“Ukraine – Russia”

So, one granite-faced general has been replaced by another. The announcement that, after just three months in post, General Sergei Surovikin is being succeeded as overall commander of Russia’s war in Ukraine by Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov may sound like appointing a new captain for a hull-breached Titanic. But it is significant in what it says, not just about the war, but Putin’s relationship with his generals.

#Ukraine: A Russian tank was destroyed by the 59th Motorized Brigade in Lozove, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/HndqRGZ0oy

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) January 10, 2023

Russia’s defence ministry says its forces are taking part in the battle for Soledar, a town north of Bakhmut in east Ukraine which has been the focus of recent fighting.

It comes after the head of Russia’s notoriously brutal Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed his fighters were in full control there and boasted that only his troops took part.

Mr Prigozhin will most likely use any victory to bolster the reputation of Wagner as an effective fighting force in the eyes of President Putin.

But the Russian defence ministry appeared to contradict the controversial oligarch’s claims.

Update from Soledar – the morning of 11 January (2,5h ago) – Maygar. pic.twitter.com/tBnOC3JCZj

— Dmitri (@wartranslated) January 11, 2023

The Russian mercenary group Wagner has said it is fighting “heavy, bloody battles” for control of the town of Soledar as part of Moscow’s months-long offensive to capture Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

Wagner’s claims appeared to be confirmed by the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD), which suggested that most of Soledar, a small town about six miles (10km) north of the key city of Bakhmut, was in Russian hands after Moscow continued to make “tactical advances”.

The MoD said the efforts in Soledar over the past four days appeared to be aimed at encircling Bakhmut, although it added it believed that scenario was unlikely at present.

PMC Wagner unit completely wiped out just south of the salt mine in central Soledar. A heavy price is paid with uncontainable losses. pic.twitter.com/g4be7OFD3U

— NOËL 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@NOELreports) January 10, 2023

It is cold and dark. Sirens break the silence from time to time. Although the Christmas tree in the city square is standing, there is a tank trap on top of it. This is what the locals draw strength from.

This is not the first time I have crossed the Hungarian–Ukrainian border since the outbreak of the war—in the past, my team and I have provided legal assistance to more than 1,200 Hungarian compatriots from Transcarpathia.

Now, however, duty calls to areas outside Transcarpathia.

#Ukraine:Footage of the latest consignment of Turkish 🇹🇷 BMC KİRPİ MRAPs to Ukrainian forces has appeared- but these are particularly interesting, as they're equipped with Romanian 🇷🇴 Pro Optica ANUBIS RCWS, equipped with either a 12.7 or 7.62mm machine gun, plus thermal optics. pic.twitter.com/Hxz624dhEs

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) January 6, 2023

The UK is considering sending tanks to Ukraine to help Kyiv launch a major counter-offensive in the spring.

The British army could send about a dozen Challenger 2s, becoming the first western country to donate tanks to Ukraine.

The Challenger 2 first entered service in 1994. It has a 1,200 horsepower engine and is equipped with a 120mm gun. Only one has ever been destroyed in combat — it was hit by friendly fire during operations in Basra in 2003.

Did Ukraine Change your Mind about Russian Tanks?

One large crater but no sign of casualties after Moscow claimed revenge attack against barracks in Donbas

A picture has cast doubt over Russia’s claim that its forces killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers in a missile strike on the eastern Donbas city of Kramatorsk.

There were no signs of any casualties after Moscow claimed to have carried out a “retaliation operation” against a Ukrainian military barracks in the area.

#Ukraine: A torn apart Russian Pantsir-S1 air defence system was discovered in #Kherson Oblast, with 57E6 missiles strewn around the site.

The system was destroyed when the area was still occupied by the Russian Army, but the wreckage appeared only recently. pic.twitter.com/FTqFkt7Wb5

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) January 8, 2023

Russia blamed its own soldiers after Zelensky’s devastating new year strike. It exposes the widening weapons gap between the two sides

At about midnight on New Year’s Eve a barrage of American-built Himars missiles smashed into a building packed with Russian conscripts in Makiivka, just outside Donetsk in occupied east Ukraine.

