Here is the situation on Wednesday, January 29:
Fighting
- Ukraine’s military said it has shot down 65 out of 100 drones launched at Ukraine from Russia overnight. According to the military, 28 drones failed to reach their targets, two returned towards Russia and Belarus, while one remained in Ukrainian air space.
- Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed its forces captured the Dvorichna settlement in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. The village was under Russian occupation in 2022 but was reclaimed by Kyiv months later.
- Russian officials and media outlets reported a barrage of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting oil and power facilities in western Russia. No casualties were reported. Debris from a downed drone sparked a fire at an industrial facility in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod, the region’s governor said.
- Vasily Anokhin, the governor of the Smolensk region in western Russia, said Russian air defence systems destroyed a Ukrainian drone attempting to attack a nuclear power facility in the region. No casualties or damage were reported.
Military
- Russian prosecutors began legal proceedings to recover the alleged embezzlement of nearly $33m of funds originally allocated for the defence of western Kursk. The lawsuit names the head of Kursk Region Development Corporation, his deputies and several businessmen as defendants.
- Reuters news agency reported that Ukraine’s government sacked Rustem Umerov, deputy defence minister in charge of weapons purchases, amid infighting over procurement. The move also comes after Umerov criticised Ukraine’s arms procurement efforts saying it failed to deliver results for front-line troops.
- According to the Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Bureau’s press service, a criminal investigation was opened against Umerov regarding the procurement dispute. The bureau said the probe was launched following an appeal by a civil society watchdog.
- United States media reports suggest that Washington sent some 90 patriot missiles to Ukraine from Israel via Poland.
Russian oil and gas
- A Kremlin spokesperson said Russia is interested in resuming gas transit via Ukraine. This follows the European Commission’s statement announcing plans to continue talks with Ukraine on natural gas supplies to Europe.
Humanitarian aid
- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said humanitarian projects in Ukraine suspended operations due to the US putting a hold on foreign aid. He also said Kyiv would partially replace the funds via public financing for the most critical projects.
