- Russia-Ukraine Daily News
- Posts
- Weekend Briefing
Dear Reader, if you find this email interesting, helpful or of value, please do consider forwarding it to your friends or colleagues and encouraging them to subscribe. Thank you.
Morning Headlines
Reuters: North Korean troop fatalities and injuries in Ukraine have likely exceeded 3,000, including about 300 deaths and 2,700 injuries, a South Korean lawmaker briefed by the country's spy agency said on Monday.
Bloomberg: Three tankers carrying more than 2 million barrels of Russian oil are floating in waters off eastern China after they were sanctioned by the US on Friday, according to ship-tracking data (archive).
The Kyiv Independent: German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius denied media reports that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz blocked a proposal for an additional military aid package for Ukraine worth 3 billion euros, adding that a decision on the funding awaits.
12.01.2025
Reuters: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday Kyiv is ready to hand over captured North Korean soldiers to their leader Kim Jong Un if he can facilitate their exchange for Ukrainians held captive in Russia.
Politico: Incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz said he expects President-elect Donald Trump will establish relationships “in the coming months” that will lead to an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Reuters: Slovak Deputy Speaker of Parliament Andrej Danko arrived in Moscow on Sunday, Russian state-run TASS news agency reported, as Bratislava seeks a solution following Ukraine's decision to halt Russian gas pipeline deliveries to Europe.
AP News: Sweden will contribute up to three warships to a NATO effort to increase the alliance’s presence in the Baltic Sea as it tries to guard against sabotage of underwater infrastructure, the government said Sunday.
Euromaidan Press: The Ukrainian military conducted a precision air strike on a Russian 2nd Guards Army command post in occupied Novohrodivka, Donetsk Oblast, on 12 January, the Ukrainian Army’s General Staff reported.
Reuters: About 23,000 households were left without electricity after Russian shelling of Kherson in southern Ukraine damaged power equipment in the city, the local military administration said on Sunday.
The Kyiv Independent: Russian troops have carried out a double airstrike on a nursing home in the Ukrainian-occupied Russian town of Sudzha, Kursk Oblast, Ukrainian military spokesperson Oleksii Dmytrashkivskyi, said on Jan. 12.
Newsweek: Ukrainian military intelligence snipers targeted a group of Russian troops operating close to the front-line city of Pokrovsk in an "ambush" in Moscow-controlled territory, according to Kyiv's HUR spy agency.
Euromaidan Press: Ukraine’s cyber defense teams battle an avalanche of Russian attacks targeting government services and critical infrastructure, with incident rates nearly doubling from previous year.
Reuters: Chinese and Indian refiners will source more oil from the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, boosting prices and freight costs, as new U.S. sanctions on Russian producers and ships curb supplies to Moscow's top customers, traders and analysts said.
11.01.2025
CNN: Ukraine claimed Saturday to have struck one of Russia’s largest oil refineries in a drone attack, starting a fire at the facility more than 700 miles into Russian territory.
RBC-Ukraine: Lithuanian-made drones that were supposed to be delivered to Ukraine by the end of last year still remain in army warehouses, LRT informs.
AFP: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that investigators were questioning two wounded North Korean soldiers after they were captured in Russia's Kursk region.
The Kyiv Independent: Kyiv and Rome are discussing the possibility of purchasing Italian-made air defense systems and ammunition using profits from immobilized Russian assets, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on Jan. 11.
DW: When Western-manufactured weapons are damaged in the war in Ukraine, they have to be sent for repair, and are often out of action for months. Efforts are now being made to minimize the delays and bureaucratic hurdles.
The Moscow Times: Germany raced Saturday to secure a heavily loaded tanker stranded off its northern coast, towing the stricken ship it said was part of Russia's sanctions-busting "shadow fleet" away from shore to avert an oil spill.
Reuters: Ukraine launched drone attacks across several regions of Russia, striking two residential houses in the Tambov region and injuring at least three people, Russia said on Saturday.
The Kyiv Independent: Almost 1,300 Ukrainians living in Poland, Denmark, Czechia, Germany, Lithuania, and other European countries have applied to join the Poland-based Ukrainian Legion, the Defense Ministry said on Jan. 10.
10.01.2025
France 24: The first symptoms of disinformation are emerging on the social media network Bluesky, with echoes of the pro-Russian "Matryoshka" campaign that flooded Elon Musk's X -- but with a few twists.
Mediazona: Taganrog, a city of 245,000 on Russia’s southern coast near the Ukrainian border, has become notorious as a hub for captured Ukrainians. Its SIZO-2 is now infamous for prolonged beatings and torture.
The Moscow Times: Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is believed to be sheltering two men linked to plots to assassinate two Uzbekistani officials last year, according to an Uzbek source personally familiar with the situation who spoke to MT on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
AP News: Thousands of Slovaks took to the streets on Friday as protests against the pro-Russia policies of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico spread from Slovakia’s capital to towns and cities across the country and abroad.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian forces struck a Russian army command post in Svitlodarsk in Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on Jan. 10.
BBC News: The Biden administration has imposed some of its toughest sanctions yet on Russia, in a move designed to hit Moscow's energy revenue that is fuelling its war in Ukraine. In a first since Moscow's all-out invasion of Ukraine, the UK will join the US in directly sanctioning energy companies Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas.
Reuters: Poland has identified a Russian group tasked with influencing Polish elections through disinformation and stoking instability, Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said on Friday.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine struck a Russian warehouse storing ammunition and reconnaissance drones using a domestically-made Neptune missile overnight on Jan. 10.
Reuters: Ukraine received its first 3 billion euro tranche of the European Union's portion of a loan agreed by the Group of Seven members and backed by the earnings from frozen Russian sovereign assets, Kyiv and Brussels said on Friday.
Russa-Ukraine Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Do you think your friend or colleague should know about this newsletter? Forward it to them, please. They can also sign up here.
Please do support my work