10.01.2023, Paris.
We publish a summary of events concerning the situation around Ukraine as of 7 p.m., January 10.
Political situation
The Russian Army in 2023 will receive new military equipment and will add powerful weapons. New military equipment will appear in the ranks of the Russian Armed Forces this year. The Russian Army will be enriched with 22 launchers of intercontinental ballistic missiles Yars, Avangard and Sarmat, three strategic missile carriers Tu-160, nuclear submarine cruiser of Borey-A project Emperor Alexander III.
The Army will also get 4 submarines and 12 surface ships. It is also planned to increase the supplies of high-precision hypersonic rocket systems Kinzhal and Zirkon and continue work on other promising models.
Medvedev visited the armored repair plant in St. Petersburg and conducted a meeting on control over military hardware and armament production. The deputy chairman of the Russian Federation Security Council announced the creation of a working group under the Military-Industrial Commission of Russia to control the production of in-demand weapons.
Medvedev’s latest statements:
- There are failures of the state defense order, no one has abolished responsibility for this;
- If necessary, we will be forced to apply new criminal penalties for failing to fulfill a state defense procurement contract.
Colonel General Aleksandr Lapin was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces – RBK source in the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The Russian Football Union said that UEFA would form a working group on returning Russian soccer teams to European tournaments this week.
Deputy Minister of Economy of Iran, “Last year we received $2.7 billion of foreign investments from Russia. We are facilitating the entry of Russian investors into Iran. This amount is half of the total amount of foreign investments in one year.”
Armenian President Pashinyan said at a press conference that in the current situation, Armenia will not hold Collective Security Treaty Organization exercises in 2023.
Ukraine
The Ukrainian media are reporting about long unscheduled power cuts in Kiev.
Seven powerful generators from Germany were delivered to Kherson, the head of the Kherson regional military administration Yaroslav Yanushevich wrote on Telegram. The generators will be used to supply power to critical infrastructure.
Energy Minister Galushchenko said that the European Union and other Western countries should permanently abandon energy resources from Russia. He said this at a meeting with European Commission Vice President for the European Green Deal Frans Timmermans, who arrived in Kiev on Monday.
Western countries and their supporters
OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid is against the exclusion of Russia from the OSCE, which the Ukrainian leadership calls for, because “there is no mechanism” and “it is necessary to keep the channels of communication open.” She said this in an interview with Die Welt.
Poland can transfer a symbolic number of Leopard tanks to Ukraine – up to 10 tanks. Polish presidential foreign policy adviser Jakub Kumoch said this in an interview with Radio ZET.
Germany is not planning to supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine – at least for now. The official spokesman of the German government said this at a briefing, writes Sky News.
The United States is considering supplying Ukraine with Stryker armored fighting vehicles, Politico reported.
Japanese NGOs Peace Winds Japan and Japan Platform have donated $1 million worth of medical supplies to Ukraine’s most war-affected regions, the health ministry said.
The Czech Republic sent another batch of T-72M1 tanks and a TREVA 30 recovery vehicle on Tatra 815 chassis to Ukraine.
NATO and the EU depleted their military reserves by providing aid to Ukraine, Stoltenberg said.
Turkey supports Zelensky’s plan to end the war in Ukraine. Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu said this. “We believe that this war will end at the negotiating table. It will be better if we achieve this as soon as possible. Russia is now expressing its willingness to negotiate, Zelensky put forward a 10-point plan [at the G20 summit in November]. As Turkey, we support this plan, we are working on it. We aim to chair certain topics,” Çavuşoğlu said.
The Swedish prime minister announced his readiness to transfer the Archer self-propelled gun system to Ukraine.
The Estonian authorities intend to present the plan by the time the European Commission finishes work on a bloc-wide agreement on how the EU should dispose of €300 billion ($322 billion) in frozen Russian Central Bank reserves and billions of other assets of sanctioned Russian individuals. The value of frozen Russian assets in Estonia amounts to over €20 million, according to the country’s Financial Intelligence Unit – Bloomberg.
Poland asked the UN for help in obtaining reparations from Germany for World War II.
Poland announced about creation of one more division, which will be dislocated near the borders of Belorussia and will be armed with US Abrams tanks and South Korean K-2 tanks, which Poland is hurriedly buying. The division is to be armed with 155-mm Crab and 155-mm South Korean K-9 anti-tank gunboats (the first shipment is already supplied to Poland). All this is part of plans to bring the Polish Armed Forces to 300,000 men.
Georgia will not return Buk anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine because it bought them in 2008 and did not receive them for free, the Georgian Defense Ministry said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrived in Kharkov; she stayed in the city for about 4.5 hours. She was accompanied by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba and Ukrainian Ambassador to Berlin Aleksey Makeyev. She has announced that Germany will provide €20 million for winter aid, in particular, electric generators will be purchased. And another €20 million will be used to expand the Starlink satellite Internet network. This will make it possible to connect 10,000 satellite terminals, a third of which will be under the control of the Ukrainian armed forces.
