Russian invasion of Ukraine: Day 703

Summary for Saturday, 27th January 2024 - DAY 703

• Ukraine says Russia has returned the bodies of 77 soldiers, days after the crash of a Russian military transport plane threw the future of such exchanges into doubt. Moscow and Kyiv traded fresh accusations over the plane that Russia says Ukraine’s forces shot down in the border region of Belgorod, killing 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war. Kyiv has not denied the claims outright, but officials have appeared to question whether its PoWs were on board.
  
  
• The black boxes from the military plane have been delivered to a laboratory in Moscow for analysis, Russian state media said. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called for full clarity over the crash, accusing Moscow of “playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners of war”.
  
  
• The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has lost an appeal against his arrest, Russian state news agencies report. A court in Moscow extended the pretrial detention until the end of March, meaning the journalist will have spent at least a year behind bars in Russia.
  
  
• The former Nato secretary general George Robertson has told Sky News that Ukraine is “fighting for us” and “we need to do more”. He said if Russia were to defeat Ukraine, the “rest of us” would then be in danger because Putin would be “fuelled by any success that he has in Ukraine”.
  
  
• Ukraine has invited the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to participate in peace talks, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s top adviser has said. Switzerland has agreed to hold the summit, which a number of world leaders will attend, but no venue or date has been set just yet.
  
  
• Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced the creation of a second body to assist businesses in wartime on Friday after several entrepreneurs voiced outrage at the arrest of a prominent banker. It followed a meeting with business leaders after the arrest last week of banker Ihor Mazepa, which Zelenskiy acknowledged had been difficult.
  

Ukraine said on Friday that Russia had returned the bodies of 77 soldiers

Russia refuses to provide Ukraine with the list of passengers aboard the crashed Il-76, suggests relying on media sources instead

Dmytro Usov, Secretary of the Ukrainian Coordination Staff for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, has confirmed that an exchange of captured Ukrainian armed forces personnel for Russians was indeed scheduled for the day the Il-76 aircraft was downed on January 24. He reported that, in response to Ukraine's repeated inquiries about who was on board, the Russian side referred to a list published "on Russian propaganda resources."

The list in question may be the one published by the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT, Margarita Simonyan. Usov confirmed that 65 individuals from this list were supposed to be returned to Ukraine on January 24. However, it is unknown if they were on board the downed Il-76.

The head of the Ukrainian Forces main Intelligence Direcorate, Kyrylo Budanov, has highlighted that the Russian propaganda's version of the events, which suggests that the designated Il-76M was transporting 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war for exchange, still raises many questions. Serhiy Andrushchenko, First Deputy Chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), further emphasized that Russia is trying to conceal the real causes of the air disaster from the international community. "Russia immediately declared that it would not allow international experts to investigate the Il-76M crash. Nonetheless, Ukraine is using all means to uncover the true causes of the incident and to ascertain who or what was actually being transported on that plane," said the SBU representative.

Earlier, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Andriy Yosov, reported that the Il-76 was supposed to carry Russian high-ranking officials, but at the last moment, the FSB "essentially ordered them not to board this aircraft and to use other modes of transportation."
He added that Russian rescuers were not allowed to inspect the crash site, and video footage from the site showed no human remains. Additionally, only five bodies were delivered to the morgue in Belgorod yesterday: "This figure corresponds to the number of crew members."

The military transport aircraft Il-76 crashed on January 24, 50 kilometers northeast of Belgorod. The Russian Defense Ministry claims that it was carrying 65 captured Ukrainian servicemen who were prepared for exchange, six crew members, and three escorts.

Russian State Duma Deputy Andrey Kartapolov stated that the Ukrainian side had been duly informed in advance of the Il-76 flight with prisoners, yet Ukraine still fired three missiles from either the American Patriot missile system or the German IRIS-T at the plane.

Russian advances in Avdiivka stalled — UK intelligence

Ukraine repelling three-pronged attack on Avdiivka, says UK

Russian forces launched eight rocket strikes on civilian infrastructure in the Donetsk and the Kherson oblasts

A Russian team shot and killed a brother and sister from the Khotin community of the Sumy oblast this morning, the regional military administration said.

Some of the latest images coming in from Ukraine via news agency wires:

Summary of the day so far

• Joe Biden is pressing Congress to embrace a bipartisan Senate deal to pair border enforcement measures with aid for Ukraine. The talks have hit a critical point as Republican opposition mounts. Some Republicans have set a deal on border security as a condition for further Ukraine aid.
  
  
• Ukraine said on Friday that Russia had returned the bodies of 77 soldiers, days after the crash of a Russian military transport plane threw doubt on the future of such exchanges.
  
  
• The Biden administration has announced the approval of a $23bn deal to sell F-16 warplanes to Turkey, after Ankara ratified Sweden’s Nato membership, the state department said.
  
  
• The US is planning to station nuclear weapons in the UK for the first time in 15 years amid a growing threat from Russia, according to a report. Warheads three times as strong as the Hiroshima bomb would be located at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk under the proposals, the Daily Telegraph reported.
  
  
• Ukrainian counter-attacks were holding Russians back from taking full control of Avdiivka, the UK Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence report. Russian forces have suffered heavy personnel and armoured vehicle losses, frequently caused by Ukrainian uncrewed aerial vehicle munitions. Though they continue to attempt to bypass Ukrainian fortifications by entering the city edges via service tunnels – a method of infiltration they have been attempting since October 2023 – “Ukrainian counter-attacks are holding Russian forces from progressing further within the city”.
  

A high-rise building caught on fire in Kyiv: one person reported dead

5 bodies recovered from building debris in Donetsk Oblast

The remains of five people were pulled from under the rubble of a building destroyed during a Russian attack on 15 January in the settlement of Niu-York in Donetsk Oblast.

Closing Summary

• Ukrainian counter-attacks were holding Russians back from taking full control of Avdiivka, the UK Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence report. Russian forces have suffered heavy personnel and armoured vehicle losses, frequently caused by Ukrainian uncrewed aerial vehicle munitions. Though they continue to attempt to bypass Ukrainian fortifications by entering the city edges via service tunnels – a method of infiltration they have been attempting since October 2023 – “Ukrainian counter-attacks are holding Russian forces from progressing further within the city”.
  
  
• Ukrainian officials are saying that Russia has provided no credible evidence to back its claims that their own forces shot down a military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war who were to be swapped for Russian POWs.
  
  
• Joe Biden will host the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, at the White House on 9 February to discuss aid to Ukraine. This comes as the US president has been pressing Congress to embrace a bipartisan Senate deal to pair border enforcement measures with aid for Ukraine. The talks have hit a critical point as Republican opposition mounts. Some Republicans have set a deal on border security as a condition for further Ukraine aid.
  
  
• The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, are in Russia’s Leningrad oblast today to attend the opening ceremony of a memorial complex. The ceremony marked the 80th anniversary of the battle that lifted the siege of Leningrad.
  
  
• The Biden administration has announced the approval of a $23bn deal to sell F-16 warplanes to Turkey, after Ankara ratified Sweden’s Nato membership, the state department said.
  
  
• The US is planning to station nuclear weapons in the UK for the first time in 15 years amid a growing threat from Russia, according to a report. Warheads three times as strong as the Hiroshima bomb would be located at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk under the proposals, the Daily Telegraph reported.