Russia-Ukraine updates: Germany to send tanks to Kyiv – reports
All the updates from January 24, as they happened.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Tuesday, January 24.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Tuesday, January 24.
- The German government has agreed to supply Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, according to reports.
- Several senior Ukrainian officials have resigned in a major political shake-up linked to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s anticorruption drive.
- Valery Gerasimov, Moscow’s new commander in Ukraine, says a new war plan may take into account NATO expansion as Finland and Sweden prepare to join the alliance.
G7, partners promise to support Ukraine’s energy sector: US
The G7 and other partner countries have pledged to maintain their support for Ukraine’s energy sector, including delivering equipment and other humanitarian aid during winter, according to a US State Department statement following a meeting of the group’s foreign ministers.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi cohosted the meeting, in which countries also promised to continue coordinating on Ukraine’s efforts to “modernize and decarbonize its energy grid,” the department said after the virtual meeting.
The foreign ministers reiterated calls for Russia to halt attacks on Ukraine’s energy and heating systems, the State Department added in a statement.
Two Britons killed while trying to evacuate from Ukraine: UK
British volunteer Chris Parry and his colleague Andrew Bagshaw have been killed while attempting a humanitarian evacuation from Soledar in eastern Ukraine, Parry’s family has said in a statement released by Britain’s foreign office.
US lawmakers praise Zelenskyy for fighting corruption
Legislators in the US have praised Ukraine’s government for taking swift action against corruption and insisted that the military and humanitarian aid to Kyiv should continue.
A slew of senior Ukrainian officials were dismissed in Ukraine’s biggest political shake-up of the war so far, which Kyiv said showed Zelenskyy was in tune with his public following corruption allegations.
“It’s a defining moment for Ukraine. It’s a defining moment for all of us, Germany, the United States, all of our allies. We expect that President Zelenskyy will follow through with a promise he made that Ukraine is going to change on the corruption front,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told a news conference days after returning from Kyiv among others who made similar statements.
Berlin will send Leopard tanks to Ukraine: Report
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has decided to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and allow other countries, such as Poland, to do so while the US may supply Abrams tanks, according to a source familiar with the matter quoted by the Reuters news agency.
Germany to send Leopard tanks to Kyiv, allow others to do so: Spiegel
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has decided to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and allow other countries such as Poland to do so while the US may supply Abrams tanks, according to Spiegel, the German publication.
The decision concerns at least one company of Leopard 2 A6 tanks that will be provided out of Bundeswehr stocks, Spiegel said.
Other allies intend to go along with Germany in supplying their Leopard tanks to Kyiv, the magazine reported.
Twenty-five killed in Russia border region since Ukraine assault: Governor
Twenty-five people have been killed and more than 90 injured in Russia’s border region of Belgorod since the start of Moscow’s assault on Ukraine, according to the region’s governor.
“Ukraine, the enemy, is targeting peaceful settlements. There are 25 dead, 96 people were wounded,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov told Putin in televised remarks. This is the first time Russian officials have announced an official death toll for a Russian region since the start of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.
Bulgarian navy defuses mine near its Black Sea coast
Bulgaria’s defence ministry says the country’s navy has defused a naval mine that had drifted close to its Black Sea coast, a day after it carried out a controlled explosion of another mine.
The ministry said the navy was alerted to the object that was some 14.8 nautical miles (27.4 kilometres) east off the coast near Cape Kochan late on Monday by a motor boat sailing under a Ukrainian flag.
Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey, all of which have coasts along the Black Sea, have had special diving teams defuse mines that drifted into their waters.
Parts of the Black Sea were mined after Russia invaded Ukraine in February of last year.
UN nuclear watchdog finds no military equipment stashed at Ukrainian plants
An inspection of Ukrainian nuclear plants found no military equipment stashed at the sites, debunking a claim from Russia, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says.
Rafael Grossi made the remarks after Russia’s foreign intelligence service on Monday accused Ukraine of storing Western-supplied arms at nuclear power stations across the country.
Grossi told the European Parliament that the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, had established a permanent presence at all Ukrainian nuclear facilities, and he had ordered inspections on Tuesday to ascertain whether any of them contained military equipment.
“The result of those inspections was negative,” he said.
