Russia-Ukraine updates: Russian anger grows over deadly attack
All the updates from January 3 as they happened.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Tuesday, January 3.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Tuesday, January 3.
- In a rare show of criticism, Russian nationalists and politicians demand punishment for Russian commanders over the deadly January 1 attacks in occupied Makiivka, in the Donetsk region.
- Ukraine says several units of Russian military equipment were damaged or destroyed in the missile strike on makeshift barracks.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns Moscow is planning a protracted campaign of drone attacks to “exhaust” Ukraine.
- The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence says it is unlikely Russian troops will achieve a “significant breakthrough” near the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut in the coming weeks.
Putin plans to talk to Turkish President Erdogan on Wednesday – Interfax
Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to talk to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the Interfax news agency.
The two leaders have had several phone calls since Russia invaded Ukraine last February. Turkey acted as a mediator alongside the United Nations in 2022 to set up a deal allowing grain exports from Ukrainian ports.
Soldiers’ widows group calls for large-scale mobilisation
A patriotic group that supports the widows of Russian soldiers has called on Putin to order a large-scale mobilisation of millions of men and to close the borders to ensure victory in Ukraine.
Putin is under intense pressure to deliver victory in Ukraine more than 10 months since he sent troops as part of an operation he says was intended in part to defend Russians in eastern Ukraine.
“We ask our President, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, to allow the Russian Army to carry out a large-scale mobilisation,” the Soldiers’ Widows of Russia group said in a post on Telegram.
Zelenskyy holds talks on further military support with UK PM
Zelenskyy says he has discussed further defence cooperation with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
“We agreed to intensify our efforts to bring victory closer this year already. We already have concrete decisions for this,” Zelenskyy tweeted after the pair’s talks by phone.
A spokesperson for Sunak said the two leaders “discussed the abhorrent drone attacks on Ukraine in recent days”. The British leader told Zelenskyy that Ukraine could “count on the UK to continue to support it for the long term”, the spokesperson said.
Together with 🇬🇧 Prime Minister @RishiSunak, we discussed further defense cooperation. We agreed to intensify our efforts to bring victory closer this year already. We already have concrete decisions for this.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 3, 2023
As fighting continues, a Mariupol survivor tries to rebuild his life in Kyiv
Ulvi Zulfili fled one war as a child and found a new home in Ukraine, only to narrowly survive the Russian siege of Mariupol and have to flee again.
Read his story here.
What we know about Ukraine’s attack on makeshift Russian barracks
A Ukrainian missile strike on Sunday on a vocational school housing mobilised Russian soldiers in the partially Russian-controlled Donetsk region has become one of the bloodiest incidents of the war.
Read more here.
Who controls what?
Here are three maps that we update daily to chart the latest war developments:
First tanker carrying natural gas from US arrives in Germany
The first regular shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States has arrived in Germany as part of a wide-ranging effort to help the country replace energy supplies it previously received from Russia.
The tanker Maria Energy arrived at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven, where its shipment of LNG will be converted back into gas at a special floating terminal, which was inaugurated last month by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Germany has rushed to find a replacement for Russian gas supplies since Moscow’s invasion. The facility in Wilhelmshaven is one of several such terminals being put in place to help avert an energy shortage.
Germany has also temporarily reactivated oil- and coal-fired power stations and extended the life of its last three nuclear power plants until mid-April.
Zelenskyy adviser restates Kyiv’s position on peace talks
Mykhailo Podolyak, a political adviser to Zelenskyy, has said any possible peace talks to end the war must take account of Russia’s aggression.
“The key thing must be kept in mind. Especially when you want to ‘talk about war or negotiations’ … RF [The Russian Federation] came to a foreign country to kill its citizens,” Podolyak tweeted.
“RF is massively shelling. RF is trying to seize part of foreign territory. RF is the only author of an unprovoked war in Europe,” he added.
Moscow has recently rejected a 10-point peace plan put forward by Zelenskyy that calls for Russia to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and withdraw all of its troops from his country.
