(Image by NEIVANMADE)
The Russians unloaded on Kupyansk today.
Kupyansk was nearly intact after its liberation by Ukrainian forces, but since then, Russia has been systematically destroying it day by day. Mostly elderly people remain, knowing they cannot build a new life elsewhere
Today, during the bombings, Russia destroyed 4 houses and injured an 86 yo woman
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Russia sent a guided aerial bomb to Kupyansk in Kharkiv region today to injure this elderly woman and damage her house.
My heart bleeds for our elderly generation, who have already endured so much, and now face bombings and the destruction simply because russia wants to be terrorists.
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Kupyansk in Kharkiv region today, after the russian glide bomb attack.
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 12:38 PM
The reason:
💙💛 The father knelt down, and the son, small but so dear, threw himself into his arms. Strong hands clutch the fragile body, as if afraid to let go, as if afraid it were a dream.
— Vitalis Viva (@vitalisviva.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 7:30 AM
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
Today, I Ordered a Strengthening of the Command Structure of Our Forces in the Donetsk Region – Address by the President
26 January 2025 – 21:30
I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!
Today, there were numerous military briefings with commanders, as well as a conversation with Ukraine’s Minister of Defense, focused on the situation at the front, our key directions in the Donetsk region, and the areas of the Kursk operation. Soon, it will be six months of our active operations in the Kursk region aimed at protecting Ukrainian land. We are maintaining a buffer zone on Russian territory to safeguard our Sumy and Kharkiv from Russian offensives. I thank all our warriors who defend Ukrainian positions and destroy the occupiers. Today, I would especially like to commend the warriors of the 95th Separate Brigade for their actions in the Kursk region, as well as the warriors of the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade and the 68th Separate Jaeger Brigade for their effectiveness in the Pokrovsk direction. Additionally, I recognize the 24th and 100th Separate Mechanized Brigades for their heroism in battles for Chasiv Yar and Toretsk. Thank you, warriors!
Today, I ordered a strengthening of the command structure of our forces in the Donetsk region. Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi has been assigned to lead the operational-strategic group of troops “Khortytsia.” These are the most intense areas of combat. At the same time, Drapatyi will retain his authority as Commander of the Land Forces – the largest component of our Armed Forces – which will help combine the army’s combat operations with the proper training of brigades. The specific needs of the front must determine the standards for equipping and training brigades. Major General Andriy Hnatov has been assigned to the General Staff as Deputy Chief of the General Staff. His task is to establish a new level of operational headquarters preparation and to improve the quality of coordination between headquarters and the front. These and several other changes were discussed today with Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi – tasks have been set at all levels.
And one more thing.
I want to thank all Ukrainian developers and manufacturers of long-range drones and our missiles. Everyone can see their effectiveness – how our weapons are bringing the war back to Russia and reducing Russia’s war potential. Unrest in Russia, decreased Russian capacity to sell and refine oil, and lower global oil prices are all necessary for peace. This year must be decisive, and our actions must shape our destiny. That is exactly what we are doing. And, of course, I extend my gratitude to all the warriors of the Security Service of Ukraine, the Special Operations Forces, all branches of our Armed Forces, the Foreign Intelligence Service, and the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine – every individual who adds their strength and precision to Ukraine’s capabilities.
Glory to Ukraine!
Georgia:
The police didn’t want Rustaveli Avenue to be blocked, but due to the large number of protesters, it happened anyway.
#GeorgiaProtests
Day 60— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Mzia Amaghlobeli’s life is in danger as it’s the 16th day of her hunger strike!
All because Batumi Police Head Irakli Dgebuadze’s big ego suffered a blow as she confronted him, after which he degraded her by spitting on her and refusing her water and restroom! #terrorinGeorgia— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 2:53 PM
⭕ “A woman was imprisoned in this city, and she has been on hunger strike for 15 days now” — a wall inscription in Batumi in support of Mzia Amaghlobeli.
📸 Tamar Kuratishvili
#TerrorinGeorgia
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 11:25 AM
At this moment [00:30], the editor of @netgazeti.org Eter Turadze, is standing in front of the Parliament demanding the release of Mzia Amaghlobeli.
#TerrorinGeorgia
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 3:31 PM
“Against the police regime” — a protest march is taking place from Didube Metro to the police building on Tsereteli Avenue.
