JAN 1, 2023
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainians faced a grim start to 2023 as Sunday brought more Russian missile and drone attacks following a blistering New Year's Eve assault that killed at least three civilians across the country, authorities reported.
apnews.com
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Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Western military alliance’s 30 members need to “ramp up” arms production in the coming months both to maintain their own stockpiles and to keep supplying Ukraine with the weapons it needs to fend off Russia.
The war in Ukraine, now in its 11th month, is consuming an “enormous amount” of munitions, Stoltenberg told BBC Radio 4′s “The World This Weekend” in an interview that aired Sunday.
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The NATO chief said that while Russia has experienced battlefield setbacks and the fighting on the ground appears at a stalemate, “Russia has shown no sign of giving up its overall goal of taking control over Ukraine.” he said.
“The Ukrainian forces have had the momentum for several months but we also know that Russia has mobilized many more forces. Many of them are now training.
“All that indicates that they are prepared to continue the war and also potentially try to launch a new offensive,” Stoltenberg said.
He added that what Ukraine can achieve during negotiations to end the war will depend on the strength it shows on the battlefield.
“If we want a negotiated solution that ensures that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent, democratic state in Europe, then we need to provide support for Ukraine now,” Stoltenberg said.
JAN 3, 2023
Grim footage shows Yevgeny Prigozhin visiting basement filled with dead fighters near Ukraine’s eastern front
www.theguardian.com
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In a grim video released over new year, Prigozhin – a key ally of Putin – was filmed visiting a basement near the eastern front filled with the bodies of his fighters, many of them convicts, who had been killed during the bitter fighting for the city, a key Russian objective since the summer.
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While it has long been suggested by Ukrainian sources, and Russian military blogs, that Wagner has suffered heavy losses in the months-long assault, the footage – and Prigozhin’s commentary – have underlined the heavy scale of the attrition.
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“In Artemovsk, every house has become a fortress. Our guys sometimes fight for more than a day over one house. Sometimes they fight for weeks over one house. And behind this house, there is still a new line of defence, and not one. And how many such lines of defence are there in Artemovsk? Five hundred would probably not be an exaggeration.”
An unnamed Wagner soldier whom Prigozhin meets complains about the difficulties they are facing there. “We don’t have enough equipment, not enough BMP3 [armoured cars] and shells,” he says.
In separate footage from Bakhmut filmed on 2 January, a Ukrainian soldier named Kiyanyn describes the continuing combat. Amid the sound of shelling, he describes how fighters in his sector of the city have repelled several large-scale attacks against the city he calls “the fortress”.
“They were coming like insects. We had to resupply with ammo several times … The defence line is standing and holding.”
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