At least one killed, two wounded after missile attack on Kyiv – mayor
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko has posted to Telegram to say that at least one person has been killed as a result of this morning’s attacks. He writes:
As a result of a rocket hitting a non-residential building in the Holosivskyi district, there is currently information about one dead and two wounded. The injured were hospitalised by medics.
Key events
In Odesa, Suspilne reports that the utility company DTEK says “due to damage to the energy infrastructure, emergency power outages may last for several days until the objects damaged by shelling are restored.”
The air alarm is gradually ending across Ukraine’s regions at the moment. Odesa, Sumy and Chernihiv are among the places to have sounded the all clear.
The US ambassador to Ukraine has described this morning’s actions by Russian forces as “another cruel attack” and a “strategic failure”. Bridget Brink has posted to Twitter to say:
Another cruel attack, same strategic failure. Waves of Russian drones and missiles can’t stop Ukraine’s heroic defenders, its brave people or our determined, unified support.
Another cruel attack, same strategic failure. Waves of Russian drones and missiles can’t stop Ukraine’s heroic defenders, its brave people or our determined, unified support.
— Ambassador Bridget A. Brink (@USAmbKyiv) January 26, 2023
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne is reporting that one person has been killed and four wounded after Russia shelled Kochubeivka, which is a settlement in the north of the Kherson oblast. Suspilne reports that the administrative building was hit.
Kherson is one of the partially-occupied regions of Ukraine which the Russian Federation claims to have annexed, despite not having territorial control of the whole area, having retreated to behind the south bank of the Dnieper River.
Germany’s recently appointed new defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said on Thursday he would kick off talks with the defence industry as early as next week to speed up arms procurement and ramp up ammunitions supplies.
“My primary task now is to enter into talks with the defence industry with the aim of significantly shortening procurement times,” Reuters report he told journalists on the sidelines of a military exercise in Altengrabow in eastern Germany.
“If you look at ammunition, there is also the issue of quantity. This is another topic that I will raise in my talks with the defence industry, likely as early as next week if the schedule permits it,” he added.
Maksym Marchenko, regional head of Odesa, has given more details of the damage caused by Russian attacks there this morning. Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports him saying:
Due to damage to several energy infrastructure facilities in Odesa and other regions of Ukraine, there are significant problems with electricity supply. Energy workers have already started repair work, but it will take some time to repair the damage. Currently, Russian planes are in the air.
Reuters reports that the secretary of Russia’s security council has also said on Thursday that the US and Nato were parties to the conflict in Ukraine and were seeking to drag out the fighting.
Speaking a day after Germany and the US agreed to send dozens of tanks to Kyiv, Nikolai Patrushev, one of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, is quoted by Tass as saying what was happening in Ukraine today was the result of a years-long “hybrid war” being waged by the west against Russia.
Kremlin: sending tanks is seen as growing ‘direct involvement in the conflict’ from US and Nato
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has today said that Moscow views sending tanks to Ukraine as “direct involvement in the conflict”.
Speaking on his regular daily press call, the BBC reports Peskov told journalists:
There are constant statements from European capitals and from Washington that the sending of various weapons systems, including tanks, to Ukraine in no way means the involvement of these countries or Nato in the hostilities that are taking place in Ukraine. We categorically disagree. In Moscow, everything that both the alliance and the capitals I mentioned are doing is perceived as direct involvement in the conflict. We see that it is growing.
Viacheslav Chaus, the governor of Chernihiv, has confirmed that the region has been affected by a hack of its IT systems. He has posted to Telegram to say:
A large-scale virus attack was carried out on the authority servers yesterday. For the purpose of protection, part of the systems was disabled. The regional authority site and local authority sites are temporarily down. Specialists are working on restoring the system. This is not the first attack, there have been dozens of such attacks over the past year.
IT specialists say that this virus attack was well planned, the virus program entered the system in advance. And now it has been activated. Fortunately, we have enough means of communication and information exchange. Such attacks do not have any effect on our work, except that it takes a little more time to exchange information.
There are new reports of explosions in Kherson being carried by Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster.
Energy infrastructure damaged in Odesa, no injuries, after missile strike
A wave of Russian missile strikes damaged energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa on Thursday, the Odesa district military administration said on Telegram. Reuters reports that no injuries were cited by the authority.
A German citizen was arrested at Munich airport on suspicion of treason for allegedly passing intelligence onto Russia, the prosecutor general’s office said on Thursday.
Reuters reports that the man, identified only as Arthur E, was arrested on Sunday upon arriving in Germany from the United States, the prosecutor said in a statement. He is said to be an associate of Carsten L, an employee of the German foreign intelligence service (BND) who was arrested in December on suspicion of spying for Russia.
At least one killed, two wounded after missile attack on Kyiv – mayor
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko has posted to Telegram to say that at least one person has been killed as a result of this morning’s attacks. He writes:
As a result of a rocket hitting a non-residential building in the Holosivskyi district, there is currently information about one dead and two wounded. The injured were hospitalised by medics.
Wave of Russian missile attacks across Ukraine day after west agrees to send tanks
Daniel Boffey
Daniel Boffey reports for the Guardian from Kyiv:
Huge explosions shook Kyiv and raid sirens sounded across Ukraine on Thursday morning during a mass missile attack 24 hours after commitments were made by the US and Germany to send advanced battle tanks.
A total of 30 missiles were said to be heading towards targets in the war-torn country, after Ukraine’s air defences shot down 24 Iranian-made Shahad “kamikaze” drones overnight.
“We expect more than 30 missiles, which have already started to appear in various territories,” said Yuriy Ignat, a Ukrainian military spokesperson. “Air defence systems are working.”
Another spokesperson later claimed that Ukraine’s air defences had shot down 15 cruise missiles heading to Kyiv.
In the capital, the calm of a cold and snowy morning was broken at 10.06am local time by the sound of large explosions close to the main railway station. Further information was not readily available.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reported on Telegram that there had been explosions in the city.
As people rushed to cellars and bunkers for protection, local authorities sought to reassure the population that they had the means to take some of the missiles down.
The Ukrainian air force said it had successfully stopped a drone attack overnight. “Attack UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicle) were launched from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov. According to preliminary information, the enemy used 24 Shaheds. All 24 were destroyed,” the air force said.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the president’s office, said on Telegram: “The first Russian missiles have been shot down.”
In the UK, on Sky News, opposition party defence spokesperson John Healey has urged the British government to publish a longer-term plan for offering support to Ukraine. He told viewers:
What is crucial now is that the western countries willing to support Ukraine – and there are more than 40 countries who are supporting Ukraine in this battle –remain united and continue their supplies for the long term.
So I’ve argued for many months now that the government needs to move beyond ad hoc announcements of military support to Ukraine – which have our full support – but move beyond those ad hoc announcements to a full plan for 2023 and beyond for the military, economic and humanitarian assistance we will provide to Ukraine. In part because that will give Ukraine greater confidence and reassurance that British support will be maintained, but also it will signal to Putin that things will get worse not better for Russia.
Asked about the significance of Germany’s decision this week to send tanks to Ukraine, Healey said:
This is a really important move by Germany. And what’s important here is not just the tanks, but also the artillery, the armoured vehicles, the ammunition.
It confronts one of the biggest miscalculations that Putin made by his brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine last year, which was he miscalculated on the determination and resolution of the western countries to stand together, to stand with Ukraine and to remain united.
And that decision by the Germans now about Leopard tanks allows other countries to move together to support Ukraine in this battle, to see off the Russian aggression, and reclaim their own country.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has reported on Telegram that there have been explosions in the city.
