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Stay on top of Russia-Ukraine war 02-01-2024 developments on the ground with KyivPost fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated war maps.
IAEA head Rafael Grossi is to visit the site next week after holding high-level talks on Tuesday in Kyiv
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Thursday that workers from Ukraine’s atomic energy operator Energoatom have been barred from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was taken over by Russian forces in March 2022, one month after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, and its six reactors have been shut down.
Details are still coming in but Thursday may have been the most ambitious and complex Ukrainian air strike of the war so far. Both sides say Kyiv’s airmen returned to base safely.
An ambitious Ukrainian bomber raid firing British-French cruise missiles broke through Kremlin air defenses and hammered a major military airfield in the Russia-occupied Crimea peninsula, official sources and independent media said Thursday.
At least three Ukrainian Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO reporting name: Fencer) attack bombers carried out the main effort of the Wednesday attack, launching a minimum six British Storm Shadow or French SCALP cruise missiles at targets around Belbek air base, near the Crimea city of Sevastopol.
Eric Reguly, Toronto Globe and Mail's European Bureau Chief based in Rome, discusses with Kyiv Post Chief Editor Bohdan Nahaylo the shifting moods in Europe and Ukraine.
As doubts swirl over future support from Ukraine's other major ally the United States, the EU deal is a major boost for Kyiv as Russia's war nears the start of its third year.
EU leaders on Thursday struck a deal with Viktor Orban to get 50 billion euros in financial aid to Ukraine, overcoming the Hungarian leader's veto with surprising speed at a crunch summit in Brussels.
"All 27 leaders agreed on an additional €50 billion support package for Ukraine within the EU budget," European Council president Charles Michel, who chairs the summit, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
These recently released numbers refer only to those unoccupied and liberated areas fully under Ukrainian control and to which its police had full access.
Ukraine’s National Police have officially recorded the deaths of 9,700 Ukrainian civilians as a result of Russia's war in Ukraine. These numbers refer only to the non-occupied territories to which Ukraine's police have had full access.
In addition, there are concerns about the whereabouts and well-being of 7,000 individuals who remain unaccounted for.
Aerial surveillance video taken by soldiers from the SSO 73rd Maritime Center discovered two Russian BM-21 “Grad” multiple launch rocket systems and then shows what happened next.
The Ukrainian military successfully destroyed two Russian BM-21 “Grad” MLRS in the south using the American HIMARS artillery rocket system, as announced by the Special Operations Forces (SSO) via a drone video released on Telegram.
“Two enemy Grads have been destroyed. SSO operators continue to perform tasks in all operational directions, inflicting significant losses on the enemy,” read the caption to the footage.
Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, has once again voiced his confidence in a full victory for Ukraine over Russia, despite no clear endgame in sight.
Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian Military Intelligence (HUR), spoke CNN in an exclusive interview. Despite public concerns about the exhaustion of Ukrainian troops, Russia’s superiority in domestic military production, and no clear and foreseen game-end he continued to voice his usual confidence in a full victory for Ukraine over Russia.
“The establishment of justice – this is how it will end,” he said, adding: “The next six months will be interesting, with that period seeing the end of Russia’s ongoing push along the frontlines.”
The seven members of the band Bi-2 had been detained by Thailand, raising fears they risked deportation to Russia, although all its members had by Thursday been allowed to leave for Israel.
The holding in detention by Thai authorities of an anti-war Russian rock band has exposed how criticising President Vladimir Putin can be fraught with danger even outside the country.
The seven members of the band Bi-2 had been detained by Thailand on immigration charges, raising fears they risked deportation to Russia and even a show trial, although all its members had by Thursday been allowed to leave for Israel after a week-long ordeal.
In front of St Michael’s cathedral in Kyiv on Wednesday acting US Deputy Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, said President Putin was going to get some nice surprises – this could be one of them.
Ukraine has been impatiently anticipating the arrival of what it hopes will be another US-provided battlefield weapons system for almost a year.
The Boeing-Saab hybrid missile system the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) was originally slated to be delivered in spring 2023 but a number of technical issues pushed the expected delivery date back several times.
Russian sources reported that four Ukrainian sea drones were “destroyed” overnight off the coast of Crimea but neglected to mention any damage to any of their ships.
Kyiv’s Defense Intelligence (HUR) has released video of what it says are Ukrainian sea drones blowing up a Russian missile boat overnight off the coast of occupied Crimea.
The dramatic footage shows several drones approaching the boat – called the Ivanovets – while coming under fire from the Russian vessel.
The use of Western electronic components in Russian missiles has caused concern since the start of the war in Ukraine, but a material most people haven’t heard of is even more critical.
Cotton pulp is a lustrous, natural material made from the leftover fibers after cottonseed has been processed. The tough yet soft fibers have a wide range of uses, primarily in the manufacture of various kinds of paper, including bank notes, lacquers and paints. Another, less benign use of the material is as a key component in the manufacture of nitrocellulose, which itself is a critical raw material for the manufacture of all propellants and other explosive components.
Referencing customs data, the Moscow Times has reported that Russia has been sourcing increasing quantities of nitrocellulose through Turkey and China since the start of the war in Ukraine.
The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.
WORLD BRIEFING: February 1, 2024
A presidential decree is expected by the end of the week to remove Ukraine’s popular army chief Valery Zaluzhny, a source has told CNN. According to one of the sources, at a small gathering at his office on Monday – also attended by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov – the president declared he had “made a decision to dismiss the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.” In a conversation described as “calm,” Zelensky then proceeded to offer Zaluzhny a different position, which Zaluzhny declined.
