Because the battle enters its 698th day, these are the principle developments.
Right here is the scenario on Monday, January 22, 2024.
Preventing
- Twenty-seven individuals have been killed and 25 injured after shelling hit a market on the outskirts of the Russian-occupied Ukrainian metropolis of Donetsk, in response to Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-appointed head of the Donetsk area. Pushilin blamed Ukraine for the assault on the suburb of Tekstilshchik and stated Monday can be a day of mourning. Ukraine’s forces within the Tavria, or southern zone, stated in a Fb publish that its troopers weren’t accountable. “Donetsk is Ukraine!” it stated. “Russia must reply for taking lives of Ukrainians.” Donetsk is certainly one of 4 areas in Ukraine that Russia annexed illegally in 2022.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy didn’t deal with the assault in his Sunday evening video however stated that in a single day, Russia had shelled greater than 100 cities, cities and villages in 9 areas of Ukraine and that the assaults in Donetsk had been “significantly extreme”. Not less than two individuals have been killed in Ukrainian-controlled villages west of Donetsk, in response to Ukrainian officers.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence stated its forces took management of the village of Krokhmalne in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv area. Volodymyr Fityo, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian Floor Forces Command, instructed reporters that Kyiv had withdrawn its troopers and that Russia taking the village of “5 homes” was of “no strategic significance”. Fito stated Ukrainian forces have been nonetheless holding the entrance line.
- A hearth broke out at a chemical transport terminal at Russia’s Ust-Luga Port following two explosions, regional officers stated. Native media stated the Baltic Sea port, 165km (about 100 miles) southwest of St Petersburg, had been attacked by Ukrainian drones, inflicting a gasoline tank to blow up. No casualties have been reported.
Politics and diplomacy
- Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s high diplomat, stated her nation was “able to greet” Russian President Vladimir Putin, in response to state media. Choe was in Moscow final week the place she met the Russian president. Putin expressed “his willingness to go to the DPRK at an early date”, the assertion stated, utilizing the acronym for the Democratic Individuals’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official identify. Putin final travelled to Pyongyang in 2000.
- Ukrainian tennis participant Marta Kostyuk stated it was essential for the nation’s gamers to maintain profitable on the Australian Open to remind individuals of the persevering with battle. The 21-year-old thrashed Russian qualifier Maria Timofeeva 6-2, 6-1 and refused to shake her hand afterwards. Kostyuk will meet US Open champion Coco Gauff within the quarter-final.
- Sunday marked 100 years because the dying of Lenin, the founding father of the Soviet Union whose physique stays on show at his mausoleum on Moscow’s Pink Sq.. Shortly earlier than launching his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin publicly chided Lenin for his supposed function in dividing the Russian Empire into nation-states like Ukraine.