The Professional Technical School was not a well-chosen sanctuary: it stood out even on commercial satellite imagery as the most prominent building for miles around. Despite that, Russian commanders had filled it with recruits and apparently stored ammunition in the basement. They never stood a chance.

The Russian base in Makiivka is but dust. HIMARS have delivered absolute carnage. An expected response for the Russian Shahed terror attacks on New Years Eve and the newest reminder that no matter where Russians position themselves, they are not safe. #Ukraine #Donetsk #Makiivka pic.twitter.com/Pfguo4phIK

— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) January 1, 2023

A photo of a Russian soldier using a bow and arrow in Ukraine has brought ridicule online.

The images, which first began circulating on Telegram in November, were shared on Twitter Tuesday by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs.

“A photo of a Russian soldier from Bashkiriya at war in Ukraine is shared by Russian Telegram channels. He is armed with bow and arrows. He also has a rifle just in case. Is there a cavalry riding somewhere?” Gerashchenko tweeted.

Social media is awash with claims, repeated on news websites, that Russian President Vladimir Putin surrounded himself with actors for his New Year’s address and at previous events. But what’s the evidence?

We used facial recognition software to check some of these allegations.

The Russian president has a track record of posing at events where some of the attendees are not what they seem.

A BBC Russian investigation in 2020 found that some events presented as impromptu conversations with everyday people were actually filled with friendly local officials.

… And when the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines exploded in September, the West ignored Russia’s claims of innocence and, in concert, convicted Russia of sabotage. “No one on the European side of the ocean is thinking this is anything other than Russian sabotage,” said a senior European environmental official. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm immediately said that it “seems” Russia is to blame.

But the Washington Post recently reported that, after months of investigation, there is nothing to suggest that Russia was responsible. The Post article interviewed “23 diplomatic and intelligence officials in nine countries” who said that “[t]here is no evidence at this point that Russia was behind the sabotage.” It reports that “even those with inside knowledge of the forensic details don’t conclusively tie Russia to the attack.”

If Russia didn’t do it, one of us did. The most disturbingly unasked question of 2022 is: Who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines?

h/t GT

Ukraine is swatting away as many Iranian-made drones as Russia can throw at its infrastructure sites, knocking down as many as 80 air vehicles over Kyiv during Russia’s surprise New Year’s Eve blitz alone, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week.

So how did they do it? According to Ukrainian officials and advisers to Kyiv who spoke to POLITICO, much of it is thanks to the German-made Gepard system, a vehicle that can send dual streams of 35mm rounds ripping into the sky to hit the drones. Berlin has sent 30 Gepard vehicles to Ukraine over the past year, with seven more on the way this year.

With frustration building about command incompetence, the demand for hapless commanders to be replaced is unlikely to ease up.

There’s one thing Western and Russian military strategists agree on — crowding a large number of mainly new conscripts inside a building within range of Ukrainian missiles so that they could see in the new year was a fatal error.

“They should never have been there,” said Britain’s retired Air Vice-Marshal Sean Bell.

Reportedly, around 600 Russian troops were at the college in Makiivka when it was struck by four American-supplied HIMARS rockets on New Year’s Day. Russia says 89 soldiers were killed — the highest single battlefield loss Moscow has acknowledged since the war began — while Ukraine estimates the death toll nearer 400.

PARIS — Major Western powers have finally decided to send armored vehicles to Ukraine, a move Kyiv’s leadership had long asked for and which it hopes will provide a major boost as it battles Vladimir Putin’s troops.

It started on Wednesday when Emmanuel Macron announced he was sending “light tanks” — AMX-10 RC armored fighting vehicles — to Ukraine. Macron decided to “amplify help” in response to “needs expressed by Ukraine,” the French presidency said.

The French decision was “the first time a Western-designed tank will be delivered to Ukraine. Symbolically, it’s important,” said François Heisbourg, senior adviser for Europe at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.