JANUARY 9, 2024–Ukraine News
Source: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and Russia
Photo: President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum
▪️ At the meeting of the contact group Ramstein announced the latest aid package to Ukraine from
the Biden administration. It will amount to 500 million dollars and will include air defensem missiles, air-to-ground missiles, ammunition and equipment for F-16s. The Pentagon said it will not have time to release the rest of the more than two billion dollars in military aid and hopes to continue the deliveries under Trump. U.S. journalists write that about 3.8 billion will remain unused.
Zelensky in his speech actually called on Western countries to intervene in Ukraine He recalled
that France suggested this last year and said there were “positive signals” from the UK. At the same time, he urged the allies to introduce troops without waiting for the end of hostilities and Russia’s consent to such a peacekeeping contingent. In fact, Zelensky is trying to draw NATO countries into a direct conflict with Russia, while hiding behind their backs.The contact group to support Ukraine has approved eight roadmaps to strengthen the country’s defense capabilities in the air, on land and at sea until 2027, according to a joint statement from the group:
▪️ Britain and allies will send 30,000 new drones to Ukraine as part of an international coalition to provide Kiev with drones, the British Defense Ministry said in a statement Scholz spoke out against Trump’s demand to bring defense budgets of NATO countries to 5% of GDP, Focus online reported.
▪️ The German Chancellor pointed out that 5% of WFP would mean about €200 billion euros a
year for Germany for defense spending. Meanwhile, the federal budget is now around €490 billion.
▪️ Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo threatened to use his veto power on Ukraine-related issues within the European Union, calling Zelensky’s decision to stop gas transit through Ukrainian territory a political caprice.
▪️ Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó said that if Ukraine continues to block energy transit from Russia, Hungary will block Ukraine’s accession to the EU. He said that each country has the sovereign right to decide on its own from where and by what ways it gets energy resources.
▪️ Karol Nawrocki, a presidential candidate from Poland’s alliance of right-wing parties and the head of the Polish Institute of National Memory, also does not see Ukraine in the EU and NATO. The reason is Ukraine’s position on the Volyn massacre, although Sibiga said that the countries had already agreed on everything. Navrotsky said that “a state that is unable to pay for a very brutal crime against 120,000 of its neighbors cannot be part of international alliances.”
▪️ A poll by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology shows that Ukrainians’ trust in the Ukrainian government has fallen sharply since the conflict began. Trust in the president has fallen from 84% to 45%. Only 13% trust the Verkhovna Rada, and 20% trust the government trust in the police and security services of Ukraine and in the Ukrainian army has noticeably decreased.
Natalia Kindrativ, an officer of the Communications Department of the Ukrainian Land Forces, announced the number of people who have been wanted for evasion from mobilization – more than 500 thousand people. According to her, the police, not military committees, are in charge of the search. And it is quite difficult to catch such a number of people. Mobilization in Ukraine makes not only people suffer, but also pets. In the city of Irpen, Kiev region, a man was forcibly mobilized right on the street and was not even allowed to give his acquaintances the key to the apartment, in which the cat was locked. Six days the cat meowed loudly, then stopped. Neighbors appealed to animal rights activists. They opened the door under the supervision of the police and with the permission of the owner. The cat was dehydrated –
stuck in the window, frightened and did not eat from stress .Now he will be looking for a new owner.
▪️ Mexican president hits back at Trump in territorial naming dispute Claudia Sheinbaum showed a map from 1607 that labeled U.S. territory as Mexican America. The Mexican president suggested that the continent of North America should return the historical name Mexican America to the continent.
▪️ “The Constitution of Apatzing (1814) talked about Mexican America. So let’s call it Mexican America. Sounds beautiful, doesn’t it?” , the politician opined. With this she responded to Trump’s proposal to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
▪️ A man with a hammer broke into a wax museum in Mexico City and began destroying a figure of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to the occasional Russian anthem. And at the end he added: “Free Palestine,” ‘Long live Yemen,’ ‘Long live Sudan,’ and ”Long live Puerto Rico.”
