Russian forces strike market in Kharkiv region, death and injuries reported
Russian forces struck a village market in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine, according to a top regional official, with one woman dying in the strike and several others hospitalized.
“The enemy is again launching missile strikes on the Kharkiv region. In the urban-type settlement of Shevchenkove, Kupiansk district, a missile strike (preliminarily from an S-300 air defense system) was launched on the local market. All emergency services are working at the scene,” Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, said in a post on Telegram, according to comments translated by Google.
A police officer at a retaken checkpoint in Shevchenkove, Kharkiv region, on Sept. 18, 2022.
Yasuyoshi Chiba | Afp | Getty Images
In a subsequent post purportedly showing images of the destroyed market after the attack, Syniehubov said a 60 year-old woman had died in the attack and seven others had been injured and hospitalized, among them a 13-year-old girl. CNBC was unable to verify the information in the posts.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia backs banning of maps disputing official ‘territorial integrity’
Russia’s government extended support to a legislative amendment that would classify maps that dispute the country’s official “territorial integrity” as punishable extremist materials, the state-owned TASS news agency reported on Sunday.
The amendment to Russia’s anti-extremism legislation stipulates that “cartographic and other documents and images that dispute the territorial integrity of Russia” will be classified as extremist materials, the agency reported.
Russia’s sweepingly ambiguous anti-extremism legislation — it applies to religious organizations, journalists and their materials, as well as the activity of businesses, among others – has allowed the Kremlin to tighten its grip on opponents.
Pedestrians pass a giant wall mural showing a map of the Crimean peninsula filled with the flag of the Russian Federation, in support of the Russian annexation, in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, March 28, 2014.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The new amendment, TASS reports without citing sources, emerged after its authors pointed out that some maps distributed in Russia dispute the “territorial affiliation” of the Crimean Peninsula and the Kuril Islands.
Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 – a move rejected by Ukraine and many countries as illegal. Ukrainians and their government have since often objected to world maps showing Crimea as part of Russia’s territory.
Russia and Japan have not formally ended World War Two hostilities because of their standoff over a group of islands just off Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido. The Soviet Union seized those islands – known in Russia as the Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories – at the end of the war.
The amendment must be proposed to the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, and after a review go through three readings. It is then sent to the Federation Council, the upper house, and to President Vladimir Putin for signing.
— Reuters
Russia appears cautious to use its best fighter jets in Ukraine, UK says
The Sukhoi Su-57 jet fighter at the MAKS-2019 Moscow International Airshow near Zhukovsky, southeast of Moscow.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Russia appears to be reluctant to deploy its new-generation stealth fighter jets in the war in Ukraine, fearing their potential loss, according to the latest intelligence update from Britain’s Ministry of Defense.
In a Twitter update, the ministry noted that since at least June 2022, “Russian Aerospace Forces have almost certainly used Su-57 FELON [jets] to conduct missions against Ukraine.”
“FELON is Russia’s most advanced fifth-generation supersonic combat jet, employing stealth technologies and highly advanced avionics,” the ministry added.
It said that missions using the jets have likely been limited “to flying over Russian territory, launching long range air-to-surface or air-to-air missiles into Ukraine.”
It believed that was due to Russia “highly likely prioritising avoiding the reputational damage, reduced export prospects, and the compromise of sensitive technology which would come from any loss of FELON over Ukraine,” it noted.
“This is symptomatic of Russia’s continued risk-averse approach to employing its air force in the war.”
— Holly Ellyatt
Bakhmut ‘holding out against all odds,’ Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian soldiers near a stele with a Ukrainian flag and a handwritten inscription that reads: “Bakhmut is Ukraine” on Jan. 4, 2023, in Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.
Global Images Ukraine | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The situation on the front line in eastern Ukraine hasn’t changed significantly in the first week of the year, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with “heavy fighting” continuing in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, particularly around Bakhmut and Soledar.
“Bakhmut is holding out against all odds. And although most of the city is destroyed by Russian strikes, our warriors repel constant attempts at Russian offensive there. Soledar is holding out. Although there is even more destruction there and it is extremely hard,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Sunday.
“There is no such piece of land near these two cities where the occupier would not have given his life for the crazy ideas of the masters of the Russian regime. This is one of the bloodiest places on the frontline,” he added.
Zelenskyy said additional units were being deployed to the area in a bid to strengthen Ukraine’s defenses and intesify attacks on Russian forces.
— Holly Ellyatt