Russian invasion of Ukraine: Day 699

Summary for Tuesday, 23rd January 2024 - DAY 699

• A Russian missile attack has hit Kyiv and Kharkiv. Ukrainian officials said at least six people were killed and dozens wounded in the Tuesday morning attack.
  
  
• Russia’s foreign minister has clashed with the US and Ukraine’s other supporters at the UN security council after Moscow ruled out any peace plan backed by Kyiv and the west, and China warned that further global chaos could affect the slowing world economy.
  
  
• Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, told the security council that peace plans presented by Ukraine and the west were “a road to nowhere”. The US deputy ambassador, Robert Wood, countered that it was Vladimir Putin’s “single-minded pursuit of the obliteration of Ukraine and subjugation of its people that is prolonging” the war that began with Moscow’s 2022 invasion.
  
  
• The Turkish parliament’s general assembly will debate Sweden’s Nato membership bid on Tuesday, three sources from parliament said. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been blocking Sweden’s membership to extract concessions from Sweden and other Nato members. The parliament’s foreign affairs commission has approved the bid, raising hopes that it will be approved by the full parliament and signed into law by Erdoğan.
  
  
• A Mexican border security deal in the US Senate is being finalised in a compromise aimed at unlocking Republican support to replenish US wartime aid for Ukraine. But far-right House Republicans under the sway of Donald Trump have indicated that they want to block any bipartisan deal in order to hamper Joe Biden’s prospects for re-election as president – even if it leaves chaos at the US-Mexico border. “Let me tell you, I’m not willing to do too damn much right now to help a Democrat and to help Joe Biden’s approval rating,” Troy Nehls, a Texas Republican, told CNN.
  
  
• Moderate Republican congressman Dan Crenshaw has criticised Maga Republicans not willing to work with Biden on border security. Crenshaw told MSNBC that some Republicans were saying “we’ll never vote for it if it’s attached to Ukraine aid. Really? We get meaningful border policy with the Ukraine aid and you’re not going to vote for that? … Some people say Biden wants it now because it’s helpful to him politically? OK! I want border security, that’s what I told my constituents I would do for them. So if we can get that deal, that’s a no-brainer.”
  
  
• EU foreign ministers have met to discuss support to Ukraine. With ministers focusing also on the situation in the Middle East, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, insisted that Ukrainians should not worry and that the EU’s support for Kyiv would continue as strong as ever.
  
  
• Borrell also said Ukraine “needs more and faster military support now”. Latvia’s foreign minister, Krišjānis Kariņš, said that “if we do not help Ukraine stop Russia now, it will be only all the more expensive for us later”.
  
  
• Elina Valtonen, Finland’s foreign minister, said there was a need to fulfil Ukraine’s immediate defence needs, but that Europe also needed to ramp up its defence industry and capabilities.
  
  
• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, announced a proposal aimed at allowing ethnic Ukrainians and their descendants abroad to hold Ukrainian citizenship.
  
  
• Zelenskiy said he had “very productive talks” with Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, who visited Kyiv. The Ukrainian leader said the two countries would be able to resolve problematic issues. Tusk underlined that Warsaw and Kyiv would work in a spirit of friendship to resolve differences.
  
  
• Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s prime minister, said he “discussed the free movement of goods across the border” with Tusk and that the sides agreed to resume intergovernmental consultations.
  
  
• There is movement toward a meeting between Zelenskiy and Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, a senior Ukrainian official has said.
  
  
• The UK has updated its travel advice “to advise against all but essential travel” to the regions of Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Chernivtsi in western Ukraine. Previously, there was advice against all travel to the whole of Ukraine.
  
  
• The Kremlin has drawn up a bill to confiscate property and valuables from Ukraine war critics convicted of, among other crimes, “discrediting the Russian army” or calling for foreign sanctions.
  

Russia launched a missile strike on Kyiv and the region surrounding the capital, a Ukrainian military official said on Tuesday.

Explosions ring out in Russian Vladivostok: power substations ablaze, hundreds of houses de-energized

Explosions have rung out in the Russian city of Vladivostok, and a fire started at two power substations, as a result of which hundreds of residential buildings have been de-energized.

Russian missiles strike multiple Ukrainian cities, killing at least 7 and wounding dozens more

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles struck three Ukrainian cities Tuesday, including its two biggest, killing at least seven people and wrecking apartment buildings after Moscow shunned any deal backed by Kyiv and its Western allies to end the nearly 2-year-old war.

