Wednesday, February 1

Russia’s war against Ukraine

First responders work on the site of a Russian Jan. 29 attack on Kharkiv. (Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov/Telegram)

Lithuanian president: NATO countries should supply Ukraine with all the weapons it needs. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda told LRT TV that NATO countries should not have “red lines” and supply Ukraine with the weapons it needs to win the war against Russia. The president explained that many of the so-called red lines that the West is afraid to cross were drawn by Russia.

Foreign Ministry: 120-140 Western tanks to be delivered. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine would receive 120-140 tanks in the first round from its Western allies. Currently, the coalition of western allies includes 12 countries, but not all can be named publicly. The incoming tanks include Leopard 2, Challenger 2, and M1 Abrams models.

Treasury: No sign that US funds were misused in Ukraine. “We have no indication that U.S. funds have been misused in Ukraine,” Treasury spokesperson Megan Apper told Reuters. “We welcome the ongoing efforts by the Ukrainian authorities to work with us to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place so that U.S assistance reaches those for whom it is intended.”

Budanov: Approximately 326,000 Russian soldiers currently fight in Ukraine. Chief of Defense Intelligence Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with the Washington Post that approximately 326,000 Russian soldiers are currently fighting in Ukraine. According to Budanov, only 9% of Russia’s long-range Kalibr missiles remain. Those numbers can’t be independently verified.

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UK Defense Ministry: Russian forces plan concentrated assault near Pavlivka, Vuhledar. Russia is preparing a concentrated assault around the towns of Pavlivka and Vuhledar, located 50 km southwest of Donetsk, according to the U.K Defense Ministry. According to the report, Russians have advanced approximately several hundred meters beyond the established front line of the Kashlahach River.

Security Service arrests pro-Russian council member on suspicion of treason. Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) reports arresting a Siversk City Council member for alleged treason. The man represented the pro-Russian Opposition Platform – For Life party. The suspect is accused of collecting intelligence for the Russians on Ukrainian troop movements in neighboring Bakhmut since October 2022.

Media: Incumbent top official at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry supported Russia in Crimea. Oleksandr Liyev, an incumbent top official at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, has supported Russia and its proxies in Ukraine’s annexed Crimea peninsula, according to media reports.

Foreign Ministry criticizes Croatian president’s statement about Crimea ‘never to be Ukraine again.’ Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Oleh Nikolenko wrote on Jan. 31 that Croatian President Zoran Milanovic’s recent statement about Crimea was “unacceptable.” The day before, Milanovic criticized the West’s decision to send tanks to Ukraine and said that the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula would “never again be part of Ukraine,” according to CNN.

Euractiv: EU-Ukraine summit to praise Kyiv’s progress but unlikely to commit to quick accession. The European Union’s top officials, set to visit Kyiv on Feb. 3 for the EU-Ukraine Summit, won’t commit to the country’s quick entry into the union, Euractiv reported, citing a draft summit communique. EU member states remain divided over using positive language concerning the speed of Ukraine’s accession, four diplomats told the publication.

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Russia’s war forced millions of Ukrainians to flee abroad. How many will return?

Viktoria Vozna, 25, had always enjoyed her quiet life in native Borvary, a city just east of Kyiv, and dreamed of raising her own children there one day. She never wanted to live abroad, but Russia’s brutal war forced her out of the country.

Photo: Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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Ukraine war latest: Russia claims control over Blahodatne, intensifies attacks near Vuhledar.

Moscow said on Jan. 31 that it captured Blahodatne, a village north of Bakhmut, and launched fresh attacks near the town of Vuhledar, where Western intelligence confirmed that Russian forces were initiating a “more concerted” assault.

Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images

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The human cost of Russia’s war

Russian attacks across 9 Ukrainian oblasts kill 1, injure 4 over past 24 hours. Russian attacks were reported in Donetsk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Luhansk oblasts in the east, south, and north of Ukraine.

