Here is the situation on Wednesday, January 15:
Fighting
- Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pledged to take the “strongest possible action” against Russia if it is confirmed that Russian forces killed Oscar Jenkins, an Australian who was captured alive while fighting for Ukraine.
- Ukraine’s military claimed its largest missile and drone attacks on Russian territory since the start of the war, reportedly hitting the Russian towns of Saratov and Engels and causing some damage to factories.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it would retaliate to the large-scale air attack, accusing Ukraine of again using missiles against Russia that were supplied by the United States and United Kingdom.
- The Russian Defence Ministry said its troops captured two Ukrainian settlements in the Donetsk region: Terny, near the town of Siversk and Neskuchne, further south.
- Steelmaker Metinvest said it was closing its coal mine near the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk due to the advance of Russian troops just a few kilometres away. “We cannot risk the lives of thousands of employees and their families,” Metinvest CEO Yuriy Ryzhenkov said in a statement.
Russian oil and gas
- Russia has accused the US of seeking to sabotage TurkStream, the last pipeline carrying Russian gas exports into Europe.
- The leader of Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria travelled to Moscow for talks to resolve an energy crisis following the suspension of Russian gas deliveries to the region.
- Transnistria has suffered widespread power cuts since January 1 when Russia’s Gazprom suspended gas exports to the region, citing an unpaid Moldovan debt of $709m that Moldova does not recognise as valid.
- The head of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) said that “the risk is growing in relation to the environmental impact and the safety of the seafarers” as more ships join Russia’s “shadow fleet” and avoid meeting IMO requirements.
- Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said his country will soon no longer need to import Russian oil as the country will be “able to get all its oil supplies from the West”, after doubling the capacity of the Italian TAL pipeline.
Politics and diplomacy
- At his annual news conference in Moscow, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov praised US President-elect Donald Trump’s recent remarks describing the US push for Ukraine to join NATO as contributing to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “NATO did exactly what it had promised not to do, and Trump said that,” Lavrov said.
- German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius announced at a news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv that European countries would increase efforts to improve Europe’s defence, in light of the incoming Trump administration in the US.
- Zelenskyy said that he has held further discussions with French President Emmanuel Macron about the possibility of Western troops deploying in Ukraine to safeguard any peace deal ending the nearly three-year war with Russia.
- NATO chief Mark Rutte says the US-led military alliance will launch a new mission to protect undersea cables in the Baltic Sea region following deliberate damage to underwater infrastructure in the region amid the Russia-Ukraine war.