A quick housekeeping note: I’m running about an hour behind tonight, so I’m just going to run down the basics.

Russia committed another war crime in Kherson today. They droned a passenger bus. I’m going to post that after the jump because there’s blood in the video and this way it won’t be on the front page even if I put a warning in.

Here’s last night’s/this morning’s air defense tally:

It was quite a large drone attack, but no bomber activity: 79 out of 128 drones reported shot down, with the “location lost” of a further 49 (these may have been decoys). Two Kh-59 cruise missiles also shot down.

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— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 5:24 AM

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

We Maintain a Buffer Zone on Russian Territory, Actively Destroying Russian Military Potential There – Address by the President

6 January 2025 – 20:23

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

Today, I held a Staff meeting, followed by a detailed separate report from Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi and Chief of the General Staff Barhylevych. First – the defense of our frontline positions, with a primary focus on Pokrovsk. I am grateful to all the brigades and every warrior currently stationed there. We discussed brigade staffing and rotations. The army needs more internal, systemic changes to ensure effective personnel management at all levels of the Defense Forces. There were also detailed reports from the responsible commanders regarding the formation and training of our brigades.

Second – the Kursk operation. Today marks exactly five months since the start of our actions in the Kursk region, and we continue to maintain a buffer zone on Russian territory, actively destroying Russian military potential there. Since the beginning of the Kursk operation, the enemy has already lost over 38,000 troops in this area alone, including approximately 15,000 irrecoverable losses. The Russians have deployed their strong units to the Kursk region. Soldiers from North Korea are involved there. What’s important is that the occupier cannot currently redirect all this force to other directions, in particular the Donetsk, Sumy, Kharkiv, or Zaporizhzhia regions. I thank all our warriors who are bringing the war back to Russia and providing Ukraine with greater security and strength. Today, I also held a meeting with international relations officials to plan our meetings and negotiations for January. We are accelerating arms deliveries to Ukraine and working toward new and more long-term relations with partners. We are preparing positive diplomatic news for Ukraine.

Glory to Ukraine!

Georgia:

Day 40. Lots of people celebrate Christmas on Rustaveli now, having marched from various churches to Kashveti. So much for anti-patriotic gay Satanists. #GeorgiaProtests #NewElectionsforGeorgia
📷 Tony Levi’s

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 2:21 PM

The 40th night of #GeorgiaProtests in #Batumi and the Christmas Alilo March.

The Christmas Alilo March is a Georgian tradition where believers sing in choirs to announce the birth of Jesus Christ and share the joy of Christmas.

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— Batumelebi&Netgazeti (@netgazeti.org) January 6, 2025 at 4:49 PM

President Salome Zourabichvili joined the traditional Christmas Alilo March organized by #GeorgiaProtests participants on Rustaveli Ave.

Alilo March is a Georgian tradition where believers sing in choirs to announce the birth of Jesus Christ and share the joy of Christmas.

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— Batumelebi&Netgazeti (@netgazeti.org) January 6, 2025 at 5:05 PM

Salome Zourabichvili joined the people in the Christmas/protest march.

“40 days is nothing, 80 days is nothing, if you believe that in the end there will be victory. This is such a just cause, a just goal, we cannot fail to win”, – she said.

#GeorgiaProtests
Day 40

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 2:51 PM

The striking students of the Theater University, spending their nights in the university building to demand the release of their peers and arrested actors, celebrated Christmas by performing the traditional Alilo choir.
#GeorgiaProtests
#Tbilisi

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— Batumelebi&Netgazeti (@netgazeti.org) January 6, 2025 at 4:59 PM

It’s day 40 of uninterrupted large-scale protests that even withstood the New Year’s unbothered vanity in Georgia. This evening, people will hold protest Christmas marches from the Trinity Cathedral and other churches to the Kashveti Church at the Parliament. 1/3

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 8:19 AM

The official Christmas date in Georgia is January 7. While many celebrate it on December 25 (as the Church of Georgia briefly observed before the Soviet takeover and as the majority of Orthodox churches do), today’s marked by default by the majority, and, 2/3

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 8:19 AM

moreover, this simply errors the regime propaganda that we are anti-patrioric gay Satanists – who at best might celebrate the “heretic” or “Catholic” Christmas. #GeorgiaProtests 3/3.

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 8:19 AM

On December 26, 2024, Russian occupiers detained two Georgian citizens: Alex Mamulia and Vano Jafiashvili. The occupying regime has today “sentenced” them to imprisonment. Alex Mamulia is a doctor at the Gori Military Hospital.