The key thing must be kept in mind. Especially when you want to "talk about war or negotiations"
RF came to a foreign country to kill its citizens.
RF is massively shelling 🇺🇦.
RF is trying to seize part of foreign territory.
RF is the only author of an unprovoked war in Europe.— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) January 3, 2023
Bulgaria signs deal to use Turkey’s gas terminals
Bulgaria has signed a long-term deal granting it access to Turkey’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and transit network, a move that will help the country replace supplies once provided by Russia.
The agreement between Bulgaria’s state-owned gas operator Bulgargaz and Turkish state gas firm Botas will allow the EU member state to unload LNG at its neighbour’s gas terminals and use the Botas network to transport gas.
Bulgaria, which was almost fully dependent on Russian gas ahead of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, is looking for alternative gas supplies at reasonable prices after Moscow cut off deliveries in April over Sofia’s refusal to pay in roubles.
Putin and Kazakhstan’s president discuss energy cooperation
Russian President Putin and his Kazakh counterpart, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, have held talks about cooperation in the energy sector, the Kremlin says.
The presidents’ discussions by phone followed Moscow’s approval last week of a 10-year extension of a deal with Kazakhstan for the transit of up to 10 million tonnes of oil per year to China.
The Kremlin provided no further details of the call.
Kazakhstan, the world’s largest landlocked country, uses Russia’s infrastructure to export its oil at a time when Western countries have imposed price caps and a ban on sea-borne Russian oil exports over the Kremlin’s Ukraine offensive.
2022 in review: The UN’s limited diplomatic achievements in Ukraine
Donbas ice arena reportedly destroyed in Russian attack
A Russian missile attack has destroyed an ice arena in the city of Druzhkivka in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the country’s ice hockey federation says.
“Since the start of the war, the Russian occupiers have destroyed five ice stadiums,” the federation said on its Telegram channel, naming them as the Druzhba venue in Donetsk, arenas in Mariupol and Melitopol, the Ice Palace in Sievierodonetsk and now the Altair arena in Druzhkivka, which was hit on Monday, it said.
The Donbas ice hockey club – which started using the Altair arena in 2014, the year pro-Russia separatists proclaimed the creation of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” in the region – said the arena was destroyed by rocket fire.
Al Jazeera could not independently verify the reports.
Kyiv governor urges residents to maintain ‘vigilance’ amid Russian attacks
Kyiv’s governor has urged residents to act if they hear air raid sirens and seek safety as soon as possible.
“Don’t lose your vigilance,” Oleksiy Kuleba said in a Telegram post. “If you hear an alarm, go to safe places.”
Russia has been carrying out rocket and missile attacks across Ukraine and targeting electricity infrastructure. Kuleba said the Kyiv region was currently fully supplied with electricity but asked people to use power “economically”.
Russian official says peace treaty talks with Japan ‘impossible’
Japan’s “anti-Russian course” makes peace treaty talks “impossible”, a senior Russian foreign ministry official has been quoted as saying by the state-owned TASS news agency.
Russia and Japan have not formally ended World War II hostilities because of their standoff over islands, seized by the Soviet Union at the end of the war, just off Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido. The islands are known in Russia as the Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories.
“It is absolutely obvious that it is impossible to discuss the signing of such a document [a peace treaty] with a state that takes openly unfriendly positions and allows itself direct threats against our country,” deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko told TASS.
Japan has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia and has moved to reduce its reliance on Russian oil and coal exports in recent months.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 314
Click here for a roundup of the key events from day 314 of the war.
KEEP READING
Why there won’t be a ‘Hollywood ending’ to the Ukraine war | The Bottom Line
As the Ukraine war becomes a “hurting stalemate” for both Russia and Ukraine, is the prospect of outright success for either side becoming impossible?
Stephen Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard University, argues that Kyiv and Moscow will soon have to make “awkward and painful” compromises if they do not want the conflict to turn into a “forever war”.
He tells host Steve Clemons that many Americans still believe there can be a decisive “Hollywood ending” to the conflict but, as we have seen with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, this almost never happens in real life.