War games with Russia put South African neutrality under scrutiny
Military drills between South Africa and Russia scheduled to take place next month have brought new scrutiny on the former’s neutral stance on the nearly yearlong conflict in Ukraine.
The drills will happen off South Africa’s coast from February 17 to 27 and will take place during the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Read more here.
‘Doomsday Clock’ set at 90 seconds to midnight
The “Doomsday Clock”, which symbolises the extent to which humanity is in peril from human-made technologies, has been set closer to midnight than ever before in large part because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the risk of nuclear escalation.
“We are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock time reflects that reality. Ninety seconds to midnight is the closest the Clock has ever been set to midnight, and it’s a decision our experts do not take lightly,” said Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which runs the clock.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said Russia’s offensive had eroded “norms of international conduct that underpin successful responses to a variety of global risks”.
“And worst of all, Russia’s thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons remind the world that escalation of the conflict – by accident, intention, or miscalculation – is a terrible risk,” it said.
The hands of the clock had previously been set at 100 seconds to midnight since January 2020.
Turkey cancels NATO talks with Sweden, Finland: Report
Turkey has indefinitely postponed a new round of talks with Sweden and Finland on the Nordic neighbours’ NATO membership bids, Turkish state media have reported.
The meeting was due to take place in Brussels in February, state broadcaster TRT reported, citing Turkish diplomatic sources. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said earlier this month that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was also due to attend.
On Monday, Erdogan said Sweden should not expect Turkey’s support for its NATO membership after a protest near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm at the weekend.
As pressure mounts, Germany remains conflicted on Leopard tanks
Ukrainian soldiers in the field now use German Gepard anti-aircraft guns to defend their skies, German anti-tank weapons to pierce Russian armour, and German howitzers to shell enemy troops.
But the prize that Ukraine urgently seeks to regain territory before an expected Russian offensive in the coming months, the German-manufactured Leopard 2 battle tank, remains frustratingly out of reach.
Read more here.
German official says Poland’s tanks request to be handled with ‘urgency’
The German government will handle Poland’s request to re-export Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine with urgency, an economic affairs ministry official has said.
“I can only tell you: We will urgently work on taking a decision,” Sven Giegold told a defence conference in Berlin organised by Handelsblatt, adding that the defence ministry was in the lead on the matter.
Ukraine has enough energy reserves to see out winter: PM
Ukraine’s prime minister says the country has enough coal and gas reserves for the remaining months of winter despite repeated Russian attacks on its energy system.
Denys Shmyhal told a government meeting that the situation in the energy sector remained difficult but under control after a months-long Russian campaign of drone and missile attacks on critical infrastructure that damaged about 40 percent of the energy system.
“For now, all Russia’s attempts to plunge Ukraine into darkness have failed,” Shmyhal said.
“We have enough reserves to continue and end the heating season in normal mode. About 11 billion cubic metres of gas are stored in gas storages and nearly 1.2 million tonnes of coal are in storages,” he added.
Russia has ‘enough’ weapons: Medvedev
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has hit back at media reports in the West that Russia is running low on missiles and artillery, saying Moscow has “enough of everything”.
“Our opponents are watching, they periodically make statements that we don’t have this or that,” Medvedev said during a visit to a Kalashnikov factory in Izhevsk, about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) east of Moscow.
“I want to disappoint them. We have enough of everything,” he added.
In a video posted on his Telegram channel, Medvedev, who is among Russia’s most hawkish pro-war voices, was seen inspecting the assault rifles, artillery shells, missiles and drones.
Putin says Russia experiencing medicines shortage
President Vladimir Putin has said there are shortages of some medicines in Russia, despite the country producing more of its own drugs in the face of sweeping Western sanctions over the war.
>While prescription drugs are exempt from sanctions imposed over the conflict, their delivery to Russia has been hit by transport, insurance and customs hurdles caused by the war and other restrictive measures, industry figures say.
“There has been a shortage of some drugs, despite the fact that we saw production of pharmaceutical products in the [first] three quarters of last year grow by about 22 percent,” Putin said during a televised meeting with officials.
“Sixty percent of medicines on the market are domestic drugs. Nevertheless, a deficit has formed in some drugs, and prices have risen,” he added.
