January 16, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

By Tara Subramaniam, Leinz Vales, Aditi Sangal, Mike Hayes, Elise Hammond and Maureen Chowdhury, CNN

Updated 3:01 a.m. ET, January 17, 2023
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8:23 p.m. ET, January 15, 2023

Battle for Soledar continues "without any respite, without any stop," Zelensky says

From CNN's Mariya Knight

The fight for the embattled eastern town of Soledar is ongoing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Sunday. 

“The battle for Soledar, for Bakhmut, for the whole Donetsk region, for the Luhansk region continues without any respite, without any stop,” Zelensky said, referring to eastern territories that have seen some of the conflict's fiercest fighting.

Russia claims its forces have taken Soledar after weeks of brutal clashes, which Kyiv has denied. The leader of the Wagner mercenary group has taken credit for the bulk of the fighting on Moscow's side and also claimed victory there.

Ukrainian authorities reported "heavy battles" were ongoing in the town Saturday.

1:11 a.m. ET, January 16, 2023

Russian missile strike on apartment building in Dnipro kills 35 people, Ukraine officials say

From CNN's Denis Lapin, Olga Voitovych, Tim Lister, Hannah Ritchie and Mariya Knight

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment block in Dnipro rose to 35, Ukrainian officials said on Monday, after missiles and explosions were heard across the country.

Valentyn Reznichenko, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said 39 people, including 14 children, had been rescued so far and up to 35 people could still be under the rubble.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously said that “dozens” of people, including a 3-year-old girl, were rescued from the building even though most of the floors were “smashed” in the strike.

According to the president, 72 apartments were destroyed and more than 230 apartments were damaged in Saturday’s strikes.

Read more here.

7:38 p.m. ET, January 15, 2023

Russia's war in Ukraine sparked a historic food crisis. It's not over

From CNN's Julia Horowitz

Grain is once again leaving Ukrainian ports. The price of fertilizer is falling sharply. Billions of dollars in aid has been mobilized.

Yet the world is still in the grips of the worst food crisis in modern history, as Russia’s war in Ukraine shakes global agricultural systems already grappling with the effects of extreme weather and the pandemic. Market conditions may have improved in recent months, but experts do not expect imminent relief.

That means more pain for vulnerable communities already struggling with hunger. It also boosts the risk of starvation and famine in countries such as Somalia, which is contending with what the United Nations describes as a “catastrophic” food emergency.

“All the major causes of the food crisis are still with us — conflict, Covid, climate change, high fuel prices,” Cary Fowler, the US special envoy for global food security, told CNN. “I do think we have to prepare for 2023 being a rough year.”

Read more here.

8:13 p.m. ET, January 15, 2023

Putin says military operation in Ukraine shows "positive" dynamic

From CNN's Uliana Pavlova and Sharon Braithwaite

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that his so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine was showing a "positive" dynamic and he hoped Russian soldiers would achieve more results on the battlefield after Soledar

“The dynamics are positive, everything is developing within the framework of the plan by the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff, and I hope that our fighters will continue pleasing us with the results of their combat work," Putin told Rossiya 1 state television.

Putin also said the economic situation in Russia was "stable" and "much better" than forecasts. 

According to Ukrainian officials, "heavy battles" are continuing in Soledar after Russia claimed Friday that it was in control of the eastern town.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said late Saturday that "the enemy does not abandon its intentions to completely take over Donetsk region."

"To do so, it focuses its main efforts on offensive operations on Bakhmut direction. Heavy battles for Soledar continue," the General Staff said. "Ukrainian forces repel enemy attacks round the clock. The occupiers suffer heavy losses."
8:07 p.m. ET, January 15, 2023

How Ukraine became a testbed for Western weapons and battlefield innovation

From CNN's Katie Bo Lillis and Oren Liebermann

Last fall, as Ukraine won back large swaths of territory in a series of counterattacks, it pounded Russian forces with American-made artillery and rockets. Guiding some of that artillery was a homemade targeting system that Ukraine developed on the battlefield.

A piece of Ukrainian-made software has turned readily available tablet computers and smartphones into sophisticated targeting tools that are now used widely across the Ukrainian military.

The result is a mobile app that feeds satellite and other intelligence imagery into a real-time targeting algorithm that helps units near the front direct fire onto specific targets. And because it’s an app, not a piece of hardware, it’s easy to quickly update and upgrade, and available to a wide range of personnel.

US officials familiar with the tool say it has been highly effective at directing Ukrainian artillery fire onto Russian targets.

The targeting app is among dozens of examples of battlefield innovations that Ukraine has come up with over nearly a year of war, often finding cheap fixes to expensive problems.

Read more here.