January 2, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia's war in Ukraine has moved here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia is planning a prolonged campaign of attacks with Iranian-made Shahed drones to exhaust Ukraine.

“We have information that Russia is planning a prolonged attack with Shaheds. Its bet may be on exhaustion,” Zelensky said in his nightly address Monday. “On exhaustion of our people, our air defense, our energy sector.” 

Zelensky said Ukraine's main task is to ensure Russia's drone plans fail.

He said more than 80 have been shot down over Ukraine since the start of 2023. 

"This number may increase in the near future. Because these weeks the nights can be quite restless.” He added: Now is the time when everyone involved in the protection of the sky should be especially attentive.”

Forty percent of territories occupied after Feb. 24 — when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine — were liberated over the past year, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, said Monday.

 “The Armed Forces liberated 40 percent of the territories occupied during the full-scale invasion and 28 percent of all territories occupied by Russia since 2014,” he reported in a round-up post of 2022 on the Telegram app.

The current frontline is 1,500 km long, the general said.

According to Zaluzhny, Ukrainian Armed Forces have undergone military training in the territory of 17 European countries.

“Thanks to international partners it was possible to train more than 20,000 soldiers,” he said. “In 2022, more than 600,000 people were evacuated from the areas of hostilities and more than 2 million tonnes of humanitarian goods were brought in.”

 

 

The Ukrainian military said Monday that the number of Russian troops killed in a missile strike in Makiivka, in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, is “being clarified.” Earlier, the Ukrainian military claimed that hundreds of Russian soldiers were killed, without directly acknowledging a role.

The Russian Ministry of Defense did acknowledge the attack and claimed that “63 Russian servicemen” died.

Here are some other key developments:

• 40% of Russian occupied territories liberated: Forty percent of territories occupied after Feb. 24 — when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine — were liberated over the past year, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, said Monday.
• Russian region of Belgorod reports shelling: The governor of Belgorod, a Russian region bordering Ukraine, reported shelling on Monday. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that "the village of Murom in the Shebekinsky urban district came under fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
• Russia fired 224 times in Bakhmut's direction over the past day: Russia continues to focus its main efforts on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, firing 224 times in this direction over the past 24 hours, according to the spokesperson for the Eastern Group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Serhii Cherevatyi.
• Ukraine estimates $35.3 billion in ecological damage due to war: The damage to Ukrainian ecology caused by Russia's war on Ukraine is now estimated at $35.3 billion, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, said on Monday. According to the latest calculations of the Ministry of Environment, the war has directly led to emissions of 33 million tonnes of greenhouse gases.
• Strikes on Beryslav: At least five people have been injured by alleged Russian tank fire on a market in the southern Ukrainian town of Beryslav, according to the regional governor. “Presumably, the fire was conducted from a tank from the temporarily occupied Kakhovka,” said Yaroslav Yanushevych, governor of Kherson region, where Beryslav is located, on his official Telegram channel. Kakhovka is on the opposite side of the Dnipro River.
• Russian attack wounds at least one in Kyiv: One man was injured early Monday as a result of a Russian attack on Ukraine's capital. The 19-year-old man was hospitalized after suffering a lacerated foot while in an eighth-floor apartment in Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district. 
• Kyiv struggling to maintain electricity: The capital was experiencing power outages Monday, after overnight strikes damaged energy infrastructure facilities in the city, said Klitschko. Some heat supply facilities were disconnected from the power supply, but the city’s water supply remains normal, he added. Kyiv authorities are urging residents to reduce their electricity consumption after the third day of Russian attacks damaged infrastructure. 
• Zelensky hails "unity" of Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used his first address of the year to underline the "sense of unity" in the country, and contrast it with the "fear" he said is felt in Russia. "Our sense of unity, authenticity, life itself – all this contrasts dramatically with the fear that prevails in Russia," said Zelensky in an address published Sunday evening local time. 
• Russia reportedly takes down Ukrainian drone: Russian air defenses downed a Ukrainian reconnaissance drone approaching the southwestern Russian city of Voronezh on Sunday night, Russian state news agency TASS reported Monday, quoting local authorities. There were no reports of casualties or damage, according to TASS, quoting the regional government.

The governor of Belgorod, a Russian region bordering Ukraine, reported shelling on Monday.

Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that "the village of Murom in the Shebekinsky urban district came under fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.” 

He said there were no casualties, but the shelling caused damage to two private houses and a car.

Gladkov also reported a local cemetery was hit by shelling.  

According to Gladkov, the village of Vyazovoye in the Belgorod region came under fire on Monday as well. 

“There were no casualties,” he said. “Windows of one private house were blown out, the facade and the fence were affected.”  

“A power transmission line was also damaged,” Gladkov added. "Emergency services are on site and are dealing with the aftermath.” 

Some background: Belgorod, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the Ukrainian border, has been struck previously. In December, the governor said one person was dead and eight people were injured in the region.

The Ukrainian military said the number of Russian servicemen killed in Makiivka, in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, is “being clarified.”