Reinsurers cut Russia, Ukraine from policies
Reinsurers are excluding Russia, Ukraine and Belarus from policies they offer and cutting back their exposure to US hurricanes, according to a report from reinsurance broker Gallagher Re, Reuters has reported.
January 1st is the most important date in the calendar for policy renewals and the first opportunity for many reinsurers to adjust 12-month policies in light of the war, which started last February.
Some insurers have already backed away from providing cover in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus due to the risk of sanctions or of steep losses.
Russian authorities ban Ukraine’s currency in annexed regions
Russian authorities have banned the use of Ukraine’s national currency in four regions that Moscow moved to unilaterally annex in September, the US-based Institute for the Study of War says.
All transactions in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia will have to be tendered in the Russian rouble, the think-tank said.
Russian-Occupied Areas Update:
Russian occupation authorities officially banned the use of #Ukraine’s national currency and announced that all transactions throughout occupied territories in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson oblasts must be tendered in the Russian ruble. https://t.co/2p3ZyiprJF
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) January 3, 2023
Unlikely Russia will soon achieve breakthrough in Bakhmut: UK
UK’s defence ministry has said it is unlikely Russian forces will achieve a “significant breakthrough near Bakhmut in the coming weeks”.
Russian troops and Wagner Group mercenaries increased their attacks in recent weeks but many of these operations were “poorly supported”, the ministry said in its latest intelligence update.
The eastern city of Bakhmut has seen fierce fighting as Moscow seeks to capture the entire Donetsk region.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 03 January 2023
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/dFqO3TLWgZ
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/1kwYmKRUlw
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) January 3, 2023
Ukraine, EU to hold summit in Kyiv on February 3
Ukraine and the European Union will hold a summit in Kyiv on February 3 to discuss financial and military support, Zelenskyy’s office has said in a statement.
Zelenskyy discussed details of the high-level meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in his first phone call of the year.
“The parties discussed expected results of the next Ukraine-EU summit to be held on February 3 in Kyiv and agreed to intensify preparatory work,” the statement read.
NATO countries to discuss defence spending target: Stoltenberg
NATO countries will discuss their defence spending targets in the coming months as some of them call for turning a 2 percent target into a minimum figure, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the German news agency DPA.
“Some allies are strongly in favour of turning the current 2 percent target into a minimum,” DPA quoted Stoltenberg as saying. He did not specify which NATO countries were calling for a more ambitious target.
Stoltenberg said he would head the negotiations: “We will meet, we will have ministerial meetings, we will have talks in capitals.”
Ukraine says Russian military equipment destroyed in Makiivka
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces says up to 10 units of Russian military equipment in Makiivka were damaged or destroyed during an attack, without specifying their nature.
In a rare admission of responsibility, the Ukrainian military confirmed having conducted “a strike on Russian manpower and military equipment”.
The attack followed a barrage of attacks on Ukrainian cities. “It should be noted that the Russian occupiers carried out 27 airstrikes against civilian infrastructure using the Shahed-136 UAV. All these drones were shot down,” the military said in a statement on social media.
Makiivka attack sparks rare criticism in Russia
In the aftermath of one of the Ukraine war’s deadliest attacks, Russian nationalists and some lawmakers have demanded punishment for commanders they accuse of ignoring dangers.
“Who came up with the idea to place personnel in large numbers in one building, where even a fool understands that even if they hit with artillery, there will be many wounded or dead?” wrote Archangel Spetznaz Z, a Russian military blogger with more than 700,000 followers, on the Telegram messaging app.
Commanders “couldn’t care less”, he said.
Sergei Mironov, a legislator and former chairman of the Senate, Russia’s upper house, demanded criminal liability for the officials who “allowed the concentration of military personnel in an unprotected building” and “all the higher authorities who did not provide the proper level of security”.
Grigory Karasin, a member of the Senate and former deputy foreign minister, not only demanded vengeance against Ukraine and its NATO supporters but also “an exacting internal analysis”.