Victory Chronicles-DAY 1063

The Donetsk regional town of Pokrovsk and nearby Lyman town remain the hottest spots of the Russo-Ukrainian war as Kremlin forces continue to pressure and regain villages in that area. 

By continuing not to seek a peace deal with Kyiv, Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin is “destroying Russia,” U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters when he sat down on his first day of work inside the White House on Jan. 20 following his inauguration. 

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy released a new video of a captured North Korean soldier fighting on the Russian side in the Kursk region that Ukraine invaded in August. 

The video showed him saying that North Korean troops have suffered severe losses fighting alongside Russians in the Kursk region. 

Both Moscow and Pyongyang haven’t made public statements about the deployment of North Korean troops into the fray of the unprovoked and genocidal war. 

Yet, “the enemy [Russia] is intensively attacking Ukrainian defenders in the Pokrovsk direction,” Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces said on social media. 

Pokrovsk is a strategic town that is considered a logistics hub and is heavily fortified. Thus, Russian invaders have been trying to encircle it, instead of attacking it directly, to choke from lines of communication, or to receive supplies. 

Hours after Trump’s inauguration, French President Emmanuel Macron said the war wouldn’t end anytime soon. 

“Let us not delude ourselves,” he told the French military. “This conflict will not be resolved tomorrow or the day after.”

Sources: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Ukrainska Pravda, C-SPAN, CNN, AFP, Associated Press, Reuters, Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Russia used chemical weapons 434 times against Ukraine’s military in the 31 days of December, according to the relatively military branch of the Support Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 

Since February 2023, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed forces have recorded 5,389 such cases. Russia often utilizes K-51 and RG-VO munitions, and anti-riot weapons that the international Geneva Conventions prohibit for use in warfare. 

Kremlin forces have also used chemical weapons of an “unspecified type,” the General Staff says in a recent social media post. 

The new military branch unites five important components: engineering, radiation, chemical and biological defense forces, geospatial support, hydrometeorological and canine services. 

Sources: Support Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

A mother embraces her son with a farewell hug as she grieves in the midst of rubble in the northeastern region of Sumy after a Russian aerial attack. 

Russia has inflicted nearly 40,000 verified civilian casualties in Ukraine since February 2022, according to the United Nations (UN). 

At least 105 civilians were killed by Russia and 514 injured in December, according to the UN.

The number of civilian casualties last year due to Russia’s ongoing war increased to 30 percent in comparison to the previous year, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo said on Jan. 17. 

The UN has admitted that their figures are underestimated and could be at least less than 30 percent of the actual civilian casualties that Russia has wrought upon Ukraine. 

Source: Picture courtesy of Adrien Vautier, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Retuers, Un.org, UNN

Explosions heard in Russian city of Smolensk during Ukrainian drone salvo

Local social media in Smolensk, Russia, reported hearing and seeing explosions on Jan. 20 after Ukrainian drone attacks. One civilian filmed an overhead drone nearby where the drone apparently hit its target. Another video posted by a Russian civilian from the balcony of his apartment showed a Russian Panstir air defense system miss its target and instead strike a neighboring residential high-rise building. Reports say that the Smolensk Aviation Plant was eventually struck and damage was done where long-range cruise missiles are produced. Other videos later in the night showed the aircraft plant in flames. 

Key Takeaways:

• Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi reported on January 20 that Russian forces suffered more than 434,000 casualties in 2024 — 150,000 of which were personnel killed in action.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated on January 20 that the Kremlin is willing to negotiate with the United States about the war in Ukraine but indicated that he maintains his demands for Ukraine’s full capitulation.

• Ukrainian forces reportedly struck an aircraft production plant in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan on January 20 as a part of an ongoing series of strikes aimed at degrading Russian military capacity.

• Ukrainian strikes against Russian defense industrial base (DIB) targets are reportedly affecting Russian forces’ combat capabilities.

• Moldovan and Transnistrian authorities continue efforts to supply Transnistria with European gas.

• Russian forces recently advanced near Toretsk, Pokrovsk, and Kurakhove.

• A Russian military blogger and former Storm-Z instructor repeated on January 20 complaints that Russian military bloggers first issued in May 2024 about insufficient quality controls on Russian artillery shells.

Ukrainian soldier Vitaliy Bilazh, 27, was killed in action on Jan. 9. A native of the village of Nekrasove in the Sumy regional district of Hlukhiv near the Russian border, Bilazh’s funeral took place in the Three Anastasius Church in his native village on Jan. 20. 

Sources: Nekrasove Public Library, Ukr.net, Sumski Debaty

• MSN: ‘Russia-Ukraine war would’ve never started if I were the president,’ Trump says
• Kyiv Post: ‘Putin should make a deal’ – Trump discusses NATO and ending Ukraine war, Russia’s losses
• CNN: Ukraine opens new front against Russia – flattering Trump
• Ukrinform: War update:151 combat engagements on frontline since day-start
• Ukrainska Pravda: Putin congratulates Trump and says he is ready for dialogue