As the war enters its 704th day, major developments include:
This is the situation as of Monday, January 29, 2024.
finding
- Ukraine's air force announced that Russia had launched a drone and missile attack across the country, hitting both civilian and critical infrastructure. The Air Force announced that Moscow had attacked the central Poltava region with two Iskander missiles. It also fired three S-300 surface-to-air missiles into the eastern Donetsk region. The Air Force said four of the eight Russian-launched drones were destroyed overnight by air defense systems. Three civilians were injured in the attack.
- Ukraine says Russia needs to provide evidence that the Ilyushin 76 military transport plane that crashed in the Belgorod region last week was carrying dozens of Ukrainian prisoners, as the Kremlin claimed. Ukraine's GUR military intelligence chief Kirillo Budanov said Kiev had no verifiable information about who was on board the plane. Ukraine's prisoner care coordination staff said relatives of prisoners on a list of names provided by Moscow could not identify their loved ones in photos of the crash site provided by Russian authorities.
politics and diplomacy
- Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) announced that it has indicted five people on suspicion of corruption in arms procurement. The SBU accuses five people of colluding with Defense Ministry officials to embezzle about $40 million that was earmarked for the purchase of 100,000 mortar shells for the war. If convicted, the group faces up to 12 years in prison.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has disclosed his income for the first time as part of efforts to promote transparency and root out corruption. Zelenskiy said that in 2021, the year before Russia launched a full-scale invasion, he and his family earned 10.8 million hryvnia ($286,168). The war reduced rental income from real estate, and the family's income fell to 3.7 million hryvnia ($98,535) in 2022.
- Russian officials in areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces said the Ukrainian language had been stripped of its official status and its use in public was effectively banned.
- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has announced that its director general, Rafael Grossi, will visit Ukraine next week, including the capital and the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
weapons
- President Zelensky warned that cutting military aid from the US to Ukraine would send a “bad signal” as the US's right-wing Republican Party has blocked further aid unless it is linked to changes in border policy. “The US's reluctance and lack of support are probably bad signs,” Zelensky told German state broadcaster ARD.
- NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, who began his visit to the United States on Sunday, said continued U.S. military funding to Ukraine would send an important deterrence message to China. US President Joe Biden has asked Congress to approve $61 billion in new aid to Ukraine. Stoltenberg said that although the aid was part of the Pentagon's overall budget, it allowed the Ukrainian military to “destroy and degrade” the Russian military, calling it a “good deal.” said. Stoltenberg is scheduled to meet with members of Congress on Tuesday.