#Russia closing in on #Siversk in eastern #Ukraine's #Donbas region according to UK Intel.
However the daily update from London highlights more failings of Putin's war machine.
Reports from @business claim #Russia is creating its own reference grade of oil. They expect trading on their own oil will be launched in October.
I'm surprised, but maybe the expected lower price is the point - to highlight savings countries can make by trading with terrorists
Congratulations to @the_ins_ru and @bellingcat which are among four organisations declared as "undesirable activities on the territory of the Russian Federation"
The order came from the office of #Russia's Prosecutor General.
Most Russians still think they're free!
Two universities have been destroyed this morning in #Mykolaiv.
Regional head Viitaliy Kim reports at least 10 Russian missiles rained down on the city (#Nikolaev) - the impact was caught on CCTV.
Casualties unknown.
130 more Russian soldiers killed yesterday, according to #Ukraine's official update.
The total now liquidated in #PutinsWar hits 38,000.
In addition the President's office has already said over 12,000 Wagner (private military) contractors, meaning over 50k have needlessly died.
In #Melitopol' the Occupiers claim they've prevented a "terrorist attack" (i.e. #Ukraine's Resistance)
Russian officials say a local resident was detained, who kept a home-made bomb and 15 weapons at his home.
The British update earlier mentioned #Siversk in #Donetsk Oblast.
#Russia's Armed Forces this morning claim the town has "almost come under operational control." The invaders reckon ##Ukraine troops are undergoing a phased withdrawal. This may well be true, but no word from Kyiv
Oleksiy Arestovych from the President's office, confirms #Ukraine's successful hits in occupied areas in the last 24 hours.
The brave Resistance in #Kherson continues to work hard. A whole array of new patriotic posters appeared in the city, as shown by this Telegram channel in Kherson.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed #Russia's appeal against the decision of FIFA and UEFA to ban them from international football competitions.
While #Putin insists "everything is going to plan" in his special operation to destroy everyone in a peaceful neighbour, I saw something interesting
Authorities in #Novosibirsk are "asking" doctors to go for month-long working trips to #Donetsk + #Luhansk
All according to plan😉
The artist of these drawings was under house arrest for 6 months for "distributing porn"
Yulia Tsvetkova wanted to "normalise the female body" - prosecutors demanded 3 years jail.
Amazingly she won, a Russian court actually dismissed her case.
Overnight a mysterious fire broke out at a police station in the far-east city of #Vladivostok.
"All circumstances are being investigated" say authorities though the source of the blaze was quickly found and extinguished without casualties.
Officials there say more then 25 mortars landed, but there were no casualties.
When seeing reports like this we need to ask who benefits and what is gained by such attacks?
2/2
#Ukraine gains nothing by senselessly firing mortars into villages of zero strategic interest. It risks angering western partners. Same with strikes on civilians in #Donetsk. So, no reason for🇺🇦to do this
#Russia meanwhile gains hugely if western powers stop sending weapons
#Russia tells its people it spends so much time, effort, rubles, lives, fighting for freedom.
Yet at home every single person who preaches freedom is mercilessly dealt with. Ex-head of OpenRussia democracy group is jailed for 4 years.
#Sloviansk reportedly shelled this evening. Sadly we can expect a lot more of this here in the coming weeks as #Russia does its usual trying to destroy a city before "liberating" it.
Still not allowed to identify the exact sites where missiles have landed in #Ukraine this evening because of martial law, so media is limited right now.
This is in #Kramatorsk, just a few km from Sloviansk. Broken glass all around after rockets landed there.
So this is now known the very centre of #Kramatorsk has been hit. Ploshcha Myru (Myru Square).
Thankfully the rocket landed in an open space and casualties seem few despite this usually being busy at this time in the evening. Hopefully air raid sirens did their job
It's clear there has been a coordinated terrorist attack on #Ukraine this evening. Many feared dead in different towns and cities. Many fires now after the strikes.
#Ukraine govt official @arestovych, reacting to the killing of civilians said "It's necessary to kick #Russia out of the UN, assign it the status of 'state sponsor of terrorism'."
Better weapons help he says:
"Today M270s arrived - HIMARS have 6 rockets, these have 12."
President @ZelenskyyUa acknowledged the country's under attack as he spoke:
"The occupiers realise we become stronger, the goal of their terror is simple - to put pressure on our society, intimidate people, cause maximum damage to our cities while the 🇷🇺 terrorists still can"
Insane video - that's a car blazing in a crater from one of #Russia's missiles on the central #Ukraine city of #Dnipro
Today sees the completion of 3 years of full scale war unleashed by #Russia on #Ukraine.
As signs point to an end to this war relatively soon, the ONLY question which should be asked is: are you happy to reward war-criminal terrorists with land?
Here's THE daily thread:
It's Day 1096 of #Russia 's war.
If you missed anything yesterday, catch up on Saturday's news here:
1/2 The #UK is in full focus today.
As @Keir_Starmer prepares to fly to Washington, new sanctions will be unveiled tomorrow.
Foreign Sec @DavidLammy says it will be "the largest package of sanctions against #Russia since the early days of the war eroding its military machine."
Day 1083 of the war in Europe and the 1083rd of my daily threads.
Three years ago we knew #Ukraine wouldn't go down without a fight. Now, for the first time in over a year there's genuine reason for #Russia to be worried about the outcome.
Plenty to learn and from in Sunday's thread.
In #Russia, ships crashing and exploding, faking capture of a key town in #Ukraine and late at night drones attacking again.
On the other hand, Moscow attacks civilians. Take a look at what you missed:
While #Ukraine hurt #Russia infrastructure during the night (covered at the end of last night's thread), the terrorist state still has success with its own drone attacks.
More than 11% got through 🇺🇦defences overnight, with 38 of 71 UAVs being stopped and 25 likely decoys.
Sunday 19 January is Day 1061 of #Russia's all-out war in #Ukraine. We are also just 2 weeks away from the 4,000th day since #Moscow's initial invasion with the start of its illegal takeover of #Crimea
Welcome to another daily thread with all the news you need in one place 💙💛
Thankfully a quieter start to Sunday than yesterday, which means I get a later start today.
Saturday was all about #Russia's double ballistic attack which brought death to 2 #Ukraine cities.
Catch up on that and all yesterday's stories here⬇️
Hello on Day 1054 of #Russia's terrorist campaign in #Ukraine.
I've been working for a while today, tidying up loose ends, but a late start to the daily thread - the only feed you need for all the important news and analysis.
So a lot to catch up on, let's go again!
Normally I pin the first post of the thread on my profile page, but for another 24 hours the pinned item is about the auction for a truly unique item - please check it out
So, it's even more important I post a link back to yesterday's thread. Here we are
Christmas Day 2024. Day 1036 of the war inflicted on #Ukraine. The third Christmas for Ukrainian people to suffer. Empty chairs at the dinner table, that will never be filled again. Others at the frontline fighting for their lives and the life of the country.
It's the daily🧵
So Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah to those celebrating.
A special shout out too, to those working this special day. Also working today, emergency workers in #Ukraine after another massive missile attack