The barrage included more than 40 ballistic, cruise, anti-aircraft and guided missiles, officials reported, in what the United Nations said appeared to be the heaviest bombardment since early January, when hundreds of Ukrainian civilians were killed. Ukraine’s air force, whose defenses include Western-supplied systems, said it intercepted 21 of the missiles.

The attacks keep Ukrainians on edge while the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line has barely budged. Both sides’ inability to deliver major gains on the battlefield has pushed the fighting toward trench and artillery warfare. Analysts say Russia stockpiled missiles at the end of last year to press a winter campaign of aerial bombardment.

The recent Russian bombardment was “an alarming reversal” of a trend last year that saw a drop in civilian casualties from Kremlin attacks, the U.N. said.

More than 10,000 civilians have been killed and nearly 20,000 injured since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the U.N. said.

Tuesday’s onslaught in Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, killed six people and injured 57, including eight children, the U.N. said. The missiles damaged about 30 residential buildings and shattered hundreds of windows in icy weather, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.

Russia used S-300, Kh-32 and hypersonic Iskander missiles in the attack, he said.

A five-story apartment building appeared to have been directly hit by several missiles around dawn, the U.N. Human Rights Mission in Ukraine said in a statement.

An unknown number of people were trapped in the rubble with the temperature falling to minus 7 degrees Celsius (19 degrees Fahrenheit), said Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov.

Kharkiv, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the border, has often felt the brunt of Russia’s winter campaign of long-range strikes that commonly hit civilian areas.

Four districts of Kyiv came under an attack that injured at least 20 people, including a 13-year-old boy, according to Mayor Vitalii Klitschko. Officials corrected initial reports that a civilian had been killed in the capital, saying the wounded person was hospitalized on life support.

U.N. staff visited a Kyiv neighborhood with a damaged residential building, a school, a sports center and a kindergarten.

A missile also killed a 43-year-old woman and damaged two schools and eight high-rise buildings in Pavlohrad, an industrial city in the eastern Dnipro region, the country’s presidential office said.

In Balakliia, in the Kharkiv region, an 88-year-old man and a 78-year-old woman were rescued from the rubble of a house after Russian shelling, it said.

In the south, Russia attacked the city of Beryslav with drones, killing a 69-year-old man on a motorcycle.
There appeared to be scant chance of an end to the war anytime soon. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov defied the United States and other Ukraine supporters at a U.N. meeting on Monday, ruling out any peace plan they support.
Lavrov claimed that Ukrainian forces have been “a complete failure” on the battlefield and are “incapable” of defeating Russia.

On Sunday, Moscow-installed officials in eastern Ukraine claimed that shelling by Kyiv killed 27 people on the outskirts of Russian-occupied Donetsk.

The Ukrainian military, however, denied it had anything to do with the attack.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday’s attacks should not be seen as Moscow’s response to the Donetsk strike. He repeated Moscow’s claim that its forces don’t strike civilian areas, although there is substantial evidence to the contrary.

Deaths of Ukrainian civilians have stirred international outrage over Russia’s invasion, and Ukrainian officials have pointed to the attacks in their efforts to secure further military aid from the country’s allies.

NATO on Tuesday signed a $1.2-billion contract to make tens of thousands of artillery rounds to replenish the dwindling stocks of its member countries. The contract will allow allies to backfill their arsenals and provide Ukraine with more ammunition.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Monday was the latest foreign leader to visit Ukraine and announce a new aid package that includes a loan to buy larger weapons and a commitment to find ways to manufacture them together.

Ukraine’s allies have recently sought to reassure the country that they are committed to its long-term defense amid concerns that Western support could be flagging. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and France’s new foreign minister also traveled to Kyiv in the new year.

But the United States, Ukraine’s main supplier, is currently unable to send Ukraine any ammunition or weapons. While waiting for Congress to approve more money for Ukraine’s fight, the U.S. is looking to its allies to bridge the gap.

The jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been placed in solitary confinement for 10 days in a prison above the Arctic Circle for “incorrectly introducing himself” to a guard, his spokesperson said.

Russia denies deporting Ukrainian children but admits hundreds of thousands are on its territory

Emergency services help the wounded and search for survivors after the airstrike in Kharkiv

Russian strikes hit residential areas in Ukraine capital, killing at least seven

Russian strikes hit the Ukrainian capital Kiev and other cities today, killing at least seven people and damaging energy infrastructure, according to the United Nations.

