Important developments on the 1,066th day since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine include:
This is what happened on Saturday, January 25th.
finding
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that Russian troops have advanced on the strategically important eastern Ukrainian town of Velika Novosilka after months of fighting.
Ukraine’s military said Russia launched 61 drones and two missiles into the country in a night attack, shooting down 46 missiles and drones. It was announced that 15 other drones disappeared from radar without reaching their targets.
The Russian government said it intercepted 121 Ukrainian drones, including 37 in Bryansk, 20 in Ryazan, and 17 in Kursk and Saratov regions. The Ukrainian military announced that Russia was attempting to cut off supply lines to Ukrainian garrisons at Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, with Russian forces failing in a flanking attack. The region has served as an important logistics hub for the Ukrainian military in the region. According to an analysis by the Orix Project, Russia has lost 20,000 military equipment since February 2022, of which 15,051 were directly destroyed and 852 damaged in the conflict with Ukraine. The BBC and independent broadcaster Mediazona have identified the names of 90,19 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine, adding 1,964 names to the list since the last update in mid-January. Ukraine is currently in the final stages of drafting a conscription reform plan that would allow people aged 18 to 25 who are exempt from mobilization to join the military and strengthen the country’s combat power. Ukrainian military officials say the country is currently operating on a recruiting system inherited from the Soviet Union and needs reform.
politics and diplomacy
Moldova’s President Maia Sandu visited Kiev to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky amid rising tensions in Transnistria, Moldova’s pro-Russian separatist enclave bordering Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to meet directly with US President Donald Trump to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Putin said he had always had a “realistic and trusting” relationship with Trump and supported his view that Trump was the true winner of the 2020 US presidential election. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused the Russian president of trying to manipulate President Trump to ensure the war ends on Russia’s terms.
military aid
The United States on Friday froze foreign aid for 90 days in a sweeping executive order, and also halted development and military aid to Ukraine, including billions of dollars in arms. Sales of U.S. military equipment to foreign governments rose 29% to $318.7 billion in 2024, a record high, as countries replenish stocks sent to Ukraine and prepare for other conflicts, according to the State Department. .
regional development
Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the central square of the Slovak capital to protest Prime Minister Roberto Fico’s shift in policy towards Russia. Rallies were held in 20 other cities and nearly reached the scale of the 2018 protests that forced Fico to resign. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin, pardoned 15 prisoners two days before an election that is expected to extend more than 30 years in power. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has threatened to block the EU from reinstating sanctions against Russia.
regional security
President Donald Trump and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had a heated phone conversation in early January in which Denmark will discuss Arctic security with the US despite the US president saying he wants Greenland. Agreed.
economy
President Trump reiterated his call for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to lower oil prices to hurt oil-rich Russia’s finances and help end the war in Ukraine. The leader of Moldova’s separatist Transnistria region, which is suffering from gas and heating cuts, said on Friday that the country’s remaining gas reserves will be emptied within days after Moscow’s Gazprom ends shipments. Ta.