Victory Chronicles-DAY 1070

At least five Russian regions saw cross-border Ukrainian drone attacks overnight on Jan. 29 for the second time in a week. 

More than 100 drones targeted energy facilities, with one geolocated to the Nizhniy-Novgorod region where there was visual evidence of damage at Lukoil’s Nizhnegorodnefteorgsintez oil refinery. 

Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces confirmed the aerial strike and the Russian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty geolocated it. 

The Defense Intelligence of the Defense Ministry took credit for drone salvo. 

Drones had already struck the Nizhniy-Novgorod facility in spring 2024. 

The region’s governor, Gleb Nikitin, confirmed air defense systems had shot down multiple drones, and fragments from the interception of unmanned aerial vehicles fell on the industrial site. 

Regional Russian officials also confirmed attacks in Bryansk, Smolensk, and Tver. The UWC couldn’t independently verify what damage, if any, these attacks caused. 

Earlier this month, verified damage at the Kristall oil depot 8 kilometers from the Engels-2 Airbase in the Saratov region was confirmed by a high-resolution satellite image published by British Defense Intelligence. 

Ukraine struck the facility twice: on Jan. 8 and Jan. 14. 

Imagery analysis from Jan. 21 “highlights four assessed destroyed POL tanks and 10 assessed damaged POL tanks,” British Defense Intelligence stated. 

Sources: British Defense Intelligence, Kyiv Post, Kyiv Independent, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the ongoing problem of calling up enough troops to meet the needs of the Armed Forces in an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Foglio. 

While addressing complaints that soldiers on the front line are in constant need of rotation to gather strength and relax, Zelenskyy said, “if half the army just goes home tomorrow…we might well have surrendered on day one. That’s the reality. If half our people left tomorrow, [Kremlin ruler Vladimir] Putin would kill us all.”

To make up for the manpower shortage, Ukraine’s parliament in April 2024 adopted a law that dropped the conscription age from 27 to 25 years old that Zelenskyy subsequently signed into force. 

Still, Ukraine’s military suppliers, namely Washington, have insisted that the compulsory age for enlistment should start at 18 years of age. 

However, Zelenskyy’s presidential office has balked at the suggestion saying it doesn’t make logical sense when weapons deliveries aren’t arriving on time. 

“It doesn’t make sense to see calls for Ukraine to lower the mobilization age, presumably in order to draft more people, when we can see that previously announced [Western military] equipment is not arriving on time,” Dmytro Lytvyn, an aide to Ukraine’s president said on X.

Sources: Il Foglio, Kyiv Independent, Ukrainska Pravda, Office of the President of Ukraine

Pictured are snipers training in the Azov 12th Special Forces Brigade. 

Part of their regimen is to learn how to aim and fire when the terrain is uneven. 

“The Azov soldiers perform an exercise called ‘swing.’ The sniper places the weapon on an unstable support platform and fires at the target. The task is to avoid swinging the barrel while firing and to maintain accuracy during repeated shots,” the recruitment post says on social media.

Source: 12rh Brigade of the Azov Special Forces of the National Guard of Ukraine

This video shows a German-provided Leopard 2A4 tank engaging an armored Russian column as it assaults a village near the Donetsk regional town of Pokrovsk. Employed by Ukraine’s 33rd Mechanized Brigade, the tank is seen making direct, precise hits on at least five Russian armored vehicles as they approach the population center. 

The enemy column was foolishly traveling along a field road near a forest strip when it came under fire from the Ukrainian tank barrel. 

The tank crew is seen, while maneuvering, firing directly under the cover of village houses, which the enemy was trying to break through with the armored vehicle assault. 

Sources: Official Telegram channel of the Khortytsia operational-strategic group of soldiers

Key takeaways: 

• The Russian military likely formed a separate unmanned systems regiment at the military district level in order to augment Russia’s unmanned systems capabilities. The creation of this regiment supports the Russian Ministry of Defense’s (MoD) recent coordinated effort to establish the Unmanned Systems Forces within the Russian military and centralize control over informal drone detachments.
• A senior NATO official acknowledged that Russia is escalating a sabotage and destabilization campaign against European NATO member states in Europe to deter further military assistance to Ukraine.
• Ukrainian forces recently advanced in Toretsk and near Pokrovsk, and Russian forces recently advanced near Toretsk, Pokrovsk, Kurakhove, Velyka Novosilka, and in western Zaporizhia Oblast.
• The Russian government continues to use its “Time of Heroes” program to appoint veterans of the war in Ukraine to federal government positions as part of wider Kremlin efforts to militarize Russian society.

Combat medic Iryna Novik and medical assistant Daryna (eds: last name unknown) were killed while on duty in April 2024 on the front line. 

Novik was well known to her patients in the northern Kyiv neighborhood of Obolon where she worked at a hospital before joining the Armed Forces. 

“Dasha” (Daryna) had studied at a medical college before working as a nurse and then joined the military unit nearest her residence when the all-out invasion started in February 2022, leaving behind a young daughter. 

Novik graduated from the Poltava Medical University and worked as a therapist and family doctor for more than 20 years, most recently in the Obolon district of Kyiv. 

“This is an irreparable loss,” their friend said on X. 

• Voice of America: Ukrainian officials say Russian drone attacks cause injuries in several regions
• MSN News: US suspends Ukrainian refugee program after Trump’s immigration order
• BBC: In a split second, Russia wipes out three generations of a Ukrainian family
• Jamestown Foundation: European Union’s top general would return Ukraine to the grey zone
• Reuters: Ukraine drone attacks target Russian power, oil facilities, officials and media say
• Bloomberg: Top EU, US diplomats discuss pressing Russia over war in Ukraine