Ukraine undergoes biggest political shake-up since war started
Ukraine’s government has dismissed five regional governors and an array of other senior officials in the biggest shake-up of the country’s political leadership since Russia launched its invasion in February.
Among more than a dozen senior Ukrainian officials who have resigned or were dismissed were the governors of the Kyiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
All five regions have witnessed major fighting over the past year, giving their governors an unusually high national profile.
A deputy defence minister, a deputy prosecutor, a deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office and two deputy ministers responsible for regional development were among the other officials to leave their posts.
Who controls what?
Here are three maps that we update daily to chart the latest war developments:
Polish PM hopes for quick reply from Germany on tanks
Poland’s prime minister says he is hoping for a quick response from Germany on whether Warsaw can re-export German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
“I hope that this answer from Germany will come quickly because the Germans are delaying, dodging, acting in a way that is difficult to understand,” Mateusz Morawiecki said at a news conference.
Morawiecki also said Poland will ask the EU for compensation for the cost of the units it wants to send to Kyiv, calling the move a “test of goodwill”.
His comments came shortly after the Polish government submitted an official request to Berlin to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks.
More Ukrainian officials resign in government shake-up
Two deputy ministers have resigned from Ukraine’s Ministry of Communities and Territories Development as part of a widespread exit of senior officials linked to a crackdown on corruption by Zelenskyy.
Vyacheslav Negoda and Ivan Lukerya both confirmed on their Facebook pages that they have resigned.
German chancellor facing decisive moment on tank exports: AJ correspondent
Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane, reporting from Berlin, says German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will have to “make his mind up” on whether to permit the re-export of German-made battle tanks to Ukraine following Poland’s formal request to do so.
“He knows that around the cabinet he chairs, there are ministers who have openly said that if there is a request to release tanks that Germany has sold to other European Union countries that Berlin won’t stand in their way,” Kane said.
“But he also knows that he would then be a chancellor who is allowing German-made offensive weapons systems to be used against forces of the Russian Federation,” he added. “That is a central issue for any German chancellor, given the historical legacy that this country has vis-a-vis Russia.”
Poland says Germany has received tank exports request
Germany has now received Poland’s official request to re-export Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, the Polish defence minister has said.
“The Germans have already received our request for permission to transfer Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine,” Mariusz Blaszczak said in a post on Twitter.
Ukraine wants the German-made Leopard 2, one of the most widely used Western tanks, to help it break through Russian lines and recapture territory this year.
Germany, whose approval is required for re-exports of the Leopard, has held back until now. Berlin has said it is willing to act quickly if there is a consensus among its Western allies over sending battle tanks to Ukraine.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 335
Click here for a roundup of the key events from day 335 of the war.
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Russia’s military reforms respond to NATO, Ukraine: Gerasimov
Russia’s new military reforms respond to the possible expansion of NATO and the use of Kyiv by the “collective West” to wage a hybrid war against Russia, the newly-appointed general in charge of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine has said.
“Today, such threats include the aspirations of the North Atlantic Alliance to expand to Finland and Sweden, as well as the use of Ukraine as a tool for waging a hybrid war against our country,” Valery Gerasimov told the news website Argumenty i Fakty in remarks published late on Monday.
It was the first public remark by Gerasimov, who is also the chief of Russia’s military general staff, since his January 11 appointment to lead Moscow’s war effort.
Under Moscow’s new military plan, an army corps will be added to Karelia in Russia’s north, which borders Finland.
In Ukraine, Russia will add three motorised rifle divisions as part of combined arms formations in the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions – two of four partly-occupied Ukrainian territories that Moscow moved to unilaterally annex last September.
Ukrainian official says political shake-up driven by demand for ‘justice’
Zelenskyy’s shake-up of Ukraine’s top personnel is a response to a “public demand” for “justice”, an adviser to the president says.
Mykhailo Podolyak said in a post on Twitter that Zelenskyy’s decisions “testify to the key priorities of the state”.
“The president sees and hears society. And he directly responds to a key public demand – justice for all,” he added.
Zelenskyy’s personnel decisions testify to the key priorities of the state… No "blind eyes". During the war, everyone should understand their responsibility. The President sees and hears society. And he directly responds to a key public demand – justice for all…
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) January 24, 2023