January 2, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

By Rhea Mogul, Heather Chen, Jack Guy, Ed Upright, Aditi Sangal, Mike Hayes and Leinz Vales, CNN

Updated 3:11 a.m. ET, January 3, 2023
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11:41 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023

Russia fired 224 times in Bakhmut's direction over the past day, Ukrainian military says

From CNN's Olga Voitovych in Kyiv

A Ukrainian service member uses a radio in a shelter near their position at a frontline in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on January 1. 
A Ukrainian service member uses a radio in a shelter near their position at a frontline in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on January 1.  (Anna Kudriavtseva/Reuters)

Russia continues to focus its main efforts on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, firing 224 times in this direction over the past 24 hours, according to the spokesperson for the Eastern Group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Serhii Cherevatyi.

“There were 34 fights and one air strike. The enemy lost 213 people killed and 87 wounded there,” Cherevatyi said of the situation in Bakhmut on Ukrainian television on Monday.

“In other directions, such as Kupyansk, Lyman and Avdiivka, it [Russian forces] tried to improve its tactical position, also conducted counter-offensive actions, for example, in the area of Stelmakhivka and Bilohorivka in the Lyman direction. However, in all these directions it failed to achieve its goal, failed to break through our defense and suffered losses,” according to Cherevatyi.

Cherevatyi said Russia is currently using 20 thousand shells a day on smaller sections of the front “for example, in Bakhmut or Avdiivka, partially in the Lyman and Kupyansk directions”.

“Before, they could afford to shell our military all over the front - 60 thousand shells per day,” he said.

Cherevatyi reasoned that Russian forces are focusing on specific areas because “they did not count on such a long war, and therefore on such a dynamics of ammunition consumption, which, in fact, is equal to the World War II. Even their seemingly endless ammunition is beginning to run out.” 

3:44 p.m. ET, January 2, 2023

Ukrainian film editor killed on the front line, defense ministry says

From CNN's Olga Voitovych in Kyiv

Ukrainian film editor Viktor Onysko has been killed on the front line, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said Monday, without providing further details.

"So many brave and talented Ukrainians are sacrificing their lives in this war against the hordes of darkness to protect their homeland," the defense ministry said in a tribute on Twitter. "May the light of the memory of our heroes shine eternally," it added.

Onysko worked on Ukrainian films including "The Stronghold," "The Rising Hawk" and "Viddana." The Dovzhenko Centre, Ukraine's state film archive, called it "an incredible loss for the film community and Ukraine." 

His wife Olga Birzul said in a Facebook post, "My heart will forever remain in the terrible year 2022. Because you stayed there. My hero. My love. My everything. I don't know how to live and breathe without you. I don't know if I can ever dream again."

Birzul added the "only thing I have from you is a 9-year-old girl with your gray eyes."

"When I was drowning in tears on the train for a day, she stroked my head and said that Dad fought for our freedom, we will never forget it, Dad will always be in our thoughts. Our little adult. One of thousands of innocent children whose parents were killed by the damned Russians. It hurts. Indescribably painful," she said.

 

10:48 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023

Russia's war with Ukraine inflicted more than $35 billion in ecological damages, Ukrainian official says

From CNN's Olga Voitovych, Sarah Dean and Mariya Knight

Ukrainian soldiers drive a captured Russian tank in the Kupiansk region of Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, on October 15.
Ukrainian soldiers drive a captured Russian tank in the Kupiansk region of Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, on October 15. (Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

The damage to Ukrainian ecology caused by Russia's war on Ukraine is now estimated at $35.3 billion, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, said on Monday.

"Millions of hectares of nature preserves are under threat. Article 55 of the Protocol I [Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts] prohibits waging war VS the natural environment by way of reprisals, but Russia doesn’t care," he tweeted, referencing a 1977 amendment protocol to the Geneva Conventions.

Ukraine's Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources said in a Facebook post Monday: "The conduct of hostilities deepens the climate crisis, causing significant emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere."

According to the latest calculations of the Ministry of Environment, the war has directly led to emissions of 33 million tonnes of greenhouse gases. The ministry broke that figure down, listing the estimated emissions from combat, the movement of internally displaced people and fires in the country. 

Some background: In May last year, CNN reported how Ukraine’s fertile soil was becoming contaminated with heavy metals and other potentially poisonous substances leaking from missiles, military equipment and spent ammunition.

