Here is the situation on Thursday, January 16:
Fighting
- Ukraine’s air force claimed that Russia hit its western part with 43 cruise and ballistic missiles as well as 74 drones.
- Russian authorities confirmed the attack, saying it was in response to Kyiv’s aerial attack on Russian army factories and energy hubs with US ATACMS missiles and UK-made Storm Shadow missiles.
- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned Russia’s latest strikes on the country’s energy sector, calling for more security assistance from foreign allies and for Kyiv to be allowed to use nearly $250bn of seized Russian assets to buy weapons.
- Russia’s regional Governor Alexander Gusev said falling debris from destroyed Ukrainian drones triggered a fire at an oil storage facility in southern Russia. No casualties were reported.
Regional security
- Russia and Iran are expected to sign a partnership treaty that will govern the two countries’ relations for the next 20 years. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, are scheduled to hold talks to that effect in Moscow on Friday.
Politics and diplomacy
- President Zelenskyy said 25 Ukrainians – including some who fought at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol which was eventually captured by Russia in 2022 – are to return “home to Ukraine” as part of a prisoner exchange deal.
- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a news conference that Russia was planning “acts of terrorism” against Poland and other countries.
- Zelenskyy said he expects the United States to continue supporting Ukraine’s military capabilities against Russia after President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.
- NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte called on allies to “shift to a wartime mindset” in the current global situation. “To prevent war, we need to prepare for it,” he said.
- Advisers to Trump have reportedly admitted that resolving the Ukraine war will take months if not longer. Trump has promised to strike a peace deal on his first day at the White House.
- They also support taking Ukraine’s potential NATO membership off the table and freezing the current battle lines in the country, along with creating a demilitarised zone patrolled by European troops.
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he could only fund an additional $3.1bn in arms deliveries to Ukraine through separate borrowing, because otherwise “the money isn’t there”.
Russian oil and gas
- Moldova’s pro-Moscow breakaway leader Vadim Krasnoselsky said Transnistria expects Russia to resume supplying his region with “humanitarian gas” needed to generate heat and power for the general population and industrial enterprises.
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