Russia-Ukraine updates: Ukraine denies Russian strike killed 600
All the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war from January 8 as they happened.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Sunday, January 8.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Sunday, January 8.
- Ukraine has denied a claim from Russia’s defence ministry that a strike on Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region killed 600 Ukrainian service members.
- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced 7.9 million Ukrainians to flee the country, and internally displaced another 5.9 million, a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Sunday.
- Russia’s overnight bombing has killed at least one in the northeastern region of Kharkiv shortly after Moscow ended a self-declared Christmas ceasefire.
- Two thermal power plants have been damaged by Ukrainian shelling in Russian-controlled parts of the Donetsk region.
Leopard tanks to Ukraine can’t be ruled out: German economy minister
Germany cannot rule out the delivery of Leopard tanks, heavier fighting vehicles than the previously announced Marders, to support Ukrainian military forces in the future, the country’s economy minister told German broadcaster ARD.
“Of course it can’t be ruled out,” Robert Habeck said.
His comments come two days after Germany said it wants to deliver around 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine before the end of March, a decision Habeck said was good and long overdue.
Ukrainian officials deny Russian claims of deadly strike
Ukrainian officials have denied Russian claims that a strike on dormitories in Kramatorsk killed 600 Ukrainian service members.
“This information is as true as the data that they have destroyed all of our HIMARS,” Sergiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the Eastern group of the Ukrainian armed forces, told the Suspilne media outlet, referring to high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) supplied by the United States.
Later, speaking to the BBC, Cherevaty called the claim “propaganda”.
Two Reuters reporters who visited the dormitories where the soldiers had allegedly been killed said there were no signs of a mass casualty event.
No obvious signs of casualties where Russia says soldiers killed: Reuters reporters
Reuters reporters have said there were no obvious signs of casualties at two dormitories in the city of Kramatorsk, where Russia claimed a “retaliatory strike” had killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers who had been temporarily housed there.
Russia’s defence ministry did not specify exactly when the attack took place, but Reuters reporters visited the site – two college dormitories – on Sunday and reported that neither building appeared to have been directly hit by missiles or seriously damaged. They reported there were no obvious signs that soldiers had been living at the locations and no sign of bodies or traces of blood.
One of the buildings had several broken windows, and stood by a courtyard that had a big crater in it, they reported.
Ukrainian authorities did not immediately comment on the strike or on Russia’s claim of hundreds of casualties. Kramatorsk’s mayor earlier said there had been no casualties amid seven overnight Russian strikes on the city, which is located in the Donetsk region.
Russia, Belarus to hold joint aviation drills: Belarusian defence ministry
Russia and Belarus will hold joint aviation drills next week, the Belarusian defence ministry has said.
The drills will be held from January 16 to February 1, the ministry said in a statement.
According to the statement, the Russian air divisions arrived in Belarus on Sunday. The drills will involve all the airfields and training areas of the Belarusian air force and air defence, the ministry added.
Russia, Ukraine say soldiers swapped in deal
Russia’s defence ministry has said that Ukraine has returned 50 captured Russian soldiers after negotiations, with Ukraine confirming the swap and saying 50 Ukrainian service members had also been freed.
“On January 8, as a result of negotiations, 50 Russian servicemen, who were in mortal danger while in captivity, were returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford reports from Kyiv, Ukraine during the first Orthodox Christmas since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
For Ukraine’s 30 million members of the Orthodox Church, attending Christmas mass has become not just a spiritual act, but also a political one.
Sweden says it can’t meet all of Turkey’s NATO application demands
Sweden’s prime minister has said the Nordic country is confident Turkey will approve its application to join NATO, but said Stockholm cannot meet some of Ankara’s conditions.
“Turkey both confirms that we have done what we said we would do, but they also say that they want things that we cannot or do not want to give them,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a defence think-tank conference in Sweden, without specifying to which conditions he referred.
Finland and Sweden signed a three-way agreement with Turkey in 2022 aimed at overcoming objections to their membership to NATO.
