During the night the Russian armed forces launched a drone attack on Zaporizhzhia resulting in the death of one person and the wounding of six others. This was reported - as reported by the UNIAN agency - by the head of the regional military administration of Zaporizhzhia, Ivan Fedorov. Residential and non-residential buildings were damaged. Furthermore, a fire broke out at the site of the attacks.
A rain of drones hit the Moscow region in the hours between late Monday evening and first light yesterday morning. According to the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergey Sobyanin, quoted by Russian agencies, approximately 620 explosive aircraft were launched towards the metropolitan area, of which 180 were intercepted and destroyed by air defenses. On a diplomatic level, the offensive is intertwined with the Kremlin's new push against the United Kingdom, warned of possible "consequences" for the military support provided to Kiev.
Three workers were killed and two injured when a Ukrainian drone hit a heating system service vehicle in the Russian-controlled Lugansk region. This was reported by the head of the pro-Russian administration, Leonid Pasechnik, quoted by Tass. Pasechnik specified that the attack occurred in the village of Rubizhne, where a vehicle of the Luganskteplo company was hit. The head of the administration added that three other workers engaged in road works between Pervomaysk and the village of Troitske were wounded in a second Ukrainian attack.
A refinery in Ufa, Russia, was hit in a Ukrainian drone attack last night, local authorities said. The unit of a refining plant where repairs were underway was hit by unmanned aerial vehicles, which caused "a small fire," said Radiy Khabirov, the head of the Republic of Bashkiria, of which Ufa is the capital. "I think everything will be fixed in a couple of days," added Khabirov, quoted by Tass. Ufa is located north of Kazakhstan, over a thousand kilometers from the Ukrainian border. According to Khabirov, six Ukrainian drones rained down on the city, one of which hit a residential building.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu), Ukraine's anti-corruption agency, has announced an operation against a criminal organization allegedly led by a sitting MP and a former MP and involving senior officials from President Volodymyr Zelensky's office. This was reported by the Kyiv Independent. The Nabu is engaged in a "special operation to unmask a criminal organization", adding that further details will come. In December, the NABU indicted 5 deputies from Zelensky's Servant of the People faction, accused of receiving money in exchange for parliamentary votes.
Since last night, the Russian army has conducted more than ten attacks against two districts of the Dnipropetrovsk region, with drones and artillery. This was reported by the Ukrainian agency Ukrinform, citing a post on Telegram by Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional state administration. According to Hanzha, in the Nikopol district, the Russian army struck Nikopol and the Marhanets community. A shop burned down and an administration building was damaged. In the community of Zelenodolsk, Kryvyi Rih district, a private house was also damaged.
Ukrainian drones targeted the Russian regions of Tula and Nizhny Novgorod overnight, the Kyiv Independent reported, citing the Exilenova Plus monitoring channel on Telegram. Witnesses reported explosions in Novomoskovsk, Tula region, while drones were reportedly shot down near a residential building in the city of Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod region. The governor of the Tula region, Dmitry Milyaev, confirmed a Ukrainian drone strike, saying Russian air defenses had intercepted 27 of them. "According to preliminary information, no damage to buildings or infrastructure was reported," he said.
Russia has once again ruled out the possibility of freezing fighting in Ukraine to facilitate peace negotiations. "You know our position, we exclude it," presidential advisor Yuri Ushakov said in an interview with Rossiya 1 television, reported by the Interfax agency, responding to the question whether Moscow could accept a freeze in the conflict along the current front line. Russia has always rejected the hypothesis of a truce, stating that negotiations can take place even while hostilities continue and that they must have the objective of arriving at a peace treaty that resolves the issues "at the root" of the conflict.
Ukraine must find a mechanism to hold elections in times of war: this was asked by the former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who in a speech made today on Youtube stated that "democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia" and that "it is necessary to find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism that would allow Ukraine to restore a full-fledged democratic process even in the event of a prolonged war".
