Day 697 of the Invasion of Ukraine: At Least 25 Dead After Strike On Russian-Controlled Donetsk

Day 697 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

• Death toll from the Ukrainian shelling of a market in Donetsk rose to 25 people
• Ukrainian drones flew over 900 km and hit a gas terminal near St. Petersburg
• ISW: The Russians captured a village on the border between Kharkiv and Luhansk regions
• Mystery in the mountains of Afghanistan: A plane carrying VIPs from Gazprom crashed
• The Slovak Prime Minister: We are against Ukraine joining NATO, but it can join the EU
• Russian ambassador: Swiss peace summit on Ukraine would be "pointless”
• NATO's 'Steadfast Defender' exercise marks a return to Cold War schemes, Russia says

Death toll from the shelling of a market in Donetsk rose to 25 people

"The number of dead citizens in the shelling of a market in Donetsk by the Armed Forces of Ukraine reached 25 people, at least 20 people were injured", the head of the Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin announced on his Telegram channel, TASS reported.

Earlier it was reported that 18 were killed and 13 injured.

"At the moment, the information about 25 dead has been confirmed. At least 20 more people are injured, of which two children are in a medium serious condition. All the injured are receiving the necessary medical assistance. Among them there are also seriously injured, many of them have penetrating wounds in the area of vital organs, traumatic amputation of limbs," the announcement states.

Donetsk came under the control of Moscow-led pro-Russian guerrillas in 2014 and has since been regularly shelled by the Ukrainian army, AFP recalls. The city is located about 20 km from the front line.

At least eight people were killed and five were wounded during Ukrainian shelling of a market in Donetsk pic.twitter.com/FcBgInuR1x

— Masno (@NovichokRossiya) January 21, 2024

Ukrainian drones flew over 900 km and hit a gas terminal near St. Petersburg

A fire broke out at the terminal of Russia's largest liquefied natural gas producer Novatek at the Baltic port of Ust-Luga, the governor of the Leningrad Region, Alexander Drozdenko, said this morning, as quoted by Reuters.

"There were no casualties as a result of the fire at the Novatek terminal in Ust-Luga port. The staff was evacuated," Drozdenko wrote on Telegram. He did not specify the reasons for the fire at the port, which is located in the Russian part of the Gulf of Finland.

According to the Russian news agency “Shot”, several explosions were heard in the area. The Russian electronic publication "Fontanka" writes that before the fire was reported, local residents noticed at least two drones flying towards St. Petersburg, BTA adds.

Residents of Kingisepp have reported hearing the sounds of drones flying. The settlement is located about 35 km from the port. This information is also confirmed by Russian military bloggers, who write that the Ukrainian drones were flying towards St. Petersburg, but at the last moment of their route, they abruptly turned their direction and headed for the gas terminal.

It is not clear what drones the VSU used, but they certainly flew more than 900 kilometers (in a straight line, the distance is 884 km, but drones don't fly like that). The drones passed through the airspace of 3 countries - they took off from Ukraine, flew over the entire territory of Belarus and reached the Baltic Russian port.

Recently, Russia and Ukraine have begun to exchange blows on infrastructure objects. The aim of these attacks is to disrupt supply lines and logistics of the opposing side and break morale in the almost two-year-old war, Reuters commented.

On Friday, a drone attacked an oil depot in Russia's western Bryansk region, bordering Ukraine. A day earlier, a Russian oil terminal in the Baltic Sea was also attacked, and according to Russian officials, the vessel was not injured.

Ukraine has no plans to stop striking deep into Russian territory, despite concerns from Ukraine's Western backers about a possible retaliatory response from the Russian Federation. This was stated by Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense in an interview with the Financial Times.

According to the newspaper, such audacious tactics of Ukrainian drone attacks are causing concern among some of Ukraine's partners, who warn that it could provoke a sharper response from Russian President Vladimir Putin, possibly even with the use of nuclear weapons. At the same time, the FT reports, Ukraine's intelligence chief is unfazed by such concerns and vows to continue working deep inside Russia to sabotage Putin's war machine.

"We do not foresee any drastic changes in the near future. Everything we have done, we will continue to do in the future," said Budanov.

He predicted that this year will be difficult for Ukraine.

"To say that everything is fine is not true," Budanov said when asked about Ukraine's counteroffensive last year not achieving its goals. "To say it's a disaster is also not true."

At the same time, he predicted that Ukraine would still be able to hold Putin and has already proven that "the whole legend of Russia's power is a soap bubble."

ISW: The Russians captured a village on the border between Kharkiv and Luhansk regions

The Russian occupiers advanced along the Kupiansk-Svatovo-Kremenna line and captured the village of Krokhmalne, 20 km northwest of Svatovo.

This is stated in a new report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Geolocation footage shows that the Russian occupiers are advancing in the area of Kupiansk and Kremena. In addition, positional fighting continues northeast of Kupiansk in the area of Sinkivka and Petropavlovka.