“No justice?! No peace!”
“Fire to oligarchy, power to the people.”
#GeorgiaProtests
Day 60— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 6:45 AM
Some chants and slogans from the #GeorgiaProtests:
“Police everywhere, justice nowhere”
“Unjust court, fear the people’s power”
“Listen to the voice of the people, the people demand justice”
“Fire to oligarchy”
“Freedom for the regime’s prisoners”
“We demand new elections”
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Vakho Pitskhelauri, Girchi – More Freedom and Coalition for Change affiliated activist in Gori, was kidnapped by 3 masked men, driven 6 kilometers away, and threatened with being killed before he escaped. He was beaten and robbed. This happened as he was walking to a shop. #terrorinGeorgia
— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 3:21 PM
The Baltic Sea:
Another ship has been seized following the cable break in the Baltic Sea 👀
This is the only effective escalation management.
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 4:23 PM
‼️Another submarine cable connecting Latvia and Sweden on the Ventspils – Gotland section was damaged in the Baltic Sea.
“At this time, there is reason to believe that the cable is significantly damaged and that the damage is caused by external influences”
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 9:17 AM
/2. Latvian navy had dispatched a patrol boat to inspect a vessel suspected of involvement.
Two other vessels in the area were also subject to investigation, Latvia’s navy said.
(Illustrative image)
www.straitstimes.com/world/europe…
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 10:14 AM
/3. Statement of the Swedish PM regarding the damaged cable in the Baltic Sea.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Back to Ukraine.
Just as expected, Ukraine’s Veteran Hub support line had to shut down because U.S. foreign aid is frozen. Now, other vital initiatives—school and hospital support, rebuilding, and energy programs—are at risk of being disrupted.
— Maria Avdeeva (@mariainkharkiv.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 7:31 AM
USAID’s office in Ukraine has been ordered to halt all projects and spending following US State Department directive to pause foreign aid programs for 90 days.
Staff currently lack detailed guidance on how the directive will be implemented or whether exceptions will be made.
— Maria Avdeeva (@mariainkharkiv.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 7:31 AM
Meanwhile, Ukrainian organizations are receiving notices to suspend activities funded by USAID or reliant on US financing.
— Maria Avdeeva (@mariainkharkiv.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 7:31 AM
The negative second and third order effects are beginning to ripple through.
Kyiv:
Meanwhile in good old Kyiv:
— Illia Ponomarenko (@ioponomarenko.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Kherson:
❗️Kherson region: Human safari and aerial bombs
🔻Russian aviation dropped 8 aerial bomb on Beryslav, destroyed a hospital
🔻A Russian drone attacked a hospital in Kherson
🔻Man, 36 y.o. injured by a Russian drone
🔻Artillery attacks continue
🔻Remote mining by drones
— Zarina Zabrisky (@zarinazabrisky.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Kurahove, Donetsk Oblast:
Video allegedly of Chinese soldier in Kurakhove, Donetsk Oblast, about 30 km south of the front-line city of Pokrovsk (still Ukrainian held). Not really surprising to see Chinese military in the war zone, more surprising video leaked, if it’s genuine. Could be a mercenary, or military observer.
— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 12:08 PM
AI translation of video.
— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Velyka Novosilka, Donetsk Oblast:
⚡️Ukrainian troops avoid encirclement in Velyka Novosilka, military says.
Ukrainian troops successfully withdrew from some areas to avoid being encircled, but fighting is ongoing around the village, according to the 110th Separate Mechanised Brigade.
— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) January 26, 2025 at 8:51 AM
From The Kyiv Independent:
Ukrainian troops avoided encirclement as Russian forces are poised to capture Velyka Novosilka, Donetsk Oblast, said the 110th Separate Mechanised Brigade.
Ukrainian troops successfully withdrew from some areas to avoid being encircled but fighting is ongoing around the village, which lies around 15 kilometers east of the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
Equipment on both sides wears thin but Russian infantry vastly outnumbers the Ukrainian side, the brigade wrote on its Telegram channel.
While Russian troops will likely capture the village soon, they will struggle to advance their offensive onward. The Mokri Yaly River creates an obstacle for Russia’s advance and Russian troops are in a vulnerable “fire pocket,” said the brigade.
“Any movement is suppressed by shells and drones,” said the brigade.
