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UKRAINE UPDATE: 30 JANUARY 2023

Zelensky calls for long-range missiles; Scholz warns against ‘bidding war’ on weapons

Zelensky calls for long-range missiles; Scholz warns against ‘bidding war’ on weapons
An armoured personnel carrier moves through the retaken town of Lyman in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on 26 January 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Oleg Petrasyuk)

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky urged allies to provide long-range missiles even as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned against a Western arms race in Ukraine — and said he would continue talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bid to end the conflict, which is approaching the one-year mark. ‘I can only advise against entering a bidding war over weapons systems,’ Scholz said in a newspaper interview.

A senior North Korean official slammed the US decision to send Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine, following up on similar comments from the sister of leader Kim Jong-un. Pyongyang also denied it provided arms to Russia, as the US claimed.

The Speaker of Russia’s Duma said rising US involvement came out of a fear of losing its “colony” and that Washington and Nato were using Ukraine as a “training ground”. Russian officials have increasingly couched their war in recent months as a broader battle with the West, even as Nato has not directly engaged in the conflict in Ukraine.

Key developments

On the ground

Russia’s defence ministry said its troops had taken up “more advantageous lines and positions” in their offensive in the Donetsk region. Five people were killed and at least 15 injured in Russian shelling of the Donetsk region over the past day, local governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram.

In the past day, Russians launched one missile and 32 air strikes and fired more than 65 rounds of anti-aircraft fire, damaging civil infrastructure in Donetsk and the Kherson regions. Ukraine’s army repelled attacks in some settlements of the Luhansk region and in more than a dozen settlements in the Donetsk region, including Bakhmut.

Russia shells Kherson hospital, other sites with injuries reported

One person was killed and at least two injured by Russian rocket strikes on liberated Kherson on Sunday, the deputy head of the regional military administration said.

Among the sites hit were a hospital — injuring a nurse — along with warehouses, a bus station, a school playground, other buildings and private cars.

 

 

 

Germany’s Scholz warns against weapons race

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned against allies getting into a race to send even more advanced weaponry to Ukraine, days after his government said it would send battle tanks. On Saturday, Ukraine’s president said that the nation “needs long-range missiles” so that “terrorists do not have a sense of impunity”.

“It’s my responsibility to do everything in my power to ensure that Russia’s war on Ukraine doesn’t become a war against Nato,” Scholz said in an interview with Tagesspiegel newspaper. “I won’t allow such an escalation.”

Germany has pledged to send Ukraine more than 100 Leopard 2 battle tanks in a joint effort with allies. The US offered M1 Abrams tanks, in a reversal of a previous position.

Ukraine crews arrive in UK for tank training

Crews from Ukraine have arrived in the UK to begin training on the Challenger 2 main battle tanks offered by Britain to Ukraine, the UK defence ministry said.

Russia, Belarus in tactical exercises with hypersonic missiles

The armed forces of Belarus and Russia were carrying out “joint tactical flight exercises” on Sunday involving the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system, the Belarusian defence ministry said.

The exercises come as Kremlin forces step up their activity in Belarus, which many Ukrainian and allied officials believe is a prelude to a new Russian assault on Ukraine from the north.

Ukraine merely a US ‘training ground’, says Russian Duma Speaker

Vyacheslav Volodin, the Speaker of Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, said the US was being driven by “the fear of losing its colony” in Ukraine with the provision of ever-heavier weapons.

“Ukraine is a training ground for Washington and Nato to test their weapons and test out new ways of waging war,” Volodin said in a lengthy Telegram post on Sunday. “There are American instructors, mercenaries. All this indicates the direct participation of Washington in the hostilities, the fear of losing their colony.”

In separate comments on Sunday, Russia’s foreign ministry noted a “lack of reaction” from the US to Russia’s claim that Ukraine had struck a hospital in occupied Luhansk with US-donated Himars rockets on Saturday, killing 14. That, the ministry said, “confirms their direct involvement in the conflict”.

Ukraine sets sanctions on Russian, Belarusian chemical giants  

Ukraine’s president signed a decree to implement sanctions against 182 enterprises from Russia and Belarus, mainly engaged in transportation, vehicle leasing and chemical production. The list includes Uralkali and Belaruskali, which jointly control about 40% of global potash output.

The sanctions provide for the blocking of assets, restriction of trade operations, and termination of trade agreements, joint projects and industrial programmes, among other measures.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry plans to push the EU and US for similar measures.

Ukraine needs long-range missiles, says Zelensky 

Ukraine’s president stepped up his call for allies to provide long-range missiles “so that terrorists do not have a sense of impunity”.