But Turkey has continued to block the bid, with Ankara saying the countries have not done enough to crack down on groups it considers to be “terrorist” organisations and to extradite people suspected of “terror-related” crimes. Turkish officials have most recently bristled at Sweden’s top court’s refusal to extradite journalist Bulent Kenes, who Turkey accuses of helping to plot a failed 2016 coup.
Kramatorsk hit in ‘retaliatory strike’: Russia
Moscow has said its army conducted a deadly “retaliatory strike” in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk.
Russia’s defence ministry did not say when the strike occurred, but said “more than 600 Ukrainian servicemen were killed” when two buildings used as barracks were targeted in the city in the eastern region of Donetsk. The casualty number could not immediately be independently verified, but would represent one of the deadliest single attacks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022.
The ministry said the attack was in response to a Ukrainian strike at the beginning of the year on the Russian-occupied town of Makiivka, in which Russia said 89 of its troops were killed.
Ukraine did not immediately respond to the claim. Earlier on Sunday, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk regional administration, said Russia had launched seven rocket attacks on Kramatorsk, saying that “an educational institution, an industrial facility and a garage cooperative” had been damaged. He said there were no casualties.
Ukraine sanctions dozens of Russian artists, public figures
Ukraine has placed dozens of Russian artists and other public figures on a sanctions list, according to a decree published by the president’s office.
The announcement on Saturday lists big names from the worlds of opera, film and pop music amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
One of the most well-known names is that of Vienna-based opera singer Anna Netrebko, who has come under fire for being too close to the Kremlin and too uncritical of Russian President Putin.
Read more here.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in maps
Russia, Belarus intensify joint military training
Russia and Belarus have stepped up joint military training, drawing on Moscow’s experience of fighting in Ukraine with an emphasis on urban warfare, the Belarusian defence ministry’s TV channel has reported.
“The regional grouping of [Russian and Belarusian] troops is being trained almost without interruption,” the VoenTV channel reported. “The intensity of the exercises is only increasing. The goal is to be ready to fight back against an aggressor on all fronts.”
Heightened military cooperation between the two allies comes amid speculation in Ukraine and the West that Moscow may use Belarus as a launching pad for a new attack on Ukraine from the north.
Two killed in Ukraine despite Russian ‘ceasefire’: Kyiv
Two Ukrainians were killed and nine wounded despite Russian President Vladimir Putin unilaterally ordering his forces to pause attacks on Orthodox Christmas, Kyiv officials have claimed.
As a result of “Russia’s armed aggression”, one person was killed and another eight wounded in the eastern region of Donetsk over the past 24 hours, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office.
Almost eight million people have fled Ukraine: UN
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has unleashed the largest wave of refugees since World War II, the UN refugee body has said.
“More than 7.9 million people have fled the country, and another 5.9 million are internally displaced,” said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees representative in Germany, Katharina Lumpp.
The total figure of almost 14 million represents more than a third of the country’s total population of around 41 million.
Ukraine has the ‘largest’ minefield in the world: PM
Ukraine’s PM Denys Shmyhal said the war has resulted in a minefield of 250,000sq km (96,526sq miles) in the war-torn nation.
“It is currently the largest minefield in the world,” Shmyhal told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
The mined area, according to Shmyhal, is equivalent to more than 40 percent of Ukraine’s total land area.
“It’s not only making it difficult for people to travel, but also causing major disruptions in farming, which is one of our main industries,” he said.
Russia says thermal power plants hit by Ukraine rocket attack
Two thermal power plants in part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region controlled by Russian forces were damaged in a rocket attack by the Ukrainian army, Moscow-installed officials and Russia’s state TASS news agency has reported.
Initial information suggested that the plants in Zuhres and Novyi Svit were hit and some people working there had sustained injuries, the officials said on their Telegram channels.
One person was killed as a result of the attack on the Starobesheve power plant in Novyi Svit, TASS reported.
One killed in overnight Russian shelling: Ukraine
Overnight bombing by Russia in eastern Ukraine has killed at least one person, local officials said on Sunday.
A 50-year-old man died in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, Oleh Sinehubov, the region’s governor said on the Telegram messaging app.