The river also hindered supply routes to the Ukrainians. On Jan 23, Military spokesperson Viktor Trehubov warned that Ukrainian troops were at risk of encirclement.
Russian forces are attempting to take control of access routes to the village through heavy fire, Trehubov noted.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Jan. 24 that its troops had planted a Russian flag in the center of Velyka Novosilka and that they had split the town in two, cutting off Ukrainian forces. The southern pocket fell most recently.
Experts told the Kyiv Independent that Ukrainian troops were likely holding onto the village’s northwestern areas and Russia expected to complete the capture in “days.”
If they do, it will be Russia’s first notable win this year.
It is unclear how many Ukrainian troops were trapped inside the southern pocket in Velyka Novosilka, but it could be around two or three battalions, according to Pasi Paroinen at the Finland-based open-source intelligence organization Black Bird Group. The number of soldiers is probably around several hundred, he added.
Fighting is at a very heavy level in Donetsk Oblast and Russian troops continue to advance, albeit slowly, this year. Throughout the fall of 2024, Russian forces made operational gains in southern Donetsk Oblast, including areas near Toretsk and Chasiv Yar, while advancing near Kupiansk and on Russian soil in Kursk Oblast.
Tver Oblast, Russia:
Tver, Russia 🦅👀
— MAKS 24 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 5:32 PM
In Russia’s Tver region, Ukrainian drones are heard. Explosions are reported.
— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) January 26, 2025 at 5:49 PM
More from Tver 😳😳😳
— MAKS 24 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Oryol Oblast, Russia:
⚡️Ukrainian Air Force units and Defense Forces struck drone storage facilities in Russia’s Oryol Oblast, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Facebook on Jan. 26.
“It is preliminary known that more than 200 ‘Shaheds’ will no longer be used against our country,” the statement said.
— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) January 26, 2025 at 2:29 PM
From The Kyiv Independent:
Ukrainian Air Force units and Defense Forces struck drone storage facilities in Russia’s western Oryol Oblast on Jan. 26, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported on Facebook on Jan. 26.
The strike targeted concrete structures housing thermobaric warheads for drones, causing a significant secondary detonation.
“The results and extent of the damage are being specified, but it is preliminary known that more than 200 ‘Shaheds’ will no longer be used against our country,” the statement said.
Preliminary reports indicate that over 200 Shahed strike drones were destroyed, rendering them unusable for future attacks on Ukraine.
The statement emphasized that operations against critical facilities supporting attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure will continue.
Russia has launched thousands of cheap but effective Iranian-designed Shahed drones against Ukraine since the fall of 2022.
Shaheds and its domestic-made variants like Geran are often used for strikes against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
Shahed-136 drones’ flying range, claimed by various sources, varies from 1,000 kilometers (about 620 miles) to 2,500 kilometers (about 1,550 miles). They are said to weigh about 200 kilograms with a maximum flight speed of about 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour.
Western media, such as the New York Times, has reported the cost of each Shahed-136 drone to be as low as $20,000.
The Oryol region was the target of numerous Ukrainian attacks over the last month, when a drone storage, maintenance, and repair facility was destroyed on Dec. 28 and when an oil depot was hit by drones, later catching on fire, on Dec. 22.
That’s enough for tonight.
Your daily Patron.
There are no new Patron skeets or videos tonight. Here is some adjacent material.
Today’s Ukrainian cat—and portable heating pad for tired solider.
— The Spirit of Lorenzo the Cat (@lorenzothecat.bsky.social) January 22, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Open thread!
Jay
Thank you, Adam.
YY_Sima Qian
Thank you Adam!
The Chinese personnel is certainly a mercenary. He refers to a couple of African mercenaries (小黑, or “little blacks”, which in Chinese is an endearing term, but certainly w/ a dose of the patronizing) behind him, & the vibe of the video is that of a post to Chinese social media sharing that he is still alive & well.
Since the start of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, there have been a few Chinese mercenaries who have signed up for contracts w/ the Russian military (some w/ prior service experience w/ the PLA). Some have documented their experiences on Chinese social media platforms. A few have lost their lives, & most have complained that the Russian authorities treat all such mercs as fodder, & that the contracts were not worth it (assuming they get paid in full, at all). Almost all of them signed up for either money or adventure, none were really motivated by allegiance to the Russian cause. (Obviously, they buy the Russian narratives.)
