Victory Chronicles-DAY 1068

Ukraine’s Air Force, together with other military units, on Jan. 26 struck a facility that stores drones and related components in Russia’s western Oryol region, the General Staff of the Armed Forces reported on Facebook. 

Using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), some 200 Shahed drones are believed to have been destroyed, along with thermobaric warheads that separately attach to the UAVs, causing a secondary explosion. 

Since autumn 2022, Russia has used inexpensive Iranian-provided Shahed drones – whose unit cost could be as low as $20,000 – to target Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and civilian areas. 

Ukraine’s aerial campaign against Russia over the last five months has seen more than 50 aircraft factories, oil refineries and other industrial facilities either destroyed or damaged. 

Combined, they indicate a strategy to weaken Russia’s military-industrial complex and deprive Moscow of foreign currency revenues for its war chest. 

In another example, drones struck the Razyan Oil Refinery for the second time on Jan. 25 in the span of three nights. The facility is one of Russia’s four largest refineries and produces diesel fuel and TS-1 jet fuel, among other products. 

Russia launched more than 1,250 bombs and 750 drones on Ukraine’s territory in U.S. President Donald Trump’s first week in office. 

And U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Jan. 24 that foreign assistance funding is being suspended for 90 days, pending a review. The guidance his office offered affects Ukraine and there are conflicting reports if the foreign aid freeze includes military assistance to Ukraine. 

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Office of the President of Ukraine, U.S. State Department, The New York Times

Since September, mostly Ukrainian drones have struck some 50 Russian energy and industrial facilities, including aircraft plants.

Part of an overall strategy to dampen Russia’s battlefield capacity and deprive it of revenue for its war chest, the ensuing destruction or damage has significantly reduced the production of ammunition, projectiles and aviation equipment.

The attacks also force Moscow to expend significant financial resources and time to repair the targeted facilities.

Such aerial attacks complicate overall Russian logistical systems and negatively impact military planning and combat readiness.

Sources: Ukrainian Research Right Now / Дослідження Украіна Сейчас

Over the weekend, Ukraine for the second time in three nights struck the Ryazan Oil Refinery in Russia with the use of drones. 

It was a combined operation by the Defense Intelligence and the relatively newly formed Unmanned Systems Forces. The site is one of Russia’s four largest refineries and is known to produce diesel fuel and TS-1 jet fuel, among other products that Moscow military uses. Ukraine furthermore struck a forward command-and-control post of Russia’s Pacific Fleet in the Kursk region over the weekend.

Frontline report near Pokrovsk show use of British Mastiff high-protection vehicles for evacuation

This video published by United 24 shows how Ukrainian Marines from the 505th Battalion deploy British-provided high-protection 6×6 armored vehicles to evacuate killed and wounded soldiers from the front line near Pokrovsk, one of the hottest spots of the war in the Donetsk region. 

They can be armed with a 7.62-millimeter general purpose machine gun, 127-millimeter heavy machine gun or 44-millimeter grenade launcher. 

It could transport six soldiers and a crew of two. It has a maximum speed of 90 kilometers per hour. 

“It is suitable for road patrols and convoys and is the newest in a range of protected patrol vehicles being used for operations,” the UK Defense Journal says about its specifications. 

Units of the 35th Marine Brigade also use the multi-purpose vehicles. 

“The vehicle is very good, it works perfectly, it is maneuverable, fast and reliable,” a unit commander of the brigade told Defense Express. “ Compared to the old Soviet models, you can feel how much more comfortable [the] Mastiff is, actually made for people.” 

Key Takeaways: 

• Russian forces recently made further advances within Velyka Novosilka in the Donetsk region amid official Russian claims that Russian forces seized the entire settlement on Jan. 26.
• The Russian Ministry of Defense notably is paying an abnormally high amount of fanfare to the claimed Russian seizure of Velyka Novosilka, very likely as part of informational efforts to shape Western perceptions of the battlefield situation in Ukraine and degrade international support for Ukraine.
• The seizure and clearing of Velyka Novosilka will likely present opportunities and a decision point to the Russian military command on whether to redeploy elements of the Russian Eastern Military District [EMD] from the Velyka Novosilka area to other priority operational areas. Any redeployment of EMD elements from the Velyka Novosilka area over the coming weeks will indicate the Russian military command’s priority operational areas for offensive operations in Spring and Summer 2025.
• Russian forces are poised to seize Toretsk (Donetsk region)  in the coming days and a redeployment of elements of the EMD to reinforce the Russian force grouping in the Toretsk direction would indicate a new Russian priority effort to resume attacks in the direction of Kostyantynivka.
• Ukrainian forces advanced in Kursk Oblast and regained positions in Toretsk.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Borova, Pokrovsk, and Kurakhove.
• Russian military bloggers criticized the Russian government on Jan. 25 for not prioritizing the recruitment and training of Russia’s next generation of military officers.

Film producer and cinema artist Stanislav Prytula, 40, was killed during a combat mission on Jan. 22, according to his widow and the Ukrainian State Film Agency. 

“Every day of this war – both in 2014 and the last three endless years – I took my heart out of my chest and squeezed it tightly in my palm: ‘Hold on. We will get through this. He will survive. Everything will be fine.’ Now, I have ashes in my hand and a terrible emptiness inside,” his wife Larysa Tytarenko said on Facebook. 

As a former film director, the Kyiv native and graduate of the Kyiv National Linguistic University, joined the ranks of Ukraine’s army in the first days of Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022. 

The State Film Agency described Prytula as “not only an artist but a person of exceptional integrity, deeply committed to his work and the values he held dear.” 

Source: United 24, Anton Herashchenko, Ukrainian State Film Agency, Ukrinform, Ukrainska Pravda

• The Telegraph: Israel ‘sends weapons captured in Lebanon to Ukraine’

• Kyiv Post: USAID suspends all suspends all humanitarian projects in Ukraine as aid freeze takes effect

• Ukrainska Pravda: Zelenskyy: Buffer zone in Kursk oblast maintained to safeguard Sumy and Kharkiv

• Irish Times: We do not know what will come first for Ukraine: peace of spring

• The Guardian: Ukraine war briefing: Moscow claims control of Velyka Novosilka but Ukraine says fight continues