UPDATE ON THE SITUATION–Le Figaro provides an update on the latest information from journalists, Ukrainian and Russian statements, Western sources and international organizations.
kyiv attacked again after suffering shelling on New Year’s night, Russia “losingAccording to Zelensky, fighting is raging in the Donetsk region… Le Figaro provides an update on the latest developments in the war in Ukraine this Monday, January 2.
kyiv again targeted by an air attack
A new air attack targeted kyiv on Monday January 2 at dawn, after a New Year’s Day marked by dozens of Russian strikes which left at least four dead in the capital and elsewhere in the country. “Stay in the shelters!Asked around 01:00 (00:00 Paris time) on Telegram Serguiï Popko, head of the military administration of the city of kyiv.
“The Russians launched several waves of Shahed dronesof Iranian manufacture, declared for its part Oleksiï Kouleba, the head of the military administration of the area of kyiv, specifying that the strikes were directed againstcritical infrastructure“. According to the mayor of the capital Vitali Klitschko, a 19-year-old man was injured by shards of glass. Ukrainian air defense claimed to have shot down 41 drones and one Russian missile.
The operator DTEK announced that the attack had inflicted “damageto the infrastructures linked to kyiv’s electricity supply and that it therefore had to impose emergency cuts. The national company Ukrenergo confirmed the power outages, while assuring that the situation was “totally under control“.
After a series of military setbacks on the ground and Ukrainian attacks targeting Russian territory and annexed Crimea, Moscow opted from October for a tactic of bombing Ukraine’s infrastructure, regularly causing cuts in electricity and water.
63 Russian soldiers killed in strike near Donetsk
Russia on Monday acknowledged the death of 63 of its soldiers in Ukraine, killed in a strike on separatist territory in the east of the country, the heaviest losses in a single attack admitted by Moscow since the start of the invasion. The army has only on very rare occasions given an assessment of its offensive or communicated on its losses. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, 63 soldiers were killed in the explosion of “four missilesfired by HIMARS systems, a weapon supplied by the United States to Ukrainian forces.
According to Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, who did not specify the date of the strike, these missiles struck “a temporary deployment centerof the Russian army in Makiivka, a town under Russian occupation located east of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk. The ministry also claimed to have shot down two of the six missiles fired at this target at Makiivka. The Ukrainian army, which claimed responsibility for the strike on Monday evening, spoke of a much heavier toll, which could go up to 400 soldiers killed, according to it.
For Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia is “losing”
Russians “are losing. Drones, missiles and everything else won’t help them. Because we are together“Reacted Sunday evening President Volodymyr Zelensky. “And they won’t take a single year away from Ukraine, they won’t take away our independence. We won’t give them anything. We respond to every Russian strike (…) on all our cities and communities“, he hammered.
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Fighting continues in the Donetsk region
The Russian army has said it is continuing its offensive in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, where most of the fighting is currently concentrated. The General Staff of the Ukrainian forces underlined in this regard this Sunday evening that “the enemy (…) continued to attempt attacks in the Bakhmout sector“, a city in this region which the Russians have been trying to seize for more than six months, at the cost of heavy losses on both sides and unimaginable destruction.
The soldiers engaged in this battle are subjected to a “incredible tirednessmoral and physical. And in this endless war of attrition, some end up perceiving themselveslike meat, just fit to be sent to death“Explained on the spot to AFP Mark Kouptchenenko, a young Ukrainian military chaplain who goes to the front every day. There are no or very few rotations, “they are always in combat“, under enormous pressure, subject to orders that sometimes they no longer understand, he said again.