As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 341st day, we take a look at the main developments.
Here is the situation as it stands on Monday, January 30, 2023:
Fighting
- People gathered in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv to commemorate a British volunteer killed during a rescue mission in the eastern town of Soledar in Donetsk region.
- At least one person was killed in an air raid on Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv and three were killed in the southern city of Kherson amid renewed Russian shelling, Ukrainian officials said.
- Russia accused the Ukrainian military of deliberately striking a hospital in a Russian-held area of eastern Ukraine on Saturday in what it said was a war crime that killed 14 people and wounded 24 patients and medical staff. There was no immediate response to the allegations from Ukraine. Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.
Diplomacy
- Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to contact with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, though has no phone call scheduled with him, a Kremlin spokesperson said.
- Scholz, who last week approved providing Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, was quoted in an interview as saying he would speak to Putin again but the onus was on the Russian leader to withdraw troops from Ukraine “to end this horrendous, senseless war”.
- With the United States having decided to supply tanks to Ukraine, it makes no sense for Russia to talk to Kyiv or its Western “puppet masters”, the RIA news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Monday.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said allowing Russia to compete in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games would be tantamount to showing that “terror is somehow acceptable”.
- Russia said it would not hold annual talks with Japan on renewing a pact that allows Japanese fishermen to operate near disputed islands, saying Japan had taken anti-Russian measures.
Weapons
- Expedited talks were under way among Ukraine and its allies about its requests for long-range missiles that it says are needed to prevent Russia from destroying its cities, a top aide to Zelenskyy said.
- German arms maker Rheinmetall was ready to greatly boost the output of tank and artillery munitions to satisfy strong demand in Ukraine and the West, and might start producing HIMARS multiple rocket launchers in Germany, CEO Armin Papperger told the Reuters news agency.
- Scholz again pushed back against demands in Germany and from Ukrainian officials for fighter jets to repel Russia’s invasion, urging Western nations not to join a “bidding war” for sophisticated weapons.
- Ukraine has been promised 321 heavy tanks by several countries, its ambassador to France said.
- Poland has pledged to send an additional 60 tanks to Ukraine on top of 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks, the Polish prime minister said in an interview with Canadian television.
- NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged South Korea on Monday to increase military support to Ukraine, citing other countries that have changed their policy of not providing weapons to countries in conflict after Russia’s invasion.