Spilled fuel is polluting ground waters and ecosystems are being hammered by tanks and other heavy technology. All of this is damage that will be felt for decades after the war ends.

In December, Kyiv-based non-profit the Center for Environmental Initiatives Ecoaction published a report that said, "the population’s access to water in many regions of the country has significantly deteriorated". 

"As a result of Russia’s armed military aggression against Ukraine, water treatment and purification infrastructure facilities are destroyed, and environmental components are polluted, in particular sources of drinking water and water bodies," it added.

10:32 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023

Alleged Ukrainian strike appears to kill large number of Russian troops housed next to ammunition cache

From CNN's Mick Krever in London, Olga Voitovych in Kyiv, and Darya Tarasova

A Russian defence ministry spokesperson talks about the Makiivka shelling in Moscow, Russia, on January 2.
A Russian defence ministry spokesperson talks about the Makiivka shelling in Moscow, Russia, on January 2. (Russian Defence Ministry/Reuters)

An apparent Ukrainian strike in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine appears to have killed a large number of Russian troops housed next to an ammunition cache, according to the Ukrainian military, pro-Russian military bloggers and former officials.

According to both Ukrainian and pro-Russian accounts, the strike took place just after midnight on Sunday, New Year’s Day, on a vocational school housing Russian conscripts in Makiivka, in the Donetsk region.

The attack has led to vocal criticism of the Russian military from pro-Russian military bloggers, who claimed that the troops lacked protection and were reportedly being quartered next to a large cache of ammunition, which is said to have exploded when Ukrainian HIMARS rockets hit the school.

The Ukrainian military claimed that around 400 Russian soldiers were killed and 300 were wounded, without directly acknowledging a role. CNN cannot independently confirm those numbers or the weapons used in the strike. Some pro-Russian military bloggers have also estimated that the number of dead and wounded could run in the hundreds.

The Russian Ministry of Defense on Monday acknowledged the attack and claimed that “63 Russian servicemen” died. 

Video reportedly from the scene of the attack is circulating widely on Telegram, including on an official Ukrainian military channel. It shows a pile of smoking rubble, in which almost no part of the building appears to be standing.

“Greetings and congratulations” to the separatists and conscripts who “were brought to the occupied Makiivka and crammed into the building of vocational school,” the Strategic Communications Directorate of the Chief Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Telegram. “Santa packed around 400 corpses of [Russian soldiers] in bags.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense said that the Ukrainian attack used HIMARS rockets. 

Daniil Bezsonov, a former official in the Russia-backed Donetsk administration, said on Telegram that “apparently, the high command is still unaware of the capabilities of this weapon.”

A Russian propagandist who blogs about the war effort on Telegram, Igor Girkin, claimed that the building was almost completely destroyed by the secondary detonation of ammunition stores. 

Girkin has long decried Russian generals whom he claims direct the war effort far from the frontline. Girkin was previously minister of defense of the self-proclaimed, Russian-backed Donetsk People's Republic, and was found guilty by a Dutch court of mass murder for his involvement in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014. 

Sergey Markov, another pro-Russian military blogger, said there was “a great deal of sloppiness” on the part of the Russian command.

Boris Rozhin, who also blogs about the war effort under the nickname Colonelcassad, said that “incompetence and an inability to grasp the experience of war continue to be a serious problem.”

9:22 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023

Ukraine waiting for first portion of $19 billion aid package from EU, Zelensky says

From CNN’s Allegra Goodwin and Victoria Butenko

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Ukraine was waiting for the first tranche of a $19 billion support package from the European Union in January, following a call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. 

He added in a tweet that Ukraine was also awaiting the first “batch of LED-lamps school buses, generators and modular houses.” 

“We feel support and will win together,” Zelensky finished. 

Von der Leyen tweeted that she had conveyed her “wholehearted support and best wishes for 2023 to the Ukrainian people,” to Zelensky on their first call of the new year.

“The EU stands by you, for as long as it takes. We support your heroic struggle. A fight for freedom and against brutal aggression,” she said.

9:03 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023

It's mid-afternoon in Kyiv. Here's what you need to know

Five people have been injured by a Russian attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Beryslav, and another person was injured in Kyiv Monday amid strikes which have left the Ukrainian capital struggling to maintain electricity supply.

