Stay on top of Russia-Ukraine war 01-13-2025 developments on the ground with KyivPost fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated war maps.
Kyiv has not commented on the allegation
Russia accused Ukraine on Monday of launching a drone attack on the infrastructure of a major gas pipeline that carries Russian supplies to Europe via Turkey.
The allegation – which Kyiv has not commented on – comes amid an escalating energy row between the two countries, almost three years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Trump presidency has sparked optimism that peace and elections in Ukraine are just around the corner. The media says Zelensky is readying to stand again under a new political banner.
Both Ukrainian mainstream and social media say that with Donald Trump entering the White House and promising to bring peace to Ukraine, politicians in Kyiv are beginning to prepare for elections. Not only has President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly decided to run for a second term, but he is also gathering his team around him, and they are preparing some changes.
Unnamed sources say that Zelensky and his cohorts are preparing to discard the “Servant of the People” party under which he was elected the first time, as the brand has become somewhat toxic following several scandals since the start of the full-scale war. He will instead create a new political “faction,” which the media is currently calling the “Zelensky Bloc.” Before it has even been officially declared, this pro-Zelensky coalition is said to have garnered 20 percent popular support.
Russian forces reinforced air defense in Crimea to protect key military sites, exposing other parts of the front.
The Russian army has deployed additional air defense systems to Crimea to protect key military targets, thus exposing other parts of the front, according to agents of the Ukrainian partisan movement “Atesh.”
The partisans, in a social media post on Monday, said they conducted reconnaissance of the “Hvardeyskoye” military airfield near Simferopol, which Russians actively use for aviation and logistics operations in Crimea.
Trump talked about Biden, seeing Putin’s point of view, flat fields and bullets; and again pushed the narrative that the US is paying everything for the defense of Ukraine, and Europe not a red cent.
US President-elect Donald J. Trump, during a press conference at his Florida mansion Mar-A-Lago on Jan. 7, made declarations about the war in Ukraine and his incoming administration’s plans to end it quickly among other subjects.
The New York real estate tycoon got a few things right but, most of it was way off. Kyiv Post analyzed Trump’s statements and found that a little of what he said about Russia, Ukraine, and security on the NATO eastern frontier was roughly accurate, but a lot wasn’t, and even more was misleading.
But it won’t be in the 24 hours Trump promised while campaigning. Now the future White House foreign policy team is talking three to six months – at least.
A little more than a week from taking over the reins of government, the incoming US senior leadership headed by President-elect Donald J. Trump had shifted messaging on ending the Russo-Ukrainian War from a deal done within a day to several months at least – but faith that the New York real estate baron’s negotiating skills will solve everything fast is still solid.
Michael Waltz, Trump’s newly designated National Security Advisor, in a Sunday interview with the US major broadcaster ABC, argued that the ground for negotiations is now fertile because “the world” has understood that combat in Ukraine and Russia should be stopped quickly and that “everyone” had acknowledged that an end to the fighting would not return all territories invaded by Russia to Ukrainian control.
Russian media said the state oil conglomerate plans to slash the number of staff at its central office from 4,100 to 2,500.
Gazprom, Russia’s state oil conglomerate, is set to lay off 1,600 out of 4,100 staff in its St. Petersburg central office, according to a leaked letter.
Russian outlet 47news.ru reported the planned move, citing a leaked letter sent at the end of December by Elena Ilyukhina, the company’s deputy chairman of the board.
Philip Morris International led the list, paying $220 million, followed by PepsiCo ($135 million), Mars ($99 million), and others such as Procter & Gamble, Mondelez, Citigroup, and Cargill.
US firms operating in Russia contributed over $1 billion in taxes to the Kremlin in 2023, as per the Newsweek report referring to data from B4Ukraine and the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE).
This makes the US the largest foreign contributor of profit taxes to Russia, according to the report.
On Sunday police spotted up to 10 unmanned aerial vehicles flying in a secured military zone in Manching
German police said Monday they were investigating recent drone sightings over two military facilities, at a time when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put the country on alert for espionage.
Police in the southern state of Bavaria said they, together with prosecutors, were looking into several incidents in which drones have flown over military installations in Manching and Neuburg an der Donau.
An aerial scout told Kyiv Post that scaling up such drone use could expand Ukrainian offensive operations and deter Russian forces during assaults.
A Ukrainian drone of an unidentified type equipped with a shotgun was filmed shooting down three Russian Mavic drones and targeting a Russian soldier in a video that went viral on social media.
The footage, reportedly captured near Synkivka and Petropavlivka in the Kupiansk sector of the front line in the Kharkiv region, shows the Ukrainian drone downing the Russian Mavics, then firing at a Russian soldier with the shotgun before dropping a grenade on him, per video shared on X.
The gains, while insignificant in terms of size, show Russia’s tightening grip on Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
Russian troops advanced near eight settlements in Ukraine’s Donetsk region between Saturday and Sunday, according to the open-source Ukrainian battlefield map, Deep State.
According to Deep State’s Monday, 12:54 a.m. social media update, Russian troops had advanced near Chasiv Yar, Toretsk, Yantarne, Novovasylivka, Yelyzavetivka, Zelene, Zvirove, and Kotlyne in the Donetsk region.
