Vladimir Putin’s forces have suffered nearly 2,000 casualties in a single day, Ukraine’s military has claimed, in what would mark one of the deadliest 24 hours of fighting since the war began.
Kyiv’s military claimed the vast toll as another day of intense fighting unfolded, with more than 120 clashes reported and Russian troops claimed to have fired more than 6,000 artillery shells and deployed close to 3,000 kamikaze drones.
The fevered push by Mr Putin’s forces came as talk of possible negotiations intensified following Donald Trump’s return to the White House, an event described as offering a “small window of opportunity” for peace by Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov.
While Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted that Nato membership should be a condition of any peace deal, he told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos: “Everything depends on the United States.
“If Trump is ready to see Ukraine in Nato, we will be in Nato, everyone will be in favour. If President Trump is not ready to see us in Nato, we will not be in Nato.”
Putin’s forces suffer nearly 2,000 casualties in a single day, Kyiv claims
Vladimir Putin’s forces have suffered nearly 2,000 casualties in a single day, Ukraine’s military has claimed, in what would mark one of the deadliest 24 hours of fighting since the war began.
Kyiv’s military claimed the vast toll as another day of intense fighting unfolded, with more than 120 clashes reported and Russian troops claimed to have fired more than 6,000 artillery shells and deployed close to 3,000 kamikaze drones.
Ukraine’s military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi claimed this week that Russian losses now exceed 800,000, with a record 434,000 of Mr Putin’s killed or wounded in 2024.
“This year of combat has cost them more than the previous two years of the war combined,” Mr Syrskyi told Ukrainian TV channel TSN.
Andy Gregory22 January 2025 11:46
Ukraine says it downed 65 Russian drones in overnight attack
Ukraine’s air force has said Russia had launched an overnight attack on the country with 99 drones, of which 65 have been downed and 30 others disappearing from radar without reaching their targets.
The air force reported damage in six regions across Ukraine as a result of the attack.
Russia has launched near-daily volleys of strike drones at its neighbour over the past months.
Andy Gregory22 January 2025 11:17
Russia claims it sees ‘small window of opportunity’ to negotiate with Trump administration
Moscow sees a small window of opportunity to forge agreements with Donald Trump’s new administration, Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov has claimed.
“We cannot say anything today about the degree of the incoming administration’s capacity to negotiate, but still, compared to the hopelessness in every aspect of the previous White House chief, there is a window of opportunity today, albeit a small one,” Mr Ryabkov said, according to Interfax.
“It’s therefore important to understand with what and whom we will have to deal, how best to build relations with Washington, how best to maximise opportunities and minimise risks,” he said, speaking at the Institute for US and Canadian Studies, a think-tank in Moscow.
Mr Trump has claimed that he could end the war in Ukraine swiftly, without specifying how, but warned the day after entering the White House that he would likely impose more sanctions on Russia if Vladimir Putin refuses to negotiate.
Andy Gregory22 January 2025 10:49
North Korean troops fighting for Russia ‘suffer 4,000 casualties’
A third of the estimated 12,000 North Korean troops sent to fight in Vladimir Putin’s war have been killed or wounded, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is reported to have said.
Ukrainian website ArmyInform reported Mr Zelensky as saying during a visit to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany earlier this month: “Putin is not just maintaining his investments in aggression. He is doubling them. He has even started hiring soldiers from North Korea to continue this war.
“To date, they have lost 4,000 people wounded and killed.”
That figures appears slightly higher than estimates by South Korea, whose National Intelligence Service said previously that more than 300 North Korean soldiers had died and at least 2,700 wounded while fighting for Russia, according to the BBC.
Politico reported this week that the North Korean troops – who first appeared on the battlefield in October – have since earned a grim reputation among Ukrainians for apparently preferring to kill themselves rather than surrender.
Andy Gregory22 January 2025 10:22
Russian forces attack Zaporizhzhia 430 times in a day, governor says
Russian forces launched more than 430 strikes on nine settlements in Zaporizhzhia in a single day, the region’s govenor has said.
Ivan Fedorov accused Moscow’s troops of launching six air strikes, firing more than 150 artillery shells and using more than 260 drones to attack settlements in the region.
There were 10 reports of residential buildings and infrastructure being destroyed, but no civilians were injured, the governor said.
Andy Gregory22 January 2025 09:54
Watch: Trump issues warning to Putin on day one in office
Andy Gregory22 January 2025 09:27
Belarus’s Lukashenko could seek thaw in ties with West, analysts suggest
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko is expected to seek a thaw in ties with the West in a bid to lift sanctions if US president Donald Trump succeeds in his promise to bring the Ukraine war to an end, analysts have suggested.
While Mr Lukashenko – who is set to extend his 31-year rule in Sunday’s presidential elections, declared a sham by Belarus’s exiled opposition – is a close ally of Vladimir Putin, he has also shown tentative signs of easing repression in recent months in a likely bid to appeal to the West.
“If the war ends, there will be certain windows of opportunity for Lukashenko if he wants to continue these tactics of balancing between Russia and the West,” Tatsiana Chulitskaya, a Belarusian academic at Vilnius University in Lithuania, told Reuters.
Since last July, Lukashenko has issued what he called humanitarian pardons to 250 people serving prison terms for alleged extremist activity, and has allowed limited access in prison to two leading opposition figures, Maria Kalesnikava and Viktor Babariko, who had been isolated for nearly two years without any contact with the outside world.
Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told Reuters this week that the release of political prisoners in batches was part of a game Lukashenko was playing with the West – and warned that many more people remain in jail, while arrests continue.
“We need to stop repressions, we need to release all prisoners and maybe then we will talk to you,” she said.
Andy Gregory22 January 2025 08:59
Ukrainians ‘using cat noises to lure Russian soldiers into traps’
A Russian soldier has claimed that Ukrainians are using recordings of cat noises to lure them into explosive-rigged traps in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
According to The Times, Leonid Otdelnov, the commander of a mine-clearing unit told state-owned channel TV Zvezda: “We go in, we hear meowing, let’s say, in the cupboard. When you open it, out of compassion, there is a blast, because it has been rigged with explosives.”
He did not say whether any Russians had been killed as a result of the traps, and it was not possible to verify the claims.
Close to six in 10 Russians have previously been claimed to own a cat, according to market research firm Dalia Research, with reports last year that soldiers had started bringing cats to deal with rodent infestations on the frontline.
Andy Gregory22 January 2025 08:30
Trump: I told Xi to help settle Ukraine issue
Donald Trump says he has pressed Chinese president Xi Jinping to intervene to stop the Ukraine war during a phone call after his inauguration.
“He’s (Xi’s) not done very much on that. He’s got a lot of… power, like we have a lot of power. I said, ‘You ought to get it settled.’ We did discuss it,” the US president said.
His call to the Chinese leader came shortly after Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke with “dear friend” Xi on a video call.
Putin waved at Xi over the call as he proposed outlining plans to develop the “comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation” between Russia and China, strengthening a geopolitical alliance which seeks to weaken Western geopolitical influence.
Arpan Rai22 January 2025 07:52
Trump has a key decision to make on Ukraine – is he an ally of Kyiv or Putin?
In Ukraine’s capital, they know that the 47th president of the US is no particular friend. They also believe he’s potty about Vladimir Putin, and that may be to their advantage when Trump comes around to renewing military support for a nation fighting off the Kremlin.
Officials here are philosophical and diplomatic, even when speaking privately, about the incoming president. They’re keen to make a new relationship work – but also know that if there’s one legacy Trump won’t want attached to his name is that he was a patsy for the Russian president.
Arpan Rai22 January 2025 07:24