Here are the latest headlines:

  • Strikes on Beryslav: Five people have been injured by alleged Russian tank fire on a market in the southern Ukrainian town of Beryslav, according to the regional governor. “Presumably, the fire was conducted from a tank from the temporarily occupied Kakhovka,” said Yaroslav Yanushevych, governor of Kherson region, where Beryslav is located, on his official Telegram channel. Kakhovka is on the opposite side of the Dnipro River.
  • Russian attack wounds one in Kyiv: One man was injured early Monday as a result of a Russian attack on Ukraine's capital. The 19-year-old man was hospitalized after suffering a lacerated foot while in an eighth-floor apartment in Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district. 
  • Second victim from Saturday strikes: A 46-year-old man who was injured by a Russian attack on Kyiv on Saturday has died in hospital, according to city mayor Vitaly Klitschko. Another person died and 20 others were injured in Saturday's explosions, Klitschko said.
  • Kyiv struggling to maintain electricity: The capital was experiencing power outages Monday, after overnight strikes damaged energy infrastructure facilities in the city, said Klitschko. Some heat supply facilities were disconnected from the power supply, but the city’s water supply remains normal, he added. Kyiv authorities are urging residents to reduce their electricity consumption after the third day of Russian attacks damaged infrastructure. 
  • Zelensky hails "unity" of Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used his first address of the year to underline the "sense of unity" in the country, and contrast it with the "fear" he said is felt in Russia. "Our sense of unity, authenticity, life itself – all this contrasts dramatically with the fear that prevails in Russia," said Zelensky in an address published Sunday evening local time. 
  • Russia reportedly takes down Ukrainian drone: Russian air defenses downed a Ukrainian reconnaissance drone approaching the southwestern Russian city of Voronezh on Sunday night, Russian state news agency TASS reported Monday, quoting local authorities. There were no reports of casualties or damage, according to TASS, quoting the regional government.
7:02 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023

Russian air defenses reportedly down Ukrainian drone near city of Voronezh

From CNN's Radina Gigova

Russian air defenses downed a Ukrainian drone approaching the southwestern Russian city of Voronezh on Sunday night, Russian state news agency TASS reported Monday, quoting local authorities. 

"Last night, air defenses detected and downed a small reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle approaching Voronezh, which had been launched from Ukraine," a statement from the regional government reads, as quoted by TASS.

There were no reports of casualties or damage, according to TASS, quoting the regional government. 

Voronezh is located in southwestern Russia.

CNN has not been able to independently verify the TASS reporting.

6:41 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023

One injured in Monday's strikes on Kyiv

From CNN's Olga Voitovych in Kyiv

Ukrainian servicemen use searchlights as they search for drones in Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 1.
Ukrainian servicemen use searchlights as they search for drones in Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 1. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

One man was injured early Monday as a result of a Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, according to the State Emergency Service (SES) of Ukraine.

The 19-year-old man was hospitalized after suffering a lacerated foot while in an eighth-floor apartment in Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district.

“Firefighters of the nearest fire and rescue units immediately arrived at the scene,” the SES said on its official Telegram channel.

“Upon arrival, the firefighters found out that as a result of the rocket fragments falling on the roadway, balconies and windows on 3, 4, 6 floors of a 9-story residential building were damaged.”

The Ukrainian military claimed to have shot down 39 Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones overnight into Monday, but said that debris had nonetheless damaged infrastructure facilities and residential buildings.

4:52 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023

Five injured by Russian attack on market in southern Ukrainian town of Beryslav

From CNN's Olga Voitovych

Five people have been injured by alleged Russian tank fire on a market in the southern Ukrainian town of Beryslav, according to the regional governor.

“This morning Russians attacked the center of Beryslav – they shelled the city market,” said Yaroslav Yanushevych, governor of Kherson region, where Beryslav is located, on his official Telegram channel.

“Presumably, the fire was conducted from a tank from the temporarily occupied Kakhovka,” he added. Kakhovka is on the opposite side of the Dnipro River.

Of the five people injured, three are in critical condition, Beryslav said.

On Sunday, one person was killed and four injured by Russian attacks across the Ukrainian-controlled portions of the Kherson region, according to Beryslav.

Russian forces attacked the region 71 times on Sunday, he said, using artillery, multiple-launch rocket launchers (MLRS), mortars and tanks.