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 1:10 PM

Yesterday, it became known that Deputy Prosecutor General Natia Merebashvili had resigned before the New Year’s over the “anti-democratic and repressive policies.” #GeorgiaProtests #NewElectionsforGeorgia

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 12:59 PM

‪Update: Merebashvili later denied that her resignation had a political motive. ‬

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 1:07 PM

More repressions in the public sector. Ana Gagnidze and two other middle managers at the Public Service Hall were fired on the New Year’s Eve, a day after they received permanent contracts too. Courts won’t reinstate them, that’s the “law” too. #terrorinGeorgia #GeorgiaProtests

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 8:44 AM

The New Year’s in Georgia is a three-week-long feasting, drinking, forgetting the world. Life restarts at the end of January. This time, the regime added extra holidays in January for people to leave Tbilisi.
The fact that #GeorgiaProtests are uninterrupted actually means a lot.

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 7:43 AM

Back to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Navy reported the destruction of two “Pantsir-S1” anti-aircraft missile and gun systems and one “Osa” air defense system.

The Southern Defense Forces reported that the enemy lost two “S-300” air defense systems. It is not specified whether they were destroyed or merely damaged.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 5:20 AM

From The Kyiv Independent:

Two Russian anti-missile Pantsir-S1 systems and one OSA anti-aircraft vehicle were damaged or destroyed by Ukraine’s Navy in one day, the military branch claimed on Jan. 6.

“Our soldiers continue to turn Russian equipment into scrap metal,” Ukrainian Navy Commander Oleksii Neizhpapa said in a Facebook post referring to the three successful attacks.

In his post, Neizhpapa shared a video apparently depicting a drone zeroing in on a Russian Pantsir-S1 vehicle, claiming that the two Pantsir-S1 were destroyed in the occupied territory of Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast.

A Pantsir S-1 has an estimated price tag of around $15 million. One such system is suspected to be behind the mistaken downing of an Azerbaijani plane on Dec. 25, according to the media.

The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify the Navy’s claims nor the extent of the damage done to the Russian anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems.

Russia has lost 1,034 air defense systems since the full-scale invasion began, Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported before the news of the three successful hits surfaced.

Kherson:

WARNING!! WARNING!! GRAPHIC CONTENT!! WARNING!! WARNING!!

🚨In Kherson, human safari rages

Today, a Russian drone dropped explosives on a public bus again.

A man, 50, killed
6 women injured (47, 55, 58, 51,30, 26)
A man, 26 injured

In the morning:

Men (58, 45, 43, 45)

Later:

A man, 66, injured

Yesterday,

1 killed
13 injured

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— Zarina Zabrisky (@zarinazabrisky.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 5:18 PM

ALL CLEAR!!

The Kyiv Independent has the details:

A Russian drone strike targeted a bus in a Kherson neighborhood on Jan. 6, killing one person and injuring eight others, according to Ukraine’s police.

The man killed, Volodymyr Shum, 50, was a specialist in the municipal services and landscaping division of the Kherson City Council’s municipal economy department.

Among the injured were seven women, aged between 29 and 58, and a 21-year-old man, all of whom were hospitalized with blast injuries and are undergoing medical evaluation.

Kherson and settlements on the west bank of the Dnipro River endure daily Russian attacks as Moscow’s forces maintain control of the river’s east bank. Prokudin reported an increase in assaults as Russian troops attempt to solidify their positions in the region.

Kherson and its surrounding areas were liberated during Ukraine’s fall 2022 counteroffensive but remain under frequent bombardment. A Dec. 1 attack on a shuttle bus in Kherson killed three and injured eight, according to local authorities.

Toretsk:

Toretsk today. Russian “liberation” looks like this.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 2:49 PM

The fighters of the 4th detachment of the CSO “Omega” demonstrated how, during the clearing of a multi-story building in Toretsk, they discovered occupiers in the basement.

All the Russians were eliminated, except for one who surrendered wounded and was taken prisoner.
t.me/c/1377735387…

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 9:57 AM

Kharkiv:

Russian drone attack in Kharkiv region right now. This is our ordinary evening, and again, this is ONLY Kharkiv region.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 2:54 PM

Orishka, Kharkiv Oblast:

Orishka village, Kharkiv region, after the russian artillery shelling that destroyed several households today.
Russia shells Kharkiv every single day.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 10:13 AM

Kharkiv Oblast:

“Men, move forward!” – A video of clearing out enemy positions in Kharkiv region!

