Friday marked the 695th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “There has been a crazy, huge shortage of ammunition for months,” Kyiv's mayor, Vitaly Klitschko, told Bild newspaper. – This is the main problem when talking to the players on the front line – he emphasized. Klitschko announced that he was “disappointed” by the Bundestag's decision on Wednesday to reject the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. – Unfortunately, yesterday's result was not favorable for Ukraine. “This is a difficult time for my country, where there are not enough soldiers and ammunition at the front,” said the Mayor of Kyiv. Follow Virtualna Polska's live coverage.
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After Ukraine shot down a Russian A-50 early warning and air control aircraft (NATO mainstay), Russia limited reconnaissance operations in its own airspace, the British Ministry of Defense said on Friday.
The daily intelligence briefing recalled that on January 14, a Russian A-50 course exploded and then crashed into the Sea of Azov. It has been stressed that the aircraft are vital to Russian operations over Ukraine, and to perform threat warning and command and control roles.
On Wednesday, another Russian Air Force A-50 apparently began conducting operations, it was reported, but this time over Russian territory near Krasnodar, further east of Ukraine. “This move largely reduces the willingness to jeopardize the aircraft and represents Ukraine's attempt to retain its remaining A-50 mainstay at the cost of losing overall effectiveness,” it said.
Although Russia has not commented in any way on the loss of the A-50, this limited operation implicitly acknowledges the success of the Ukrainian operation targeting the most valuable equipment, since the loss of the aircraft was the result. In the event of an accident, such restrictions are not required.
The Russian city of Belgorod, located near the border with Ukraine, canceled celebrations for the traditional Orthodox holiday of Epiphany. The reason for the decision taken by the regional authorities was the threat of an attack from Kiev.
“Russian weapons in Ukraine: different types, same fate” – writes the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on the X platform, publishing a record showing an effective attack on Russian equipment.
Officials in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine reported on Friday a large increase in the number of rabies among wild animals there last year. This was due to the Russian invasion, as vaccinations were impossible under war conditions.
In 2023, 117 cases of rabies were confirmed in the Kharkiv region, nearly 70 percent of which were in areas under Russian occupation or the site of heavy fighting until fall 2022.
Kherson officials showed what the city streets looked like after a night of shelling by the Russian army. The projectiles damaged several houses. Fortunately no one was killed.
As part of the British Operation Interflex, 33,000 people have already been trained. Ukrainian soldiers. The British Ministry of Defense writes that this action will continue into 2024, as will Great Britain's support for Ukraine.
Ukraine's former prime minister will be prosecuted for inciting the overthrow of the constitutional order, collaborating with Russia and denying its armed aggression, the public prosecutor's office in Kyiv announced. It is about Mikola Asaro, head of government in 2010-2014.
The prosecutor's office announced on Thursday that it had filed charges against the former prime minister, but did not name him. At the same time, he published a blurred photo in which Azarov could be identified and provided facts that clearly indicated that it was him.
“He publicly called for the change and removal of the constitutional order, carried out information operations in cooperation with the occupying government, justified, legalized and denied the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine,” the statement declared.
On Thursday, 20.7 thousand people were checked from Ukraine to Poland. People, and 17 thousand from Poland to Ukraine – the border guard reported on Friday on the X platform. Since the beginning of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, more than 18 million 588 thousand deaths have been recorded. More than 16 million 763 thousand trips to Ukraine entering Poland.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has published new data on the losses of Russian troops. In the last 24 hours, 920 encroachments were removed. Since the start of the invasion, the Russians have already lost around 374,520 soldiers.
Another record from the Bryansk region of Russia.
Ukraine is increasingly using drones. In recent months, the number of drone attacks against targets in Russia, primarily military, industrial and technological, has increased significantly. Moscow blames Kiev for these actions. Independent experts insist that drone strikes, at least some of which are carried out from Russian territory, are aimed at objects increasingly distant from Ukraine.
On Thursday, a fuel base in the Leningrad region, 800 km from the border with Ukraine, was attacked. The Military Intelligence Service of Ukraine (HUR) claimed responsibility for the attack. At the end of August 2023, the military airport in Pisco, located about 700 km from the border of this country, was attacked.
Drones continue to appear in and around Moscow, resulting in airspace closures over local airports.
A fire broke out at an oil warehouse in the city of Klintsy in western Russia's Bryansk region after an explosive device fell from a Ukrainian drone shot down by the Russian military, the oblast's governor, Alexander Bogomas, said on Friday.
Bryansk Oblast borders Ukraine. According to Governor Bogomas, quoted by Reuters, the drone struck “objects located in the city”. No injuries were reported and the fire was extinguished in and around the oil tanks. The fire is being extinguished.
A Russian T-72 tank was destroyed by a Ukrainian drone. “The second armored vehicle escaped as quickly as possible, despite the fact that the Russians said that they did not leave their people,” writes the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, commenting on a video released from the front.
Countries backing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's bid to head NATO are working behind the scenes to ensure he gets the nomination during the alliance's summit in Washington this summer, Bloomberg wrote Thursday.
The decision must be taken unanimously by the 31 allies of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the Dutch leader is already the clear choice to replace current Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, whose term ends in October.
A majority of Congress supports aid to Ukraine, but the question is whether a minority will stop it, US President Joe Biden commented on Thursday at a meeting on the topic with party leaders at the White House. He added that such a scenario would be a disaster.
– If Russia loses on the battlefield, we will see liberal changes in this country, which has been reformed during every war, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorsky said Thursday during a debate on Russia at the 54th World Economic Forum in Davos.
The politician said that if Russia wins in Ukraine, it will encourage China to invade Taiwan.
According to Ukrinform, on November 10 libraries in Kiev were renamed with names that refer to the Russian Federation and Soviet ideology.
According to the decision of the Kyiv City Council, the library named after Konstantin Simonov will now be called “Library in Voskreshenko”; Library named after Vladimir Mayakovsky – “Rusanovka Library”; Library named after Maxim Gorki – named after Mykola Kulish; Library for Children V. Dubinina – “Dmytro Plus Library for Children”; Library named after M. Chernyshevsky – “Library on Degtyarivskaya”.
“Glorifying the Russian Federation, the Soviet Union and Russian imperialism is unacceptable in the capital of Ukraine. We are currently working to rid our city of all ideologically hostile names. For decades, the Kremlin's cultural propaganda has tried to discredit our history. Our citizens, now the city is working to restore justice. Kyiv “Libraries should bear the names of great Ukrainians,” Muga emphasized.
As Victoria Muga, head of the standing committee for culture, tourism and public relations of the Kyiv City Council noted, changing the names of the libraries is a step to remove traces of the “Russian world”.