Jan 22: The Sunday Edition
Day 333: Ramstein Bakhmut Kherson Teplinsky Volodin psyops BEL Angarsk Challengers Lozynskiy EU-FIN-ITA A&Ps: ISW MacKay Aslani UAWorld UADef Kuzio Kirillova Tenzer Scherba Giles Jacoby Kirsten
Catching up…
EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s amazing hourly Ukraine up-date page. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs.
Stories we’re following…
Zelensky at Ramstein summit: 'Hundreds of thank you are not hundreds of tanks.' President Zelensky called on partners to speed up the provision of military aid to Ukraine in his online address at the Ramstein-8 meeting on Jan. 20. "Every unit (of supplied weaponry) helps to save our people from terror. But time – time remains a Russian weapon. We have to speed up," Zelensky said.
Ukraine confirms Russian offensive attempts in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia continues an offensive effort near Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, and Zaporizhzhia Oblast, engaging additional aviation.
General Staff: Russians record civilians' adresses in occupied part of Kherson Oblast. Russians are trying to create a database of places of residence of civilians in the occupied parts of Kherson Oblast under the guise of an electricity-saving program, the General Staff said.
Russian Telegram sources claimed that Putin dismissed Russian Commander of the Airborne Forces Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky, but these reports remain unconfirmed.
The speaker of Russia’s parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, warned that countries supplying Ukraine with more powerful weapons risked their own destruction. Volodin said:
Supplies of offensive weapons to the Kyiv regime would lead to a global catastrophe.”
If Washington and Nato supply weapons that would be used for striking peaceful cities and making attempts to seize our territory as they threaten to do, it would trigger a retaliation with more powerful weapons.
The Kremlin continues to promote information operations threatening escalation over Western military assistance to Ukraine and will likely continue to respond to Western conversations about further military aid with vague threats of escalation that have no corresponding action.
Ukrainian intelligence: 'Invasion from Belarus' part of Russia’s psy-ops. Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s military intelligence, said there was currently “no threat from Belarus of a full-scale ground operation, its participation on the side of Russia.”
Fire reported at Russian oil depot. Russian media reported that a fire had broken out at an oil depot in the remote Russian town of Angarsk in Siberia on the morning of Jan. 21.
Moldovan foreign minister: Ukraine’s victory could lead to Russia’s exit from Transnistria. Moldova wants and expects Russia’s defeat in Ukraine for Russian troops to withdraw “through peaceful means” from occupied Transnistria, Nicu Popescu, Moldova’s foreign minister, told Vocea Basarabiei on Jan. 19.
Reznikov ‘very satisfied’ over Ramstein summit. Some military aid was announced behind closed doors at the Ramstein summit held on Jan. 20, an outcome Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov called “very inspiring” in comments to the Voice of America on Jan. 21.
German Defense Minister: No decision yet on Leopard tanks for Ukraine. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Jan. 20 that an agreement on providing Ukraine with Leopard tanks had not been reached yet. "I'm very sure there will be a decision in the short term, but I don't know how the decision will look," Pistorius told reporters.
Up-date: Scholz, under pressure to allow the shipment of German-made tanks to Ukraine, said on Sunday that future decisions on weapons deliveries will be made in coordination with allies, including the United States.
German Defense Minister to visit Ukraine soon. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag that he plans to visit Ukraine shortly, “probably within the next four weeks.”
Germany announces 1 billion euro spring military aid package for Ukraine. Germany will provide Ukraine with a 1 billion euro ($1.1 billion) military assistance package, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at the Ramstein-8 summit on Jan. 20, according to Ukrinform.
Reznikov says Ramstein-8 summit led to ‘optimistic breakthrough.' Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Ukrainian media Liga on Jan. 20 that the Ramstein-8 summit led to an ” optimistic breakthrough” over Leopard tanks delivery.
Baltic countries' foreign ministers call on Germany to immediately deliver Leopard tanks to Ukraine. "This is needed to stop Russian aggression, help Ukraine and restore peace in Europe quickly," said Latvian FM Edgars Rinkevics on behalf of Lithuanian and Estonian foreign ministers. “Germany, as the leading European power, has a special responsibility in this regard.”
President Macron said today that he does not rule out the possibility of sending Leclerc tanks to Ukraine. He was speaking at a summit with chancellor Scholz.
Politico: The new chair of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul, said it is important the US announce it is supplying tanks to Ukraine in order to get Germany and other nations to do so. "Even saying we’re going to put Abrams tanks in, I think would be enough for Germany to unleash,” he said.
US officials advise Ukraine to hold back on offensive until training for new weapons is complete. Ukraine should hold off on launching a major offensive against Russia until it receives new weapons and can operate them, according to an undisclosed senior official quoted by Reuters on Jan. 20.
Ukraine's ambassador to the UK: Ukraine to start training on Challenger tanks soon. "Heavy artillery systems crews are already training and tankers will arrive soon," Ukraine's ambassador to the U.K. Vadym Prystaiko told Radio Free Europe on Jan. 20.
