby warehouses and damaging apartment buildings.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s workplace, said Wednesday on Telegram that a user was wounded in the rocket attack in the city. He said Russian forces had used S-300 missiles, according to a Google translation of his comments. Tymoshenko’s message contained photographs and video footage purportedly showing destruction after the attack.
Anatoliy Kurtev, the acting mayor of Zaporizhzhia, suggested the city’s citizens take cover, saying on Telegram the day before that Russian forces were “on the defensive” in the Zaporizhzhia region. He said 8 high-rise buildings were destroyed in the attack.
“According to initial information, 8 high-rise buildings broke down in one of the city’s neighborhoods. . . Their windows were blown off and their balconies destroyed. In addition, the construction of the kindergarten was broken. There too, the windows were broken and the roof partially broken,” he said on Telegram.
More data on the attack is still being prepared, officials said. CNBC could not immediately confirm the data.
—Holly Ellyatt
Britain’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that the munitions are likely to be stored near a Russian army compound that was destroyed in a Ukrainian attack on New Year’s Eve, highlighting the Russian military’s harmful and unprofessional practices.
The Russian Defense Ministry said 89 Russian servicemen were killed in the attack on the building that served as a school and transitional accommodation for newly enlisted soldiers. saying it allowed Ukraine to target the location.
The British Defense Ministry said on Twitter that Ukraine had completely destroyed the construction of a school in Makiivka in Donetsk “that Russia had almost recovered for military purposes. “
“Given the extent of the damage, there is a realistic option that the munitions were stored near troop accommodations, which exploded the attack and created secondary explosions. “
He noted that the construction is only 7. 7 miles from the Avdiivka segment of the front line, “one of the most intensely contested spaces of the conflict. “
“The Russian military has a record of unsafe ammunition storage long before the existing war, yet this incident highlights how unprofessional practices contribute to Russia’s highest casualty rate,” the UK Ministry of Defence added.
—Holly Ellyatt
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Tuesday that Kyiv is in position for new offensives and Russia’s mobilization.
Zelenskyy said on Telegram that he spoke Tuesday with his counterparts in Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Norway, and the verbal exchange focused on “what Ukraine wants the most at the moment, on the eve of those new mobilization processes ready through the terrorist organization. “Express. “
“Right now, this is the time when, in combination with our partners, we want our defense. We have no doubt that Russia’s master suppliers will throw away all that they have left, and everything they can will have to lose, in an attempt to turn the tide of the war and at least maintain their defeat. We will have to disrupt this Russian scenario. We are preparing for it,” Zelenskyy said, adding that “any attempt at his new offensive will have to fail. “. “
—Holly Ellyatt
Russia is shocked as the death toll rises following a Ukrainian attack on newly recruited infantrymen in Makiivka, a city in Russia’s partially occupied eastern Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry said last Tuesday that the death toll from the attack, which took place on New Year’s Eve, had risen to 89, according to data from Russian state news agencies.
In the past it had said 63 infantrymen were killed in the attack, which hit a conscript school in Makiivka, in a rare admission of multiple casualties.
He blamed the unauthorized use of cell phones for the strike, their use had allowed Ukraine to locate and beat its staff.
“This allowed the enemy to locate and coordinate the location of the army workers’ corps for a missile attack,” the ministry said in a statement, reported through RIA Novosti.
The ministry said Ukraine hit Makiivka-built missiles with a HIMARS rocket formula and claimed that Russian forces intercepted 4 of the six rockets. He claimed to have destroyed the HIMARS rocket formula with which the attack was carried out. CNBC was unable to determine the Defense’s claims.
The shock of the attack in Russia, with mourners gathered in Samara, the region where most of the mobilized foot soldiers are believed to have originated.
—Holly Ellyatt
Moscow’s idea that it would emerge from the invasion of Ukraine with a more important role on the global stage. But it is remote and will likely face long-term economic decline. Reporting via CNBC’s Ted Kemp.
Russian nationalists and some lawmakers demanded sanctions for commanders they accused of ignoring the risks as anger grew over the killing of dozens of Russians in one of the deadliest moves in the Ukrainian conflict.
In a rare revelation, the Russian Defense Ministry said 63 infantrymen were killed in Ukraine’s New Year’s attack that destroyed a transitional barracks at a vocational school in Makiivka, a dual city in the Russian-occupied regional capital Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Russian critics said the infantrymen were housed next to an ammunition depot at the site, which the Russian Defense Ministry said hit 4 rockets fired through US-made HIMARS launchers.
Television showed massive construction reduced to rubble as cranes and bulldozers picked up concrete debris several feet deep.
Ukraine and some Russian nationalist bloggers put the death toll in Makiivka at several hundred, though pro-Russian officials say those estimates are exaggerated.
Rallies to commemorate the dead were held in several Russian cities, Samara, from where some came, RIA Novosti news agency reported. Mourners laid flowers in the center of Samara.
“I haven’t slept in 3 days, Samara hasn’t slept. We are in contact with our boys’ wives. It’s very hard and scary. But we can’t be broken. Pain binds Array together. definitely, the victory will be ours,” Yekaterina Kolotovkina, a representative of a women’s council in an army unit, quoted Yekaterina Kolotovkina as saying at one of the rallies.
— Reuters
Emergency crews have checked the rubble of a building hit by Ukrainian rockets, killing at least 63 Russian infantrymen stationed there, in the latest blow to the Kremlin’s war strategy as Ukraine says Moscow’s tactics may change.
An Associated Press video of the scene in Makiivka, a city in Russia’s occupied eastern Donetsk region, showed five cranes and rescuers gargantic chunks of concrete under a transparent blue sky.
In the attack, which allegedly occurred last weekend, Ukrainian forces fired rockets from a US-supplied HIMARS multiple-launch system, according to a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry.
It is one of the deadliest attacks on Kremlin forces since the war began more than 10 months ago and an embarrassment that has prompted fresh complaints in Russia about the way the war is being fought.
Russian on Monday about the attack provided few additional details. Other unconfirmed reports point to a much higher death toll.
The Directorate of Strategic Communications of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Sunday that about 400 Russian infantrymen mobilized were killed in the construction of a vocational school in Makiivka and about 300 others were wounded. This statement may not be independently verified. The Russian said the attack happened. ” in the Makiivka region” and did not mention vocational school.
— Reuters
Russia aims to “exhaust” Ukraine with an extended series of attacks across the country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his late-night speech.
“We will have to make sure, and we will do everything we can for it, that this purpose of the terrorists fails like all the others,” he said. “This is the time when everyone interested in protecting the sky wants to take special care. “
Russian movements in Ukraine’s cities and infrastructure have intensified in recent times, marking 3 consecutive nights of bombing in the latest wave of attacks that began on New Year’s Eve. The movements in particular target Ukraine’s electrical installations, leaving millions without heat or power in cold winter frost.
Russian forces rely on the fatal Iranian-made Shahed drones, which have wreaked havoc on Ukrainian cities. Zelenskyy said Ukrainian air defenses shot down more than 80 such drones in the first days of January.
—Natasha Turak
The Russians are in the fatal Ukrainian attack; Zelensky says Moscow aims to ‘exhaust’ Ukraine with attacks
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