Victory Chronicles-DAY 1058

A day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with 117 various projectiles and drones, Kyiv and Moscow exchanged 50 prisoners of war on Jan. 15 for the first time this year. 

Among the repatriated Ukrainians were captives with amputated limbs, illness from tuberculosis, and loss of vision. 

The United Arab Emirates brokered the prisoner exchange as it took place just hours after Moscow’s airborne volleys targeted more than a dozen Ukrainian regions, causing power outages in several regions, including the westernmost regions of Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk. 

Ukraine’s state power operator, Ukrenergo, reported strikes on critical infrastructure without specification of what exactly was hit. 

“It’s the middle of winter, and the target for the Russians remains the same: our energy sector,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. 

Russia’s Defense Ministry stated that the barrage was in response to Ukraine having recently targeted strategic energy facilities on its territory. 

As late as Jan. 15, an oil depot was struck by drones in Russia’s Voronezh region, and a second drone strike was reported at the Engels airbase in the Saratov region from where planes depart to launch projectiles on civilian targets within Ukraine. 

U.S. ATACMS missiles and British-made Storm Shadow projectiles were also reportedly used to target Russia’s Turkstream pipeline network on the same day. 

Overall, Ukraine targeted about a dozen Russian regions overnight on Jan. 14-15 in one of the largest drone blitzes of the war. 

In 2024, 11 prisoner exchanges took place, according to Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, with 356 more Ukrainians having returned home than in the previous year. 

A total of 3,767 Ukrainians have been repatriated since February 2022 up to Jan. 1, Ukraine’s human rights Obmudsman Dmytro Lubinets said in late November. 

Sources: Pravda, Ukrinform, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Interfax, Kyiv Post, Kyiv Independent, TSN, Glavkom, Institute for the Study of War, Ukrainian Air Force

More than a third of Ukrainian-made weapons are made domestically, while the remainder is supplied by the U.S. and European Union (EU), Ukrainian President Volcdymyr Zelenskyy said at a joint news conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw on Jan. 15. 

Previously, Ukraine’s second war-time president said that figure stood at 10 percent  and more than 30 percent was derived from the EU and about 40 percent from the U.S. 

“So, when questions arise about whether we can manage without certain types of aid, we cannot consider the guarantees of today’s support without one of the key players,” Zelenskyy added. 

About $3.8 billion in approved allocated military assistance to Ukraine remains unused with the outgoing U.S. presidential administration of Joe Biden. The latest security aid package worth $500 million was unveiled on Jan. 9 and the remaining funds will be left at the disposal of the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump whose inauguration is scheduled for Jan. 20.. 

Sources: United24 Media, Ukrinform, Office of the President of Ukraine

A Ukrainian soldier in the 82nd Assault Brigade operates a night heavy bomber Vampire drone that ensures “nightmares for the [Russian] occupiers,” the country’s Defense Ministry says on social media. 

While so-called smaller Baba Yaga quadcopter drones – a term Russians use to describe Ukrainian drones whose model name they don’t know – wreak havoc in the daytime, Vampire drones inflict heavy losses on occupying Russian forces at night. They have thermal imagers and can have payloads of laser-guided bombs. 

They’re also used to supply soldiers on the front line and mostly are used at night, and fly at low altitudes to avoid detection. 

Last year, Ukraine purchased more than 2,000 such heavy bomber drones with each one averaging the cost of $20,000. 

Sources: Forbes, Interesting Engineering, Defense Ministry of Ukraine

Ukraine halts Russian night assault across border with northeastern Sumy region

Ukraine’s 67th Mechanized Brigade spotted and destroyed a Russian armored unit crossing the border from the neighboring Kursk region into the northeastern Sumy Oblast on Jan. 15, using first, reconnaissance drones, then targeted by artillery, first-person view drones and bomber drones.The nighttime detection also employed thermal imaging camera. The convoy was stopped cold in its tracks and the main attack took place at the border village of Zhuravky in Sumy region, according to the Deep State project. 

“The enemy amassed along the border near Zhuravka and tried to assault the settlement, but the Defense Forces units made these attempts unsuccessful. The movements are expected to be repeated, as the enemy has resources there,” Deep State noted.

A Russian source claimed that Ukrainian drone and artillery capabilities are providing Ukrainian tanks with tactical advantages over Russian tanks in unspecified, select areas of the front line.

A Russian military blogger said on Jan. 12 that Russian forces are unable to field tanks and armored vehicles in frontline areas where Ukraine has deployed at least two Ukrainian first-person view (FPV) strike drone companies and two Ukrainian reconnaissance drone companies operate because Ukrainian drone operators strike most or all Russian armored vehicles three to six kilometers from the frontline. The aforementioned blogger also claimed that Russian forces are also unable to field tanks in frontline areas where Ukrainian forces have a sufficient number of shells due to the high accuracy of Ukrainian artillery strikes. The blogger complained that Russian drones are less effective than the Ukrainian drones and that the Russian military command only supplies Russian FPV operators advanced FPV models operating on non-standard frequencies and fiber-optic drones — both of which are more resistant to Ukrainian electronic warfare (EW) — to priority sectors of the frontline. The blogger further claimed that an insufficient amount of Russian artillery coupled with insufficient Russian drone capabilities in select sectors of the front line allow Ukrainian forces to field tanks more easily for indirect and direct fire. Effective Ukrainian drone and artillery operations in select areas of the front line may be straining Russia’s ability to field tanks amid reports that Russian forces continue to accrue vehicles losses that are likely unstable in the medium term.Ukraine’s ability to damage and destroy Russian armored vehicles and tanks with FPV drones and artillery will likely strain Russia’s ability to replace such losses as current armored vehicle and tank production rates indicate that these losses will be prohibitive over the longer term.

Dancer and choreographer Volodmyr Rakov, who won the sixth season of the Everybody Dance show in 2013, was killed during a combat mission, according to his friend and colleague, Halyna Pekha on social media. 

He was killed on Jan. 6 while serving in the 2nd Rifle Battalion of the King Danylo Halytskyi 24th Mechanized Brigade. 

Born in the Crimean Peninsula city of Yevpatoria, Rakov also featured in the Ukrainian film, “Let’s Dance!”

He volunteered with the Armed Forces after Russia’s full-scale invasion of February 2022 and gave his life defending his homeland. 

Aged 30, he also won the World of Dance Berlin competition in 2018.

He was described as “an aesthete, an angel, a legend, and a hero,” by television presenter Olha Freimut, adding that he “gave his life for the freedom of Ukraine.”

Rakov had honed his dancing skills iat the Broadway Dance Center in New York, Millennium in Los Angeles, and Movement Lifestyle in the latter city. 

• Real Clear Politics: Trump’s choice for Secretary of State Rubio says war in Ukraine must end
• Reuters: Russia sees shift from Trump towards recognizing ‘realities’ in Ukraine
• The War Zone:  Norwegian F-35s scrambled in Poland during Russian missile strikes on Ukraine
• The Telegraph: Australian soldier ‘executed by Russian captors in Ukraine’
• Reuters: Ukraine’s Zelenskyy visits Poland after progress in War War Two dispute