According to analysts, units of the Russian 1st Guards Tank Army (Western Military District) are advancing in the direction of Kupiansk, and units of the 20th General Army are advancing in the direction of Liman.

The report said that a representative of the Ukrainian forces of the Lyman direction said that the occupiers were conducting an advance by infantry supported by armored vehicles. The representative stated that a large number of Russian tanks, BMPs and armored vehicles are moving in the direction of Liman.

ISW notes that it has not yet established confirmation of large columns of Russian equipment operating in the Kupiansk or Lyman directions. On the Kupiansk-Svatovo-Kremenna line last year, only positional battles were fought.

Mystery in the mountains of Afghanistan: A plane carrying VIPs from Gazprom crashed

A Russian Falcon 10B aircraft (RA-09011), owned by the Russian company Athletic Group and a private individual, crashed in a mountainous area of Afghanistan.

The plane was on a charter flight from India to Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent and then to Zhukovsky Airport, near Moscow. According to preliminary data from Rosaviatsia, there were two passengers and four crew members on board the plane.

The pilots reported technical problems with the aircraft and planned to make an emergency landing. On Saturday night, the plane stopped communicating while in Afghan airspace near the border with Tajikistan.

According to Russian media, there were two Russians on board the plane that disappeared from radar in Afghanistan. Preliminary information is that they have died.

The incident was commented on by the journalist Denis Kazansky, according to whom sooner or later this was going to happen.

"Since the sanctions, Russian planes have been breaking down and making emergency landings almost every week. This is the first one that failed. There were six people on board. It was a charter flight for Gazprom. Apparently, some VIPs died," said the journalist.

The VIP version from the management of the Russian gas giant is widely circulated on Telegram by Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels.

The Slovak Prime Minister: We are against Ukraine joining NATO, but it can join the EU

Slovakia is against the admission of Ukraine to NATO and is ready to impose a veto if such a need arises, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said today, DPA reported.

He told Slovak radio that he will visit Ukraine on Wednesday to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Denys Shmyhal. The talks between the two prime ministers are to take place in the city of Uzhhorod, located near the border with Slovakia. One of the reasons for the meeting is the presentation of a new aid package for Ukraine, but Fico will make clear Slovakia's positions, which diverge from Ukrainian wishes.

"I will tell them that we will block their accession to NATO, because this will be nothing but grounds for World War III," Fizzo said.

At the same time, the Slovak prime minister indicated that his government supports the admission of Ukraine to the EU, as long as Kyiv meets the conditions for membership like any other applicant country.

Russian ambassador: Swiss peace summit on Ukraine would be "pointless”

Switzerland's hosting of peace talks on Ukraine would be "pointless," Russia's ambassador to Switzerland said in an interview published today in the SonntagsZeitung newspaper, Reuters reported.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky asked Switzerland to organize a peace summit.

Neutral Switzerland has acted as a mediator to resolve international conflicts in the past as well.

However, Russian Ambassador Sergey Garmonin told the Swiss newspaper "SonntagsZeitung" that a meeting on Ukraine without the participation of Moscow would be "doomed to failure".

Garmonin criticized Switzerland, saying the country had consistently supported the "anti-Russian line of the collective West" and by showing solidarity with Ukraine had "lost its role as an impartial international mediator". Swiss mediation is therefore "out of the question", he said.

Zelensky's 10-point peace plan is not a basis for starting a dialogue, as it contains a number of ultimatums against Russia, Garmonin said.

"You can't talk to Russia in the language of ultimatums," the ambassador pointed out.

He said Russian demands to be considered include that "Ukraine must become a neutral, non-aligned, non-nuclear-weapon country that respects the human rights and freedoms of all citizens and national groups on its territory."

NATO's 'Steadfast Defender' exercise marks a return to Cold War schemes, Russia says

The scale of NATO's Steadfast Defender 2024 exercises shows the alliance's "irreversible return" to Cold War schemes, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said, Reuters reported.

He made this statement to the state news agency RIA in a comment published today.

NATO said on Thursday it was launching its largest Cold War exercise involving some 90,000 troops, rehearsing how US troops could bolster European allies in countries bordering Russia and on the alliance's eastern flank if a conflict flares up with a "similar in power" opponent.

"These exercises are another element of the hybrid war deployed by the West against Russia," Grushko told RIA. "Exercises of this scale show NATO's final and irreversible return to Cold War patterns, when military planning, resources and infrastructure were geared towards confrontation with Russia."

NATO did not mention Russia by name in its announcement. However, its most important strategic document identifies Russia as the most significant and direct threat to the security of NATO members.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Kyiv and its Western allies described these actions as unprovoked and imperialist.

Since then, Moscow and its top diplomat, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, have often accused the "collective West" of waging a "hybrid war" against Russia by providing Ukraine with financial and military aid.

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