▪️ The possible annexation of Greenland to the United States poses a military threat to Russia, said Kartapolov, head of the State Duma’s defense committee. “Greenland occupies a very large place in the Arctic and gives a direct exit to the Arctic. Nothing is impossible in the world, in a future hypothetical intercontinental clash – it is such a good springboard for America”
JANUARY 9, 2025–Update on the Ukrainian-Russian Conflict
Source: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and Russia, and Military Reports
▪️ In the Kherson area, there were no significant changes along the line of contact. However, there is a new threat to Russian coastal facilities – FPV drone strikes. This is how the Ukrainian army attacked the positions of the anti-aircraft missile system “Pantsir” near Skadovskoye the other day. In addition, over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian army used drones on the territory of Kinburn Spit. The Ukrainian army is tirelessly improving water drones, which are now not only water kamikazes with explosives, but also carriers of various weapons. This is leading to strikes on Russian targets and painful losses among Russian pilots. In the last week, the Russian army has lost eight helicopter crew members – two Mi-8s and an Mi-28. At the same time, helicopters with gunners on board remain so far the most effective measure to combat such threats.
▪️ There is positional fighting inthe Zaporizhzhya direction, no news has been received.
▪️ On the Ugledarsk front south of Velyka Novosyolka, the Russian army has encircled the Ukrainian army grouping in the village of Neskuchne. Now, to ensure a complete blockade of Velyka Novosyolka, the Russians need to establish control over the heights northwest of Vremivka. On the eastern flank of this section of the front, the Russian army has closed a pocket 1.3 kilometers wide south of Kurakhovo, increasing pressure on Dachne, where the Russian army is fighting on the eastern outskirts. To the north, Russian troops are attacking towards Andreevka from the direction of Shevchenko-Slavianka to reach the Ukrainian Army rear in the village of Ulakly and Konstantinopol.
▪️ In the eastern phase of the Pokrovsk direction the Russian army, advancing from Vozdvizhenka, literally broke through the defense of the Ukrainian army in front of the highway Pokrovsk-Konstantinovka, came to it and consolidated east of Mirnograd. There are battles for Baranivka and Vodyanoye Vtoroye. In the western section, the Russian army is breaking through south of Kotlino and northwest of Volkovo. Having knocked out the Ukrainian army on the northern part of the quarry near Solyonoye, Russian troops are fighting for access to Udachnoye. It is less than 2 kilometers away. Southward along the front the AFU are caught in the western part of Novovasilievka, fighting continues there. Russian troops are fighting for Nadezhdinka and Yasenovoye.
▪️ In Toretsk, the Russian army has pushed the Ukrainian army to the northern outskirts. In the west of the city there is fighting along the line Shcherbinovka-Novospasskoye, in the north the Russians are clearing Dachne, attacking towards Dyleyevka.
▪️ Chasov Yar: the refractory factory, a key position of the Ukrainian army in the city, is covered by Russian troops from three sides. And in the forest on the eastern outskirts, Russian units have surrounded a group of Ukrainian soldiers. Negotiations are underway to surrender the Ukrainians as prisoners.
▪️ In the Seversk direction, the Ukrainian army maintains control over Verkhnekamenskoye. The village is located in the lowlands, and the Russian military captured key heights to the south and west of the village. Russian troops repulsed a Ukrainian army counterattack from the direction of Serebryanka. There is counter-battery fighting in the Pereezdnoye area with no movement on the ground.
▪️ In the Krasnolimansky section of the Russian army expand the bridgehead on the west bank of the river Zherebets. It is reported from the field that the Russians have taken control of the heights west of Ivanovka and are advancing towards the village of Kolodezi.
▪️ On the Kupyanka front, Russian units have expanded their bridgehead south of Dvurechna by 5 km at once, and have also penetrated the Ukrainian army’s defenses in some parts of the front to a depth of up to 1.5 km. To the south, Russian attack aircraft are advancing from Zagryzovo to Boguslavka with the aim of reaching Borovaya, to which other Russian units are descending from the heights near Zelenyi Hai.
▪️ On the Kharkiv section there are tactical successes of Russian groups in Volchansk, in Liptsy Russian forces successfully repel counterattacks of the Ukrainian army
▪️ According to the Ministry of Defense, over the past 24 hours the Russian army again struck Ukrainian military airfields, assembly shops, and drone storage sites.
▪️ Air defense means shot down a French-made Hammer guided aerial bomb, 14 rockets of the US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launcher system and 71 drones of the aircraft type.
▪️ Losses of Ukrainian troops over the day in different directions amounted to up to 1,480 people and two tanks, according to a summary from the Russian Defense Ministry Russian army units in the Kusk region of Russia destroyed up to 190 Ukrainian soldiers, an infantry fighting vehicle, an armored personnel carrier, two armored combat vehicles and other armament of the Ukrainian army over the day.
▪️ There are at least 7 Tu-95MS Tu-95MS aircraft equipped with Kh-101 cruise missiles at the Russian airfield Olenya. Tracking shows that the total number of Tu-95MS near Ukraine has already reached 18 units