WAR IN UKRAINE: January 30, 2023
Friends and volunteers gathered on January 29 at Kyiv's St. Sophia’s Cathedral to say goodbye to Andrew Bagshaw, a New Zealand scientist who was killed in Ukraine with another volunteer while they were trying to evacuate people from a frontline town. Bagshaw, 48, a dual New Zealand-British citizen, and British volunteer Christopher Parry, 28, went missing this month while heading to the town of Soledar, in the eastern Donetsk region, where heavy fighting was taking place. To read the original story from AP, click here.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 340
An elderly woman was killed and three other people were injured after a missile hit a residential building in the center of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said said on Telegram. Oleh Syniehubov, head of Kharkiv's military administration, said on Telegram that the building in the city's Kyivskyi district was struck by a Soviet-era S-300 long-range missile - CNN
Ukrainian tank crews have arrived in Britain to begin training for their continued fight against Russia, the British Defense Ministry said on January 29, just days after Britain and other NATO countries pledged more than 130 tanks to Ukraine - RFE/RL
BBC: Boris Johnson says Putin threatened him with missile strike in run-up to Russia's invasion. Boris Johnson has said Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened him with a missile strike after he warned the war would be an "utter catastrophe" during a "very long" call in February 2022 - Kyiv Independent
Ukraine's military said on January 29 that its forces had repelled an attack in the area of Blahodatne in the eastern part of the Donetsk region, while Russia's Vagner private military group said it had taken control of the village.
In his nightly video address Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked for more supplies and new weapons. "The speed of supply will be one of the key factors in this war,” he said. “Russia hopes to drag out the war, to exhaust our forces. So, we have to make time our weapon,” he added. Zelenskyy said the situation at the front is “very tough,” primarily in Donetsk. Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other areas in the Donetsk region, he said, are under constant Russian attacks. “There are constant attempts to break through our defense.” The Ukrainian leader said, “the enemy does not count its people and, despite numerous casualties, maintains a high intensity of attacks” - VOA
Western countries, concerned that time maybe in Russia’s war against Ukraine might be on Moscow’s side, are behind the recent decision to step up military hardware aid, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed Western officials. According to the reports, some Western officials worry the Kremlin can dominate any lengthy war of attrition, keeping deploying men and means into the war, according to the report. According to the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, Russia has lost over 126,000 troops and thousands of pieces of military hardware since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. However, Russian forces continue offensive efforts near Bakhmut in eastern Donetsk Oblast, and southeastern Zaporizhzhia Oblast, engaging additional aviation, according to the Ukrainian military, The Kyiv Independent reported. Despite the pledge by U.S., U.K. and Germany to provide Ukraine with dozens of modern tanks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Sky News that Ukraine needs up to 500 tanks to liberate the occupied territories.
Belarus’s armed forces could face widespread desertion from conscripts should the country’s strongman leader, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, order an invasion of Ukraine, a former senior law enforcement official said. The prediction by Alyaksandr Azarov, who represents an association of former Belarusian security officials, comes amid conflicting signals about whether Lukashenka may finally decide to commit Belarusian troops to the Ukraine invasion, now in its 12th month. In November, satellite imagery obtained by RFE/RL’s Belarus Service showed that thousands of Russian troops may have returned to Belarus, renewing questions about another incursion into Ukraine.
A new wiper cyberattack attributed to SandWorm was deployed against Ukraine on Jan. 25. Dubbed SwiftSlicer, the Slovakian cybersecurity firm ESET discovered the attack levied used Active Directory Group Policy and was written in Go programming language. Once deployed, SwiftSlicer deletes shadow companies and recursively overwrites files located in system drivers and other non-system drives before rebooting the computer. ESET researchers explained on Twitter that the wiper overwrites drives using 4096 bytes-length blocks filled with randomly generated bytes - SC Media
Required reading…
Behind the Lines: Russia Steps up Ukrainian Deportations
Increasing numbers of people are being deported from the occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts. The strategy of the occupying forces is to intensify military activity, so all social institutions stop working and then announce an “evacuation.” Since the beginning of Moscow’s large-scale invasion, the Russian military has deported more than 2 million Ukrainians from occupied territories, forcing them to adopt Russian citizenship. People are taken to Krasnodar and Stavropol oblasts of the Russian Federation.
Read the full CEPA report here