January 15, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Ukrainian authorities said the death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment block in the city of Dnipro rose to 22 on Sunday, the day after missiles and explosions were heard across the country. One child was among the dead.

As of 1 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) Sunday, "39 people (including 6 children) were rescued in Dnipro city. 22 people died (including 1 child), 72 people were injured (including 13 children), 43 reports of missing persons were received," the emergency service said in its latest update on Sunday. 

Valentyn Reznichenko, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said in a post on his official Telegram page Sunday that 72 apartments were destroyed and 230 damaged as a result of the strike.

The rescue operation is ongoing with 43 people still unaccounted for.

“We are fighting for every person, every life,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.

In his nightly address on Saturday, Zelensky said “dozens” of people, including a three-year-old girl, were rescued from the building even though most of the floors were “smashed” in the strike.

Read the full story here.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday said that his so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine was showing a "positive" dynamic and that he hoped Russian soldiers would achieve more results on the battlefield after Soledar. 

“The dynamics are positive, everything is developing within the framework of the plan by the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff, and I hope that our fighters will continue pleasing us with the results of their combat work," Putin told Rossiya 1 state television in a video interview.

Putin also said that the economic situation in Russia was "stable" and "much better" than forecasts. 

According to Ukrainian officials, "heavy battles" are still continuing in Soledar after Russia claimed Friday that it was in control of the eastern town.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said late Saturday local time that "the enemy does not abandon its intentions to completely take over Donetsk region."

"To do so, it focuses its main efforts on offensive operations on Bakhmut direction. Heavy battles for Soledar continue," the military said.

"Ukrainian forces repel enemy attacks round the clock. The occupiers suffer heavy losses," the General Staff said.

"The enemy is also advancing on Lyman, Avdiivka, and Novopavlivka directions," it added.

The vertically shot video published last November shows no weapons, battlefield atrocities or even soldiers. But the sound of a patriotic Russian song reverberating through a church on Kyiv’s famous Lavra monastery grounds seemed to open a new front in Ukraine’s war with Russia.

The church belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) – which, despite the name, has traditionally been loyal to the Russian Orthodox Church, and whose current leader Patriarch Kiril has openly supported Moscow’s brutal invasion.

Splitting with Kiril, the leadership of the UOC denounced Russia’s attack, and last May, declared its independence from Russia.

Days after the video surfaced, masked members of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) conducted a raid on the Lavra – officially, to prevent it being used for “hiding sabotage and reconnaissance groups” or “storing weapons.” By December, a handful of church leaders had been sanctioned, and dozens more churches across the country were raided by the SBU.

In his nightly address on December 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated he was prepared to go beyond raids – proposing a law to ban churches with “centers of influence” in Russia from operating in Ukraine – all in the name of “spiritual independence.”

Read more on the new front in Ukraine's war here.

The Russian missile that hit an apartment block in Dnipro on Saturday was "no doubt" a Kh-22 missile, the Air Force Command of the Ukranian Armed forces said Sunday on its Facebook page.

"[A] Radar detected the approximate launch site, altitude, and flight speed. There is no doubt that it was an X-22 [Kh-22] missile," it said.

"The Armed Forces of Ukraine lack the firepower capabilities for shooting down this type of missile. Since the beginning of Russia's military aggression, more than 210 missiles of this type have been launched at the territory of Ukraine. None of them have been shot down by our air defense systems," the post added.

Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian air force, said the Kh-22 "was fired from a Tu-22M3 long-range bomber, launched from the area near Kursk and the Sea of Azov."

"There were a total of five launches of these missiles," Ihnat said.

Speaking of Saturday's attack, Ihnat said: "They hit with such a missile a densely populated city with people, women, children. There is no explanation and justification for this terrorist act." 

Originally designed as an anti-ship missile, the Kh-22 is an older and less accurate weapon than most modern missiles. But Western analysts say it is only accurate to a radius of about 500 meters (about 1,600 feet).

CNN reported last June that it was also a Kh-22 that hit a shopping center in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the target in June was a facility that repaired military vehicles, which was several hundred meters from the shopping center. At least 18 people were killed in that attack.

The death toll from the Russian missile strike on an apartment block in Dnipro rose to 20 on Sunday, the day after missiles and explosions were heard across the country.

At least 73 people were wounded in the attack on the nine-story apartment building, including four who are in critical condition, Valentyn Reznichenko, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration said.

Last fall, as Ukraine won back large swaths of territory in a series of counterattacks, it pounded Russian forces with American-made artillery and rockets.

Guiding some of that artillery was a homemade targeting system that Ukraine developed on the battlefield.

A piece of Ukrainian-made software has turned readily available tablet computers and smartphones into sophisticated targeting tools that are now used widely across the Ukrainian military.

The result is a mobile app that feeds satellite and other intelligence imagery into a real-time targeting algorithm that helps units near the front direct fire onto specific targets.

The targeting app is among dozens of examples of battlefield innovations that Ukraine has come up with over nearly a year of war, often finding cheap fixes to expensive problems.

Ukraine has even developed its own anti-ship weapon, the Neptune, based on Soviet rocket designs that can target the Russian fleet from almost 200 miles away.

Read more on Ukraine's battlefield innovation here.

The founder and head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, posted a video Saturday claiming he visited Soledar after it was taken over by his mercenaries "in two weeks."

Kyiv has disputed Wagner's claim that it now controls the small town, which holds significant symbolic value but is not considered strategically pivotal. The town has also caused infighting between Prigozhin's private forces and Russia's Defense Ministry over who deserves credit for the assault.

In the video, the Wagner mercenary leader said he came to town to award medals to his fighters — who he says were almost exclusively responsible for capturing Soledar.

The video shows Prigozhin standing with a man who he calls “a commander who helped to take over Soledar.”

According to Prigozhin, Ukrainian soldiers who refused to surrender were killed. He said, “the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers will be sent back to their motherland.”

The private military contractor has heavily recruited from Russian prisons over the last nine months. Previously it has deployed contingents to Syria and several African countries. 

Prigozhin credited what he described as a wealth of fighting equipment and communications systems for giving his force an edge in battle.

What Ukraine is saying: Kyiv's military has said that Wagner fighters, some without body armor and carrying only grenades, have been killed in their hundreds after launching one assault after another against Soledar. 

The Ukrainian military said late Saturday that heavy battles for the town continue, with one regional leader describing the situation as "difficult but controlled."

More on Wagner's leader: Prigozhin has been an increasingly visible figure in the conflict in Ukraine, visiting Wagner fighters on the front line and meeting former convicts who have completed their six-month tour of duty with Wagner. Prigozhin had promised them that in return for fighting they would be pardoned and be able to return home, rather than to prison. 

He has frequently contrasted the achievements of his Wagner fighters with what he has criticized as the poor leadership of the military establishment in Russia — a rare example of open disagreement within Russia about the conduct of the Ukraine campaign.