Ukraine sends its remaining reservists to the front in an accelerated campaign of forced mobilization prevent your defenses from collapsing, said this morning Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who added that in January the Russian army maintained the initiative along the entire front line in Ukraine and captured three cities. At a meeting with senior officials of the Russian Armed Forces, the Defense Minister added: “After the failure of the enemy’s counteroffensive, the Russian Armed Forces retain the strategic initiative along the entire line of confrontation (…) l.”Russian Army units are advancing, expanding controlled areas and improving their frontline positions“he explained when reporting on the situation at the front.
According to Shoigu, “as part of hostilities in the Kupyansk, Liman and Donetsk sectors.” the cities of Vesele, Krajmalne, Tabaivka were liberated.” “Russian military groups continue to systematically reduce the enemy’s combat potential,” he said, noting that the Russian army caused more than 23,000 casualties among Ukrainian forces in January.
In addition, he reported the destruction of more than 3,000 Ukrainian combat machines and armored vehiclesincluding German Leopard tanks, American Bradley armored personnel carriers and Patriot and HIMARS missile launchers.
The Defense Minister noted that last month 127 attacks with high-precision weapons were carried out against Ukraine’s military infrastructure and military-industrial complex, including weapons production, modernization and repair enterprises, arsenals, airfields and fuel depots and troop concentration points.
“To prevent the collapse of its defenses, the Ukrainian command is throwing the remaining reserves into battle and conducting new urgent forced mobilizations,” he said. Shoigu accused the Ukrainian authorities of carrying out terrorist attacks against Russian civilians in order to “show Western sponsors at least some success,” and on this occasion referred to the shooting down of the Il-76 military transport aircraft which transported Ukrainian prisoners for exchange.
“This is an example of the cynical nature of Kiev’s actions, which is ready to commit any crime to advance its false interests,” he claimed.
Since last November, when the Ukrainian summer counteroffensive was crushed, Russia took the initiative on the front lines with discreet advances in several sectors of eastern and southern Ukraine with the aim of gaining complete control of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. annexed in September 2022 and on the rise in Kharkiv.
Two French aid workers killed in the war
For his part, French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné confirmed this Friday the death of two French aid workers working in Ukraine.Victims of “Russian barbarism” and the havoc it continues to wreak on Ukrainian civilians. “Two French aid workers paid with their lives for their work on behalf of the Ukrainians. Three were injured,” said the head of French diplomacy on his social network account X, a day after the Ukrainian authorities reported this incident in Kherson.
Séjourné, on behalf of the government, expressed support for the victims’ families and noted that “Russia must be held accountable for its crimes.” Ukrainian authorities reported Thursday that the attack occurred around 4 p.m. and was carried out using drones. In addition to the five French citizens killed or injured, a sixth person, who was Ukrainian, was also injured.