Zelensky spoke in his nightly video address on Saturday of a Russian missile launch that hit a residential area of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region.

“Ukraine needs long-range missiles — in particular, to remove this possibility of the occupiers to place their missile launchers somewhere far from the front line and destroy Ukrainian cities with them,” he said.

North Korea slams US for donating tanks to Ukraine

A North Korean official called last week’s US move to send Abrams main battle tanks to Ukraine an “unethical crime” aimed at perpetuating an unstable international situation, according to a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Kwon Jong-gun, director-general of the department of US affairs at North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, also denied Pyongyang was providing Russia with arms. The White House this month showed intelligence images it said showed Russian railcars entering North Korea, loading missiles and rockets, and returning to Russia.

“Trying to tarnish the image of” North Korea “by fabricating a non-existent thing is a grave provocation,” Kwon said, warning that it could trigger a “reaction”.

Russia plans basic military training in high schools, says UK

Russia has recently provided detail on the planned rollout of “basic military training” for the nation’s high schools, the UK defence ministry said.

The lessons will be mandatory starting in September and highlight the “increasingly militarised atmosphere” in Russia.

“The module within the ‘Basics of Life Safety’ course will include training with AK series assault rifles and hand grenades, military drill and salutes, and the use of personal protective equipment,” the ministry said in a Twitter update.

Zelensky aide says talks under way on planes, missiles

Ukraine was engaged in talks with allies on the need for long-range missiles and military aircraft, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff said on Saturday on Freedom TV. “Talks are moving fast,” Mykhailo Podolyak added.

“Partners understand the logic of the war. We will have more losses without jets,” he said, adding that Ukraine needs long-range missiles to hit Russian ammunition storage sites, including in Crimea. Zelensky called for more support, including planes and missiles, after the US and Germany this week said they would send battle tanks.

On Friday, Hungarian leader Viktor Orban said Western allies have “drifted” toward being active combatants in Ukraine by sending “ever more modern” weaponry to Kyiv. “It started with the Germans saying they were willing to send helmets,” Orban said. “Now, we’re at battle tanks, and they’re already talking about planes.”

Four ships carrying grain sail from Ukraine’s ports

Four vessels with a total of 147,170 tonnes of soybeans, wheat and corn left Ukrainian ports on Saturday, heading to Turkey, Bangladesh and China, the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) said.

The JCC monitors the implementation of the deal brokered by the UN and Turkey that allowed the export of food from three Ukrainian ports otherwise blocked by Russia since it invaded Ukraine in February. The JCC’s inspections team concluded seven inspections of vessels on Saturday and planned another 10 on Sunday, according to an emailed statement.

Currently, 34 vessels are waiting for inspection: 10 are waiting to move into Ukrainian ports and 24 are loaded with cargo and waiting to sail. Another 80 more applications had been submitted, Ukraine said.

Russia says many killed, wounded in Ukraine strike on hospital  

Russia’s defence ministry said Ukrainian forces struck with Himars rockets a district hospital in Novoaidar in occupied Luhansk, killing 14 people and wounding 24. The report couldn’t be verified and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Service members and members of the local population were being treated at the facility, Russia’s ministry said. Among the casualties were patients and medical staff.

 

 

 

Ukraine-backing ex-Nato general is next Czech president 

A former Nato general pledging unwavering support for Ukraine will become the next Czech president after securing a convincing victory over a former billionaire prime minister.

Petr Pavel, who once served as Nato’s Chairman of the Military Committee, had 57.1% with almost 90% of polling districts counted, according to data published by the Czech Statistics Office on Saturday. Andrej Babis, a chemicals, farming and media magnate known for his clashes with the European Union, had 42.9%.

Read more: Ex-Nato general scores victory over populist in Czech election

Finland hints at Russian involvement in Swedish Koran incident  

Finland’s foreign minister hinted that Russia may have been involved in last week’s Koran-burning protest that threatens to derail Sweden’s accession to Nato.

Potential ties between a right-wing activist and Russia had “been investigated and certain connections in his vicinity have been found”, Finland’s Pekka Haavisto said on Saturday. Sweden’s government has made no official comment. Russia didn’t respond to Haavisto’s remarks.

The episode “raises the question of whether some third party is seeking to stir the pot”, the Finnish minister said.

Read more: Finland hints at Russian involvement in Sweden Koran burning 

Three civilians dead after Russia strikes Donetsk 

Three civilians were killed and more than a dozen were injured in a Russian strike on Kostyantynivka in Donetsk on Saturday, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration.

Four high-rise apartment buildings, a hotel, garages and civilian cars were damaged, Kyrylenko said on Telegram. DM

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