As the war enters its 686th day, these are the main events.
Here is the situation on Wednesday, January 10, 2024.
Struggle
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would do everything possible to stop Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod, while Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had shot down 10 rockets fired at the Russian border town in an attack that injured three. Hundreds of people have been evacuated from Belgorod since an attack last month that killed more than 20 civilians.
- One person was killed in Ukrainian shelling of Russia’s Kursk region near the border, while three people were injured after drones struck a fuel facility in the neighboring Oryol region, according to the governors of the two regions.
- One person was killed in the Ukrainian bombing of Horlivka in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine, according to the city’s Russian-installed mayor.
- At least 520 children have been killed and nearly 1,200 injured since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, according to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office.
- A body was found in the ruins of a kyiv warehouse destroyed in Russia’s December 29 missile attack on the Ukrainian capital, raising the death toll in the bombing to 33.
- Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu assured security officials that his forces were in control along the roughly 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line, which has been largely static for the past year to despite the fierce fighting. “We maintain the strategic initiative along the entire line of contact,” Shoigu said, accusing the United States of pressuring Ukraine to continue fighting Russia. He claimed that Ukraine lost 215,000 soldiers in fighting last year.
Politics and diplomacy
- A secret meeting took place in Saudi Arabia last month between Ukraine, its Group of Seven (G7) allies and a small group of Global South countries to build support for Kiev’s peace plan, according to Bloomberg News. The report, citing people familiar with the situation, said China decided not to attend and Russia was not invited.
- Russia’s Interior Ministry has put exiled Russian tycoon and opposition leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky on its wanted list, accusing him of spreading false information about the Russian military, according to Russian state news agency TASS. London-based Khodorkovsky has been an outspoken critic of the war in Ukraine.
- The Italian city of Modena blocked the use of a public hall to host a private event on the reconstruction of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which is under Russian occupation, saying it appeared to openly support the Russian invasion. The event was organized by the Russian Emilia-Romagna cultural association and among the panelists was the Russian consul general in Milan, Dmitry Shtodin, according to the organizers’ website.
Weapons
- A group of 48 countries, including Argentina, Australia and the United States, condemned “in the strongest possible terms the export by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the acquisition by Russia of ballistic missiles from the DPRK “, as well as Russia’s use of these missiles against Ukraine on December 30, 2023 and January 2, 2024.” Such transfers violated United Nations Security Council resolutions on North Korea, they added in a statement. joint statement.The Kremlin’s Peskov declined to comment on the US and Ukrainian accusations.
- Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat told national television that the recent escalation of missile and drone attacks by Russia was straining Ukraine’s air defense resources, leaving the country vulnerable unless it could secure more weapons supplies. Russia fired more than 500 drones and missiles between December 29 and January 2, according to kyiv officials.
- Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said an internal audit of the ministry had so far uncovered corruption schemes estimated at more than $262 million, including the purchase of ammunition.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there were “clear signs of a slowdown” in Russian defense industry activities and called for more measures to close loopholes in sanctions against Moscow. Zelenskyy did not provide evidence for his claim.
