Intense fighting continues in Soledar, Donetsk region, but the city remains under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, Pavlo Kirilenko.

"Soledar and Bakhmut remain the hottest area. Soledar is controlled by the Ukrainian authorities and our military. However, urban battles and battles outside the city continue because the enemy is trying to advance in several directions," he said.

According to Kirilenko, Russians suffer …

Politician, former head of the Foreign Intelligence Service and General of the Ukrainian Army, Mykola Malomuzh, believes that the first victories of the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be in the Luhansk and Donetsk directions. After that, Ukrainian Forces will liberate the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region and the left bank of the Kherson region. Then, the Ukrainian army will go to the Crimea, said Malomuzh in an interview with the YouTube channel the News Factory.

According to the general, …

The spokesperson of the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, did not say anything about the offensive on Bakhmut and Soledar during the traditional briefing on January 12.

Konashenkov claimed that "successful offensive actions of Russian troops continued in the Donetsk direction." He did not mention what kind of "successes" the Russians achieved there, writes the Telegram channel Agentstvo Novosti.

According to the map presented at the briefing, the town of Soledar was not under Russia’ …

On January 12, a delegation of the Russian Defense Ministry headed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Army General Oleg Salyukov, arrived in Belarus, reported the Belarusian Defense Ministry.

Salyukov and members of the delegation "inspected military units and subdivisions of the Russian contingent of the regional grouping of troops (forces)" at the training grounds in Belarus.

In addition, they inspected "the quality of combat coordination and assessed readiness of Russian units …

Heavy fighting continues in Soledar, and Russian forces are suffering heavy losses, the speaker of the Eastern Group of Ukrainian Forces Serhiy Cherevaty told the news agency RBC-Ukraine.

"Our soldiers show great heroism, courage, professionalism, coherence and perseverance. The issue of Soledar is currently under scrutiny of the entire command of the Armed Forces, the Commander-in-Chief, the commander of the Eastern group of troops," he said.

Cherevaty recalled that after the battles and …

The commander of the Russian joint group of forces of the "special operation" in Ukraine has changed, reports the Russian Defense Ministry. Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu appointed the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Army General Valery Gerasimov, to command the troops. Sergey Surovikin, who had previously headed the Russian troops in Ukraine, became deputy commander.

Commander of the Ground Forces Oleg Salyukov and Deputy Chief of the General Staff Alexei Kim were Also, …

Colonel-General Alexander Lapin was appointed the new chief of the General Staff of the Russian Ground Forces, reported Russian media, citing sources in the Russian Ministry of Defense. According to the news agency RBC, Lapin's appointment took place at the end of 2022. The Russian Ministry of Defense did not officially confirm this information. Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov also refused to comment on it. "There are open decrees, there are classified decrees. There are no such decrees …

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made a surprise visit to Kharkiv, a city that is regularly shelled because of its proximity to the Russian border. The minister's visit was not announced. Baerbock was the first high-ranking Western official to travel to eastern Ukraine since the beginning of the war.

After visiting the ruins of destroyed Russian military buildings, she said Kharkiv had become "a symbol of the absolute madness of the Russian aggression and the endless suffering that …