The attack included more than 40 ballistic, cruise, anti-aircraft and guided missiles, officials reported, in what the UN said appeared to be the heaviest bombardment since early January when hundreds of Ukrainian and Russian civilians were killed or wounded in mutual shelling.
Ukraine’s air force, whose defences include Western-supplied systems, said that it intercepted 21 of the missiles.
At least 57 people were injured in the eastern city of Kharkiv and rescue workers continued to search under rubble as the Morning Star went to print.
The attacks damaged a gas pipeline and thousands were left without power after electricity infrastructure was damaged, authorities said.
Resident Natalia told the BBC: “My house shook. It was all very loud. There were explosions, then another 10 seconds — and another bang.
“Many people are without power and heating. Other than fear and hatred, at this moment I feel nothing.”
In Kiev, emergency services said that at least 22 people, including four children, had been wounded and apartment buildings and medical and educational institutions were damaged.
Elsewhere in the city, residents left their bomb shelters after the attack and went about their morning as usual.
Russia has repeatedly said that its military does not target civilians during its offensive in Ukraine.
The bombardment was “an alarming reversal” of a trend last year that saw a drop in civilian casualties from Kremlin attacks, the UN said.
More than 10,000 civilians have been killed and nearly 20,000 injured since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to the body.
The attack came as Nato signed a $1.2 billion (£948 million) contract to make tens of thousands of artillery rounds to replenish the stocks of its member countries after they provided Ukraine with ammunition.
“This is important to defend our own territory, to build up our own stocks, but also to continue to support Ukraine,” Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told reporters.
The Nato chief has warned allies to be ready for “bad news” from Ukraine following its failed counter-offensive last year, but insists the West should maintain the flow of arms.

Death toll rises to six in Russian airstrikes on Kharkiv, governor says

The Russian military does not target civilians when it hits objects in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Tuesday when asked to comment on what Ukraine said were deadly Russian strikes on the cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv.

No, you cannot say that. We are continuing our special military operation and our military does not hit social facilities and residential neighbourhoods and does not hit civilians, unlike the Kyiv regime.
This is what fundamentally distinguishes our military from the military of the Kyiv regime.

Russia has carried out a wave of attacks on Ukraine, killing five people and wounding at least 40 others, with a sports club in central Kyiv one of several civilian buildings damaged.

It was fucking scary.
There was a metallic sound and then our windows blew in. I found glass on my face. The Russians are crazy. They don’t care about human life.
I really hope that the world helps us. We need more support because our enemy is more powerful than America. In my opinion the US is secretly afraid of Russia.

Closing Summary

• At least six people have been killed and more than 60 wounded in the latest series of Russian airstrikes on Ukraine, Ukrainian officials have said. Russia unleashed a mass airstrike on Ukraine on Tuesday, mostly targeting the country’s two largest cities, the capital Kyiv and Kharkiv in the east.
  
  
• The Russian military does not target civilians when it hits objects in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Tuesday when asked to comment on what Ukraine said were deadly Russian strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv.
  
  
• Russia launched 41 missiles at Ukraine early on Tuesday and air defences destroyed 21 of them, the Ukrainian military said.
  
  
• The jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been placed in solitary confinement for 10 days in a prison above the Arctic Circle for “incorrectly introducing himself” to a guard, his spokesperson said.
  
  
• The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said he had invited Sweden’s prime minister to visit and negotiate his country joining the Nato military alliance, a process that Hungary and Turkey have delayed. On X, Orban said: “Today I sent an invitation letter to prime minister Ulf Kristersson for a visit to Hungary to negotiate on Sweden’s Natoaccession.”
  
  
• Russia launched missile strikes on Ukraine’s military production facilities and successfully hit all intended targets, Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday.
  
  
• The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, on Tuesday launched the construction of a new unit at Egypt’s El-Dabaa nuclear power plant via video link, the Ria Novosti news agency reported.
  
  
• Italy will use its presidency of the Group of Seven major democracies to challenge growing perceptions that Russia is winning in Ukraine and that the west is tiring of the war, Reuters reports.
  
  
• Poland and the Baltic states are calling for import bans on Russian aluminium and liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the European Union’s 13th package of sanctions against Moscow over its Ukraine invasion, a Polish official said.
  
  
• The US has issued cyber-related sanctions against the Russian citizen Aleksandr Ermakov, according to a notice posted on the US Treasury Department website on Tuesday, one day after Australian authorities also targeted him over a breach of the Australian insurer Medibank, Reuters reports.
  
  
• Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, insisted life in the Ukrainian capital was “absolutely normal” and there was no war, a day before his first meeting with the Ukrainian prime minister and just hours after Russian missiles fell on Kyiv.