A partisan spokesperson told Kyiv Post that a Russian citizen who is “ideologically and proactively working” for Ukraine set fire to a railroad relay cabinet used to transport missiles on Jan. 30.
A Russian citizen, reportedly “ideologically and proactively working” with the Atesh, set fire to a railroad relay cabinet used to transport missiles, a spokesperson for the partisan group told the Kyiv Post.
On Tuesday, Jan 30, partisans of the Atesh movement, which operates in the Ukrainian occupied territories and in Russia, sabotaged a Russian railroad. Near the village of Pervomaiskii in the Tambov region of Russia, the guerrillas set fire to the railroad, namely the relay cabinet responsible for the control of the railroad.
Economic and cultural links between Israel and Ukraine are significant. Both nations are united by the common threat of the Tehran/Moscow axis, but their connections are most apparent in business.
From the Editors: Kyiv Post spoke with Evgeny Shulgin, Chairman of the Board at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Israel-Ukraine, to better understand the current business links between Israel and Ukraine and how they’ve been affected by recent events.
How would you describe business links between Ukraine and Israel?
A strike by an Iskander ballistic missile on a Ukraine air defense missile site that was applauded by Russian milbloggers on Wednesday was not all that it seemed.
An alleged Russian strike by an Iskander ballistic missile on a Ukraine air defense missile site that was applauded by Russian milbloggers on Wednesday was actually a decoy placed on the site of a previously destroyed S-300, according to Ukrainian military commentator video posts.
The Russian website LostArmour compiles open-source information on (only Ukrainian) military losses during President Putin’s “special military operation.” On Wednesday it published a video that it said showed a strike on an IRIS-T air defense missile system, which it says was geolocated to the village of Lisne in the Kharkiv region.
The Russian president has again stressed that the Kremlin’s objective is to seize as much of Ukraine’s territory as possible, including Kharkiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin doubled down on his maximalist and purposefully vague territorial objectives in Ukraine on Jan. 31.
Putin stated during a meeting with his election “proxies” that pushing the current frontline deeper into Ukraine is the most important goal for Russian forces across the theater. He emphasized the idea of a “demilitarized” or “sanitary” zone in Ukraine that he claimed would place Russian territory – including occupied Ukraine – out of range of both frontline artillery systems and Western-provided long-range systems.
The Largest Art Museum in Finland, the Athenaeum, has changed the nationality of the artist Ilya Repin from Russian to Ukrainian in its cataloguing system.
The Finnish news site Suomen Kuvalehti reported this significant change. In 2021 Repin was listed as a Russian artist, although with an addition that he was born on the territory of modern Ukraine. Since that time, Ukrainians have regularly applied to the museum to restore historical justice.
Among those who applied to the museum with a request to change Repin's nationality is a Ukrainian journalist, from Ukrainska Pravda, Anna Lodygina, who wrote an exhaustive article in which she identified the true nationality of the artist and his family.
A recently declassified US intelligence report shows a direct correlation between the current impasse in the US Congress on aid to Ukraine and Russian intelligence operations.
US intelligence verifies that the Russian propaganda strategy for the 2022 midterms was to target attack messaging against the Democratic Party in a way that undermined support for Ukraine. Accordingly, US support for Ukraine, which was previously bi-partisan, is now strictly divided along party lines - with House Republicans who achieved a slim majority two years ago unilaterally blocking aid to Ukraine.
Russian military commanders, in cooperation with the Kremlin propaganda campaign, delayed withdrawal from Kherson to prevent giving Democrats a positive takeaway on Ukraine prior to the 2022 midterms, according to intelligence reported by the CIA, FBI, NSA, Homeland Security and the State Department between June and December of 2022.
Recent polling in the US shows that Trump is towering over his Republican rivals while quickly increasing his lead in a potential head-to-head race against President Joe Biden – worrying some.
Since September of last year, former US President Donald Trump has consistently led incumbent President Joe Biden in national polls’ averages with a two-day exception in October, when the two contenders were tied. However, Trump’s lead has begun to expand and recent averages of national polling indicate that Trump is leading Biden 47.1 percent to 43.3 percent.
The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell admitted Wednesday that the EU will supply Ukraine with just over half of the one million artillery shells it promised to send by March.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed Wednesday to rally European partners to cobble together support for Ukraine "so huge" that it would weigh on Russian President Vladimir Putin's calculations.
The pledge by the German leader, once criticised for dragging his feet on arming Kyiv, came with fears growing that support from Ukraine's biggest weapons supplier, the United States, could fall away.
Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.
Key Takeaways from the ISW:
Death threats, €50 billion in aid, a minority rights argument, and a showdown between Hungary and the EU mean a lot is at stake on Thursday in Brussels.
A crunch meeting today will see EU members face off against Hungary as they try to solve a dispute over billions of euros of aid for Ukraine.
In December, the EU proposed a new tranche of aid for Ukraine totaling €50 billion ($54 billion).
Ukraine reportedly hits Russian airfield with Storm Shadows; NATO chief meets GOP lawmakers in Washington; Pyongyang's artillery shells used in Ukraine; Russia inches closer to encircling Avdiivka
Overview:
“Supporting Ukraine is not a charity,” NATO chief tells Washington lawmakers
As elections approach, Russian president tries to show that massive losses there are not in vain.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said that his troops had broken through to the outskirts of Avdiivka, which has been a high-priority target for Moscow and the site of some of the heaviest Russian losses in the war.
In televised remarks that come about two months before Russian presidential elections, Putin claimed that troops “broke through the enemy’s defenses and reached the outskirts of Avdiivka.
