Ukraine predicts attacks ‘deeper’ inside Russia; Putin alone can end conflict — Germany

Kyrylo Budanov, the Ukraine military intelligence chief, also told ABC News that he expected fighting to flare up in March as Ukraine pushed on with an offensive.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, meanwhile, said Putin “alone can end” the conflict.

“If Russia stops bombing and withdraws its soldiers, we will have peace,” Baerbock said in an interview with news website, Table.Media.

Russia said 89 soldiers died in a Ukrainian rocket attack on New Year’s Day, raising the estimate for the number killed from 63 in what is the highest acknowledged Russian death toll of the war. Putin planned to hold talks on Wednesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has sought to play an intermediary role in the conflict.

Key developments

• Putin puts frigate with hypersonic missiles on combat duty


• Ukraine plant must be seized from Russia, nuclear chief says


• Russia ups death toll in Ukraine strike, blames cellphone use


• McDonald’s brought a revolution to Russia, but it wasn’t enough


• Europe gas falls again as warm weather brings relief for markets

On the ground

Russian forces focused on a push toward Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and were attempting to improve their positions near Kupyansk, Avdiivka and Lyman, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Facebook.

Ukrainian troops repelled Russian attacks near 10 settlements mainly in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, it added.

In the past 24 hours, Russian forces launched seven missile strikes, 18 air attacks and targeted civilian infrastructure in Donetsk and the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions with multiple-launch rocket systems, according to the statement.

Ukraine plans major military push in spring, Budanov says

Fighting is likely to be “hottest” in March as Ukraine plans a spring offensive into territory including the eastern Donbas region, controlled by Moscow before the 24 February invasion, and Crimea, which was seized by Russia in 2014, the intelligence chief said.

Strikes would take place “deeper and deeper” inside Russia, he said, without specifying who would be behind the attacks.

“I promise it will not take too long now, and every taxpayer in the US will be able to see where every cent went,” Budanov told ABC News in an interview from Kyiv.

Ukraine plant must be seized from Russia, nuclear chief says

Ukraine must seize Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant back from Russia by force, as efforts to establish a security zone around it evaporate, Kyiv’s top nuclear official said.

Petro Kotin, the president of Ukraine’s nuclear utility Energoatom, cast doubt on calls by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for Ukrainian and Russian authorities to impose a security perimeter around the Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine.

“We do not think it is realistic,” Kotin said in an interview late on Tuesday of the IAEA’s effort to establish a security buffer.

“There is a new year and there is no creation of this zone.”

EU backs Ukraine farming project

The European Union is backing a $15.5-million project to aid Ukraine’s war-torn farming sector, implemented by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The funds will benefit rural households, smallholder farms and small-scale enterprises and centre on western areas, according to an FAO statement. It aims to re-establish pre-war agricultural value chains and improve food supplies for displaced citizens in those regions.

 

Putin deploys frigate with hypersonic missiles

Putin put a frigate armed with Tsirkon hypersonic missiles on combat duty. The Admiral Gorshkov, part of the Northern Fleet, will be deployed in the Indian and Atlantic oceans and the Mediterranean, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told the Russian leader via video-link in televised footage.

Hypersonic missiles are difficult to repel as they combine the speed of ballistic missiles with the manoeuvrability of cruise missiles, leaving little time to react, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Kuleba sees fast deployment of Patriots

Ukraine expects US-supplied Patriot air-defence systems to be deployed in the country “in the absolute short term” to help fend off Russian attacks, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said during a video briefing.

Read more: Why the US is giving a Patriot system to Ukraine: QuickTake

Preparations for the transfer of the systems have already begun, Kuleba said, without elaborating. The Patriot — which stands for Phased Array Tracking Radar for Intercept on Target — is manufactured by Raytheon Technologies Corp. Each system costs around $400-million, not including the Lockheed Martin-made missiles, according to the CSIS.

Germany approved arms for Ukraine worth €2.2bn

Germany authorised deliveries of military equipment to Ukraine worth about €2.2-billion ($2.3-billion) last year, more than a quarter of the government’s total approvals for arms exports of €8.4-billion.

“The balance sheet of the German government in its first year in office shows the results of value-driven arms-export policy in the face of the changing times,” Sven Giegold, a deputy economy minister, said in an emailed statement.

Russia says 89 died in Ukraine attack 

Russia said 89 soldiers died in a Ukrainian rocket attack on New Year’s Day, raising the estimate for the number killed from 63 in what is the highest acknowledged Russian death toll of the war.

Read more: Russia ups death toll in Ukraine strike, blames cell phone use

The defence ministry in Moscow blamed soldiers’ mobile phone use for the incident, saying it allowed Ukrainian forces to locate their coordinates, according to a Telegram statement.

Russian military bloggers have accused defence chiefs of negligence for stationing mobilised conscripts next to a weapons depot, multiplying the casualties after Ukrainian forces fired at the base in the Russia-controlled part of eastern Ukraine with US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers.

Ukraine hopes for Bradley Fighting Vehicles in coming months

Ukraine is talking to US officials about taking delivery of Bradley Fighting Vehicles and is hopeful of getting them within the next few months, according to Andriy Melnyk, a deputy foreign minister in the government in Kyiv.

Read more: US considers sending Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine

“Of course we’re discussing weapons deliveries and the Americans know what we need,” Melnyk said in an interview with Germany’s Deutschlandfunk radio.

“Right now we’re mostly talking about the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, which can be delivered, and I am hopeful that we’ll also get this support in the next months.” DM