US to designate Wagner Group international ‘criminal organization.’ The U.S. is due to impose sanctions next week against the infamous Kremlin-backed Wagner Group mercenaries and its support network across the world, the White House said on Jan. 20.
Kyiv has dismissed deputy minister Vasyl Lozynskiy who allegedly received a $400,000 (£322,870) bribe, reports the Kyiv Independent.
Official: First results in helicopter crash investigation to be disclosed 'in near future.' The first results of the ongoing investigation on the causes of the helicopter crash in Brovary on Jan. 18 could be disclosed in “the near future,” Fedir Venislavskyi, the president’s representative in parliament, said on television on Jan. 21.
EU preparing 10th round of Russia sanctions. The European Union is working on its 10th round of sanctions for next month against Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, diplomatic sources told Reuters.
Boris Johnson has weighed in on the row over whether Ukraine will get more tanks to fight back against Russian forces. The former UK prime minister, who said he was invited to Ukraine by Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was on a walkabout of Borodyanka.
Russian oligarch put on the wanted list in Italy for hijacking sanctioned yachts Italian authorities are looking for the head of Uralkali, Dmitry Mazepin, after the disappearance of his two yachts from Sardinia, confiscated under EU sanctions.
Finland to provide Ukraine with 400 million euro military aid package. In the largest aid package up to date, Finland will supply heavy artillery and munition, according to the country’s Defense Minister Mikko Savola.
The Netherlands will supply the air defense systems to Ukraine, according to a letter from Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren to the Dutch House of Representatives, reported NOS news organization.
Switzerland not against giving Russian assets to Ukraine but referendum may be needed. Switzerland's Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper that his country supports the idea of using frozen Russian assets for Ukraine's reconstruction, but it would require "major legal adjustments."
RT France will shut down after its bank accounts were frozen as part of the most recent EU sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, AFP reports.
Kseniya Kirillova, Learn to Love Death, Russians Urged- CEPA
While Kremlin propaganda calls on Russians to sacrifice their lives for their country – or at least for a new car or mobile phone – not everyone buys into the state’s celebration of death.
Ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, justifications for the war have changed as the quick victory promised by Vladimir Putin failed to materialize.
The celebration of death has taken on a growing role. In fairness, some religious preachers ploughed this furrow from the outset, assuring their audience that Russians can “become themselves” only by killing, and that “all God’s creation” is at stake in Ukraine.
Following the example of church leaders, secular propagandists picked up this quasi-religious justification for the war. The Kremlin’s most notorious mouthpiece, the ever-exasperated Vladimir Solovyov used his national TV show to tell viewers that life is “greatly overrated” and they should not be afraid of death because, according to Putin, they will go to heaven. “Live for something you can die for,” Solovyov said.
In this version, Russians are not told to embrace death to build a “bright future”, but to seek it as the only thing that gives meaning to existence. Political scientist Fyodor Biryukov wrote in the Nezygar Telegram channel, which is close to Putin’s administration, that society is “much more patriotic than the government.”
Nicolas Tenzer, Understanding the War- Tenzer Strategics
Perhaps what Western leaders lack most is an understanding of war. They are certainly subjugated by its absolute brutality and its lack of mercy on the part of the Russian aggressor; they probably perceive better today its total character, as shown by the strikes aimed mainly at the civilian population; they also know that the Russian war did not have the beginning of a “reason” other than the destruction of a nation and the annihilation of a people. At least one can hope that they have understood this, that is, the extremism of the war and its endless crimes. But because common sense tells them to be astonished, perhaps they have also secreted an antibody: the repression in their minds of the inconceivable. This still seems to prevent them from understanding the end, that is to say, from putting in place the means to win it.
Tamar Jacoby, Ukraine Displaced- American Purpose
Ukraine has nearly six million internally displaced people. An army of volunteers and aid organizations are working hard to offer them shelter, sustenance, and purpose.
Tamila Bushna, twenty-seven years old, spent the first two weeks after Russia invaded last February running to the basement shelter in her apartment building in Kramatorsk, a small city in eastern Ukraine. As the shelling intensified and the clinic where she worked closed its doors, Bushna, a call-center manager, and her husband, an IT specialist, considered their options. They had never been outside Ukraine. They had no friends or relatives abroad. They thought about Lviv and Ternopil, cities in western Ukraine then still relatively untouched by the fighting. But even those seemed too far and too foreign. They got in their car and drove with no particular destination in mind.
Didi Kirsten Tatlow, How U.S. Scientists are Collaborating with China's Military: 'Wake-Up Call'- Newsweek
Work on a robotic fish with potential military use was just one of hundreds of examples of collaboration between scientists in the U.S. and its allies and researchers linked to China's military, according to a new study seen by Newsweek.
The study, which focuses primarily on scientists in key U.S. NATO ally Germany, reveals a scale of collaboration between scientific institutions in the West and researchers connected with China's military that is far greater than has previously been reported.
The release of the report, shared exclusively with Newsweek ahead of its publication in Washington D.C., comes at a time of growing tension between the U.S. and China, with President Joe Biden's administration singling out China as America's key competitor and taking more steps to limit technology transfer.
Programming Note…
