There isn’t much to report as the fighting in Bakhmut continues, countries begin to impose sanctions against Iran for supplying drones to Russia, the alleged ceasefire didn’t happen, and Russian missiles were launched against Ukraine leading to more blackouts.
Day 318 (7 January)
Russia has never stopped mobilising troops and plans on using another 500,000 although no one knows quite where these men will come from. Many that could be called up have left Russia already.
Putin is pictures attending a Christmas service alone.
The US will begin to train Ukrainian soldiers to use the Patriot defence system later this month, as it will take several months.
Roman Abramovich managed to transfer billions of dollars of his funds before sanctions were imposed. This was due to a delay in the governments imposing sanctions, and also there were leaks where Abromovich was tipped off about the invasion and the likelihood of sanctions.
In March, London will host a meeting on setting up the special war crimes tribunal to investigate the alleged Russian war crimes. Justice Ministers from other countries will meet in London to support the International Criminal Court.
On Orthodox Christmas, the alleged ceasefire doesn’t exist as shelling continues in Donbas, and fighting in Bakhmut.
Zelenskyy revokes the Ukrainian citizenship of 13 clerics who are affiliated with the Russian affiliated Ukrainian church.
Day 319 (8 January)
A prisoner swap took place with 50 Ukrainian returned.These included 33 officers and 17 privates. Some were from Chernobyl NPP, Mariupol, Donetsk and Bakhmut, and were a mixture from the UA Armed Forces, National Guard, Special Operations Forces, Border Guard Control, and Naval Forces.
Russian propaganda is in play again where they claimed to have killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers in Kramatorsk in retaliation for the deaths in Makiivka. There is no evidence of the deaths and reports on the ground state that the missiles missed the targets
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