They will be able to go home. In his video message, Sunday January 8, Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the release of 50 soldiers, the first of the year 2023. According to the Ukrainian president, “33 officers, 17 privates and sergeants” will be reunited with their loved ones after being captured by the Russians. Among them are “defenders of kyiv and Donetsk regions, Mariupol and the south of the country”. the Ukrainian Defense Twitter account posted a photo of the released Ukrainian soldiers. Follow our live.
The vagueness persists around strikes on Kramatorsk. A Ukrainian military official has denied allegations by Russia, which says it carried out strikes on military barracks in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, and inflicted heavy casualties on its adversary in “reprisals” to the Ukrainian bombardment of Makiivka. LRussian army claims to have killed “600 Ukrainian soldiers”, a record that surprises the mayor of Kramatorsk, Alexander Goncharenko, who said on Facebook (content in Ukrainian) that these strikes had caused no deaths.
The funerals of soldiers killed in the Ukrainian strike at Makiivka. Relatives of Russian soldiers killed in the Ukrainian Makiivka strike buried at least nine of them Sunday in the Samara region, according to local authorities. Two men were buried in Togliatti, on the Volga, according to the mayor. Five other men were buried in other small towns and villages in the Sarama region of central Russia.
About fifty Russian attacks in several regions of Ukraine. After the end of the ceasefire, the Ukrainian General Staff recorded more than fifty Russian missile and rocket attacks in several regions of Ukraine during the night. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar reported on a situation “difficult” in the East, where most of the fighting is concentrated, recognizing that Russian troops “advanced in certain areas”, but claiming that the kyiv forces were also advancing elsewhere, “step by step”. According to her, the situation is particularly “very difficult” in Soledar, a town near Bakhmout, the hottest point on the front.