In its latest operational update Monday, the military's General Staff reported that “up to 10 units of enemy military equipment of various types were destroyed and damaged in the area."

Earlier, the Ukrainian military claimed that around 400 Russian soldiers were killed and a further 300 were wounded, without directly acknowledging a role. CNN cannot independently confirm those numbers or the weapons used in the strike. 

The Russian Ministry of Defense on Monday acknowledged the attack and claimed that “63 Russian servicemen” died.

According to both Ukrainian and pro-Russian accounts, the strike took place just after midnight on Sunday, New Year’s Day, on a vocational school housing Russian conscripts in Makiivka, in the Donetsk region.

Meanwhile, Ukraine shot down 27 Russian-launched Shahed-136 drones targeting civilian infrastructure on Monday, the General Staff said.

“The enemy, losing a lot of manpower, continues to focus on conducting offensive actions in the Bakhmut direction and is trying to improve the tactical situation in the Kupyansk and Avdiivka direction,” the update noted.

“In the Kherson direction, the enemy continues shelling the settlements along the right bank of the Dnipro River. In particular, civilian infrastructure of Kherson, Antonivka and Beryslav suffered from artillery shelling. There are wounded among the civilian population,” the General Staff said. 

Russia continues to focus its main efforts on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, firing 224 times in this direction over the past 24 hours, according to the spokesperson for the Eastern Group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Serhii Cherevatyi.

“There were 34 fights and one air strike. The enemy lost 213 people killed and 87 wounded there,” Cherevatyi said of the situation in Bakhmut on Ukrainian television on Monday.

“In other directions, such as Kupyansk, Lyman and Avdiivka, it [Russian forces] tried to improve its tactical position, also conducted counter-offensive actions, for example, in the area of Stelmakhivka and Bilohorivka in the Lyman direction. However, in all these directions it failed to achieve its goal, failed to break through our defense and suffered losses,” according to Cherevatyi.

Cherevatyi said Russia is currently using 20 thousand shells a day on smaller sections of the front “for example, in Bakhmut or Avdiivka, partially in the Lyman and Kupyansk directions”.

“Before, they could afford to shell our military all over the front - 60 thousand shells per day,” he said.

Cherevatyi reasoned that Russian forces are focusing on specific areas because “they did not count on such a long war, and therefore on such a dynamics of ammunition consumption, which, in fact, is equal to the World War II. Even their seemingly endless ammunition is beginning to run out.” 

Ukrainian film editor Viktor Onysko has been killed on the front line, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said Monday, without providing further details.

"So many brave and talented Ukrainians are sacrificing their lives in this war against the hordes of darkness to protect their homeland," the defense ministry said in a tribute on Twitter. "May the light of the memory of our heroes shine eternally," it added.

Onysko worked on Ukrainian films including "The Stronghold," "The Rising Hawk" and "Viddana." The Dovzhenko Centre, Ukraine's state film archive, called it "an incredible loss for the film community and Ukraine." 

His wife Olga Birzul said in a Facebook post, "My heart will forever remain in the terrible year 2022. Because you stayed there. My hero. My love. My everything. I don't know how to live and breathe without you. I don't know if I can ever dream again."

Birzul added the "only thing I have from you is a 9-year-old girl with your gray eyes."

"When I was drowning in tears on the train for a day, she stroked my head and said that Dad fought for our freedom, we will never forget it, Dad will always be in our thoughts. Our little adult. One of thousands of innocent children whose parents were killed by the damned Russians. It hurts. Indescribably painful," she said.

 

The damage to Ukrainian ecology caused by Russia's war on Ukraine is now estimated at $35.3 billion, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, said on Monday.

"Millions of hectares of nature preserves are under threat. Article 55 of the Protocol I [Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts] prohibits waging war VS the natural environment by way of reprisals, but Russia doesn’t care," he tweeted, referencing a 1977 amendment protocol to the Geneva Conventions.

Ukraine's Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources said in a Facebook post Monday: "The conduct of hostilities deepens the climate crisis, causing significant emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere."

According to the latest calculations of the Ministry of Environment, the war has directly led to emissions of 33 million tonnes of greenhouse gases. The ministry broke that figure down, listing the estimated emissions from combat, the movement of internally displaced people and fires in the country. 

Some background: In May last year, CNN reported how Ukraine’s fertile soil was becoming contaminated with heavy metals and other potentially poisonous substances leaking from missiles, military equipment and spent ammunition.

Spilled fuel is polluting ground waters and ecosystems are being hammered by tanks and other heavy technology. All of this is damage that will be felt for decades after the war ends.

In December, Kyiv-based non-profit the Center for Environmental Initiatives Ecoaction published a report that said, "the population’s access to water in many regions of the country has significantly deteriorated". 

"As a result of Russia’s armed military aggression against Ukraine, water treatment and purification infrastructure facilities are destroyed, and environmental components are polluted, in particular sources of drinking water and water bodies," it added.