Ukraine Daily

Monday, January 2

Russia’s war against Ukraine

This photograph taken on Jan. 1, 2023, shows an inside view of a damaged room at the regional Childrens Hospital after a Russian missile strike in the southern city of Kherson, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images)

Ukraine’s air defense downed all 39 Russian drones. Russian forces launched a massive strike against Ukraine using Iranian-made Shahed-131/136 kamikaze drones overnight on Jan. 2. The air defense destroyed all 39 drones. Over the same reporting period, two Orlan-10 drones were downed as well as an X-59 guided missile.

Russia’s Jan. 1 attack damages infrastructure facility in Kyiv Oblast. Kyiv Oblast Governor Oleksiy Kuleba said that Russia launched “almost three dozen drones” at Kyiv Oblast overnight on Jan. 1, damaging an infrastructure facility.

Missile debris found in Kyiv metro, several stations closed. The Kyiv City Hall said that on Jan. 1 that objects appearing to be the debris of a missile had been found on the subway tracks. Several stations of the metro’s red line have been closed.

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DTEK: Russia’s NYE attack damages thermal power plant. During its mass attack against Ukraine on Dec. 31, Russia damaged a thermal power plant in Ukraine, Ukraine’s biggest private energy company DTEK reported. The attack reportedly damaged the facility’s equipment.

Governor: Russia hit Sumy Oblast more than 110 times over past 24 hours. Sumy Governor Dmytro Zhyvytsky said on Jan.1 that the Russian military fired 114 times at five settlements. Although there were no civilian casualties, the Russians damaged a church, a cultural center, and a local gathering place.

Air Force: 45 Russian kamikaze drones shot down overnight on Jan. 1. Ukraine’s Air Force said that 13 Iranian-made Shahed-131/136 kamikaze drones were shot down late on Dec. 31, while 32 were destroyed during the first day of 2023.

General Staff: Russian army shells Kherson Oblast to force Ukrainians to flee. The Russian army has been shelling the non-occupied part of the southern Kherson Oblast and the city of Kherson daily.

Military intelligence: Russia modifies shelling tactics against Ukraine. Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukrainian military intelligence, said on Jan. 1 that Russia began to change shelling tactics by combining attacks with Iranian-made combat drones and anti-defense S-300 surface-to-air missiles. The Russian army is short of Kalibr and anti-aircraft missiles, he added.

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Ukraine retrieved almost 1,600 POWs from Russian captivity in 2022. Among them were 1,464 service people and 132 civilians from Russian captivity. However, about 3,400 Ukrainian soldiers are still in Russian captivity.

ISW: Lack of ammo likely to slow down Russian offensives in Bakhmut and elsewhere. The depletion of the Russian military’s artillery ammunition stocks will likely impact their ability to conduct a high pace of operations near Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, and elsewhere in Ukraine, according to the latest update by the Institute for the Study of War.

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Ukraine war latest: Russia attacks Ukraine with missiles, drones on New Year.

Russia attacked Ukraine on New Year’s Eve with missiles, followed by a drone attack after midnight.

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The human cost of Russia’s war

Prosecutor General’s Office: Russian attacks injure 3 children on New Year’s Eve. At least three children aged 12 to 14 were wounded during Russia’s mass attack against Ukraine on Dec. 31, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported.

Official: Russian attack kills 1 in liberated Kherson overnight on Jan. 1. Russian troops attacked the city nearly seven times and “over 700 windows were broken,” Tymoshenko added.

Governor: Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia Oblast kills 1, injures 3. Russian troops attacked the community of Orikhiv in southeastern Zaporizhzhia Oblast on Jan. 1, killing one person and injuring three, Zaporizhzhia Oblast Governor Oleksandr Starukh reported.

Governor: One person killed by Russian missile attack on Khmelnytsky. A 22-year-old woman has died in the hospital following Russia’s Dec. 31 missile attack on the western city of Khmelnytsky, Governor Serhiy Hamaliy reported on Jan. 1.

General Staff: 350 wounded Russian soldiers brought to hospital in Luhansk Oblast in one week. Over the last week, about 350 wounded Russian soldiers were brought to a hospital in the city of Bilovodsk in Luhansk Oblast, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported in its morning update.

General Staff: Russia has lost 106,720 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24. Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Jan. 1 that Russia had also lost 3,031 tanks, 6,084 armored fighting vehicles, 4,720 vehicles and fuel tanks, 2,021 artillery systems, 423 multiple launch rocket systems, 213 air defense systems, 283 airplanes, 269 helicopters, 1,792 drones, and 16 boats.

International response

UK stops importing Russian LNG on Jan. 1. The U.K. stopped all imports of Russian liquified natural gas on Jan. 1, said the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said.

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Oleg Sukhov, Daria Shulzhenko, Teah Pelechaty, Dinara Khalilova, Olga Rudenko, Oleksiy Sorokin, Natalia Datskevych, Anastasiya Gordiychuk, Brad LaFoy, and Olena Goncharova.

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