If there are PLA observers behind Russian lines, they would not be caught posting on social media or even on camera at all. The PLA rank & file don’t even post their peacetime non-operational daily routines on RedNote or Douyin, unlike a few US servicemen/women who posted on RedNote their footages & photos while on operations, during the 1st couple of days of the “TikTok refugee” migration.
mali muso
Thank you for continuing to keep us informed, Adam. Hope it’s ok to repost this here, particularly as it is an opportunity to help support the effort at a moment when aid is frozen.
This comes via a local Ukrainian friend who has friends and family there and with whom I’ve worked with before. Below is the email from the folks in Ukraine:
I’ve already donated and asked my friend if she’d be ok with me spreading the word further. If anyone wants the link to her Venmo, Paypall, or Zelle, please email me at sulawesigirl4 at yahoo dot com.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
Calling his “Commander” an “idiot” was a bit of a tell that he’s not PLA.
Jay
ruZZian “Mir”.
https://nitter.poast.org/IAPonomarenko/status/1883632840581042667#m
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: Yeah, a PLA soldier would not date call his PLA commander or his Russian interlocutor an “idiot” in the open, but a former PLA soldier in it for the money/adventure could definitely call his Russian commander all kinds of names on Chinese social media.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
Given ruZZia’s recruiting methods and extortions, he might not have ever been a PLA soldier, might have just been a factory worker or student forced to sign a contract. ruZZia doesn’t care where they get their meat cubes from or how.
One needs a provable military background to join Ukraine’s military.
Sister Golden Bear
Shipping industry-related YouTube video about the Swedish Coast Guard seizing the Maltese-registered ship suspected of breaking Baltic Sea a fiber optic cable. between Sweden and Lativa. It’s about 18-minutes and goes into some interesting details.
Some key takeaways: the ship did seem to be engaged in (at least some) legitimate shipping — unlike other “dark ships” suspected in other cable sabotage; it’s surprisingly easy to drop and anchor, a single crew member can do it, and at night (when it’s pitch black outside the bridge) it actually can be done without anyone noticing if you take it slowly; the ship was almost certainly running on autopilot, which would have an automatically compensated for the anchor dragging for miles. So it’s possible that the Russians bribed as few as a single crew member to do it.
FWIW, the undersea cables are well-marked on nautical charts to avoid vessels from accidentally dropping anchor near them, but this also means they’re also well-marked for would-be saboteurs.
And once again, thanks Adam.
pieceofpeace
Thank you, Adam.
I don’t know if anyone has posted this map of cables.
https://www.submarinecablemap.com/
AlaskaReader
Thanks Adam
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: Yeah, half of the two dozen or so Chinese mercs in Russian service have no military or paramilitary background, at all.
Jay
@Sister Golden Bear:
Dropping anchor and dragging it on a ship underway, has a huge an immediate effect on a ship, similar to hitting something big. Everybody but the stokers would know something was wrong.
To know where the ship is, the cables are and when to drop the anchor, requires one of the Bridge Crew at a nav station and they also need to “goose” the throttles to compensate and maintain speed while dragging hundreds of tons of chains and an anchor, along the bottom. Otherwise, the ship just stops as soon as the anchor beds.
Keep in mind, the anchor(s) and chains are rated to keep the vessel anchored in even a hurricane.
The minimum I can see, is two, one on the bridge, one on the anchor, they would have to be alone on their stations, and everybody, (but the stokers), would immediately know something bad had happened.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
Given ruZZia’s use of “press gangs”*, I would hesitate to call anyone a “Merc” with out knowing their background. ruZZia recruits women form Africa under the guise of “technical training” and forces them at gun point to build drones in hazardous workplaces. They do the same for their own kids. They recruit people to work in logistics, factories, as “Security Guards”, grab them as they get off the plane, force them to sign “contracts” or go to the Gulag.
*Royal Navy “press gangs”, some contracted, some Royal Navy would board neutral ships, seize some of the crew under pretext, and guess what, “You Are In the Navy Now”. Same for anybody in their cups, in a portside pub. All this was enforced with the whip, the clubs and the yardarm.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: Based on the social media posts of these Chinese merc, they were not press ganged. They went in for what they thought were money & adventure.