A group of soldiers quietly entered enemy trenches, eliminating several Russians with the first burst of fire.
t.me/c/1377735387…

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 1:34 PM

Donetsk Oblast:

Russsians executed 3 Ukrainian prisoners of war near Neskuchne on January 3rd, yet another brutal violation of the laws of war.

The soldiers from the 141st Separate Reconnaissance Battalion surrendered during an assault. Despite that, they were bound and executed with shots to the back of the head

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 8:31 AM

There is still no reaction from UN
despite the executions of the pows being systematic.

Source: deepstate

— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 8:31 AM

⚡️ Russian troops allegedly kill 3 Ukrainian POWs in Donetsk Oblast.

Russian troops have allegedly killed three Ukrainian prisoners of war in the southwest of Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine’s Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets wrote on his Telegram channel on Jan. 6.

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— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) January 6, 2025 at 9:30 AM

From The Kyiv Independent:

Russian troops have allegedly killed three Ukrainian prisoners of war in the southwest of Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine’s Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets wrote on his Telegram channel on Jan. 6.

According to DeepState, a crowd-sourced information-gathering website on Russia’s war against Ukraine, Russian forces tied the soldiers’ hands and shot them in the back of the head.

“We are once again witnessing atrocities that demonstrate Russia’s true face,” the ombudsman said.

Reports of murders, torture, and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war are received regularly by Ukrainian authorities and have spiked in recent months. Most cases were recorded in the embattled Donetsk Oblast.

“On Jan. 3, near the village of Neskuchne, Volnovakha district, Donetsk Oblast, Russian soldiers committed a heinous crime — they allegedly shot three Ukrainian prisoners of war,” Lubinets said.

The ombudsman added he would immediately appeal to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations.

Russian forces have summarily executed 109 Ukrainian POWs in 2024 alone, Lubinets said in December. Executing prisoners of war is a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions.

The Kursk cross border offensive:

⚡️ Kursk Oblast becomes hottest spot on front line – General Staff

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— Ukrainska Pravda 🇺🇦 (@pravda.ua) January 5, 2025 at 1:33 PM

Ukrainska Pravda has the details:

Ukrainian forces launched an offensive in Russia’s Kursk Oblast on the night of 4-5 January.

Source: Andrii Yermak, Head of the Ukrainian President’s Office; Radio Liberty’s Russian Service; Meduza, a Latvia-based Russian media outlet, citing Russian milbloggers; Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation

Details: Since the morning of Sunday, 5 January, several Russian pro-war propaganda channels have reported on the “beginning of a new offensive by the Ukrainian military” in the Sudzha district of Kursk Oblast.

They claimed, in particular, that Ukrainian troops were advancing from the town of Sudzha towards the village of Bolshoye Soldatskoye.

According to milbloggers, the offensive is being carried out with the use of armoured vehicles.

In addition to the milbloggers, some Russian officials have mentioned the offensive.

Quote from Yermak: “Kursk Oblast, good news, Russia is getting what it deserves.”

Details: Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation also reported on the offensive in Kursk Oblast.

Previously: Recently, Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, visited the Kursk front and decorated Ukrainian soldiers there.

Ust-Luga, Leningrad Oblast, Russia:

🔥 Ukraine’s Security Service was behind attack on Russia’s largest seaport – source, video

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— Ukrainska Pravda 🇺🇦 (@pravda.ua) January 6, 2025 at 12:35 PM

From Ukrainska Pravda:

An attack on Russia’s largest commercial seaport, Ust-Luga in Leningrad Oblast, was the work of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU).

Source: Ukrainska Pravda source in Ukraine’s defence forces

Details: The source reports that on 4 January, long-range SSU drones travelled over 900 km, flying almost as far as St Petersburg, and successfully hit the target.

A video from Russian social media shows one of the drones hitting some gas condensate tanks.

As a result of the attack, one gas tank was severely damaged and three nearby containers were affected by debris. Experts say the repairs will take at least a month, subject to the availability of materials, and will definitely lead to disruptions in the terminal’s operations, the source adds.

The Ust-Luga terminal is an important Russian logistics hub on the Baltic Sea through which Russia sells oil and gas using its shadow fleet.

That’s enough for tonight.

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p.s. Відео архівне! 🐾🚗 #песпатрон

♬ original sound – Beetle Plex

Here’s the machine translation of the caption:

p.s. The video is archived! 🐾🚗#песпатрон

Open thread!