Russian Jan. 31 attack on Bakhmut kills 2, including a child. Russian troops shelled a residential area in the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast on Jan. 31, killing two, including a 12-year-old boy, and injuring at least five more people, Prosecutor General’s Office reported. The exact number of victims is being clarified.

General Staff: Russia has lost 127,500 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24. Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Jan. 31 that Russia had also lost 3,201 tanks, 6,378 armored fighting vehicles, 5,048 vehicles and fuel tanks, 2,197 artillery systems, 454 multiple launch rocket systems, 221 air defense systems, 293 airplanes, 284 helicopters, 1,951 drones, and 18 boats.

International response

Norway’s 5-year aid package for Ukraine to be revealed on Feb. 7. Norway may provide some of its German-made Leopard-2 tanks to Ukraine as well, after Germany gave permission for other countries to do so last week.

Norway will deliver tanks to Ukraine ‘as soon as possible.’ Norway’s Defense Minister Bjorn Arild Gram told AFP news agency that the country will deliver tanks to Ukraine “as soon as possible.” The decided upon number of tanks could arrive in Ukraine as soon as the end of March.

Reuters: Washington prepares over $2 billion in military aid, longer-range weapons for Ukraine. The U.S. is preparing over $2 billion worth of military aid for Ukraine, including anticipated longer-range rockets, Reuters reported on Jan. 31, citing two U.S. officials privy to the information.

France promises to send 12 additional CAESAR self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine. France will send 12 additional CAESAR truck-mounted guns to Ukraine, said French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu in a joint press conference with Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov on Jan. 31. Lecornu added that 150 French soldiers would train 2,000 Ukrainian troops in Poland this summer.

France to provide more radar systems, missiles, artillery to Ukraine. GM 200, a medium-range radar produced by French company Thales Group, can provide launch and impact threat coordinates from multiple simultaneous threats.

Reuters: Poland aims to reduce training time for Leopard 2 tank crews to 5 weeks. Poland will try to reduce the time it takes to train Ukrainian soldiers to use Leopard 2 battle tanks to five weeks, reported Reuters.

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Poland denies discussing delivery of F-16 aircraft to Ukraine. Critics argue that allies’ reluctance to supply F-16 fighters and long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine will prevent Kyiv from launching a major offensive and liberating Ukrainian territory.

Austria, Hungary agree not to supply weapons to Ukraine. Austria and Hungary have agreed not to send military assistance to Ukraine, Austrian Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner and her Hungarian counterpart Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky said at a meeting in Budapest on Jan. 30, cited by Euractiv.

PM: Greece won’t send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Mitsokatis’ position contrasts with those of the U.S., U.K., Germany, Poland, Canada, Spain, Norway, and the Netherlands. All of them have either committed to sending Western-made tanks to Ukraine or are considering this.

UK government rules out sending fighter jets to Ukraine. The U.K. Prime Minister’s spokesman said on Jan. 31 that “it is not practical” to send British fighter jets to Ukraine, as quoted by Sky News. “The U.K.’s Typhoon and F-35 fighter jets are extremely sophisticated and take months to learn how to fly,” explained the spokesman.

Politico: Delivery of F-16 aircraft to Ukraine not ruled out despite Biden’s ‘no’ Critics argue that allies’ reluctance to supply F-16 fighters and long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine will prevent Kyiv from launching a major offensive and liberating Ukrainian territory. Ukraine’s lack of advanced aircraft and missiles is also likely to prolong Russia’s war of aggression and result in thousands of deaths.

US sanctions Iranian entities for supplying drones to Russia. Over the course of the invasion, Russia has started cooperating with Iran more closely to have more access to its kamikaze drones, which it has launched against Ukraine.

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Oleksiy Sorokin, Dinara Khalilova, Kate Tsurkan, Oleg Sukhov, Igor Kossov, Teah Pelechaty, Anastasiya Gordiychuk, and Anastasiia Malenko.

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