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces repelled a DPRK assault in the Kursk region, eliminating 18 soldiers, including one who detonated a grenade killing himself under Russian orders to avoid capture.
Special Operations Forces (SSO) repelled an assault by North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region, eliminating 17 DPRK troops, as shown in a corresponding video the SSO released on Monday, Jan. 13.
The SSO reported that DPRK forces launched an assault in the Kursk region, which lasted “from morning until late at night.”
The deployment follows suspected Russian undersea cable sabotages and marks Sweden’s first contribution to a NATO mission since it joined in March 2024.
Sweden will contribute up to three warships and an ASC 890 surveillance aircraft to bolster NATO defense against sabotage of underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, the Swedish government said on Sunday.
The Swedish Coast Guard said it would contribute four ships to help monitor the Baltic, plus another seven vessels on standby, AP News reported.
Russia has not denied or confirmed reports that thousands of North Korean soldiers have been sent to its border Kursk region to help Moscow fight off a Ukrainian incursion.
The Kremlin declined to comment Monday on Kyiv saying it had captured North Korean soldiers fighting with Moscow’s army in Russia’s Kursk region, after President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested he was ready to exchange them for Ukrainian POWs.
Russia has not denied or confirmed reports that thousands of North Korean soldiers have been sent to its border Kursk region to help Moscow fight off a Ukrainian incursion.
One of the drawbacks of working with an unfamiliar ally was amply illustrated after Russian milbloggers crowed about the destruction of a Ukrainian system only to find it had come from Pyongyang.
The pro-Kremlin milblogger “Повернутые на Войне” (Obsessed with War) posted on Telegram on Friday that he said included a grainy video of what it claimed was a successful Russian drone strike on a “Western-made radar station” being operated by Ukraine’s armed forces (AFU) in the Kursk region.
Very quickly, online analysis of the incident concluded that the destroyed radar was actually part of the, thus far, unnamed North Korean surface-to-air missile (SAM) system based on Russia’s Tor short-range SAM (NATO: SA-15 Gauntlet), according to the report.
Ukrainian high-precision strikes on Russian command posts are disrupting its logistics and planning processes hampering Moscow’s offensive amid escalating battles around Pokrovsk.
Ukrainian forces continue to deliver precision strikes on Russian command posts in the Donetsk region, disrupting logistics and operational planning. Analysts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) suggest that these targeted attacks are adversely impacting Russian efforts to coordinate and advance westward in the region.
On Sunday, Jan. 12, Ukrainian forces struck the command post of Russia’s 2nd Combined Arms Army in Novohradivka. Similar strikes earlier in the week targeted Russian positions in the occupied cities of Khartsyzsk and Svitlodarsk.
The army general was reportedly sacked and four soldiers charged after they failed to unload nearly 250 landmines being sent to an ammunition depot near the village of Mosty in July.
A spokesperson for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Poznan, Poland said four Polish army officers face charges of neglect of duty after the army lost track of 240 TM-62M anti-tank landmines in July. They were found in a railway wagon near a warehouse belonging to Swedish furniture retailer IKEA in Orla, close to the border with Belarus, more than a week later.
It was alleged that the errors occurred because untrained soldiers were used to unload the consignment and were pressured to complete the task quickly to avoid additional charges for the rented railway wagons. Other reports say that two of those who were considered to be directly responsible, Col. Piotr Korneluk and Col. Robert Skrzątek, had already applied to leave the army. The other two suspected of involvement have not yet been named.
The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.
A day after making some progress containing fires, firefighters across Los Angeles County were bracing for another round of powerful winds that could threaten new communities and hamper efforts to contain the firestorm. “There will be the potential — especially late Monday night through Wednesday — for explosive fire growth as those winds pick back up,” said Ariel Cohen, the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service office in Oxnard. “In the case of an evacuation order being issued, you have to follow that immediately. Seconds could save your life.” Gusts of 50 to 65 mph are expected Monday, with the strongest winds arriving before dawn on Tuesday and peaking through Wednesday. Areas north of the line from Point Dume to Glendale will be particularly at risk, Cohen said. The brewing wind conditions are generally expected to push existing fires at a south and westward angle - Los Angeles Times
A new investigative task force is being created in response to the wildfires, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell announced Saturday. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will be taking over as the lead investigator on the task force, he said. The ATF will be working to determine the origin and cause of the Palisades Fire, the agency’s Los Angeles office said in a tweet. “Certified fire investigators have been on scene and will continue to work in conjunction with state and local investigators to determine the cause of this tragic event,” the agency said. The same national response team that investigated the Maui wildfire is expected to join the investigation of the Palisades Fire, two people briefed on the matter told CNN. Their assistance was requested by Los Angeles fire officials. The team can determine whether power line failures, arson, or other causes were involved in starting the blaze - CNN
Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.
Over the weekend, Zelensky said Kyiv had captured two North Korean soldiers, releasing video of the injured combatants being interrogated and raising the possibility of a prisoner swap.
Around 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed and 2,700 wounded while fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine, a South Korean lawmaker said Monday, citing information from Seoul’s spy agency.
Seoul has previously claimed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent more than 10,000 soldiers as “cannon fodder” to help Moscow fight Kyiv, in return for Russian technical assistance for Pyongyang’s heavily sanctioned weapons and satellite programmes.
As the war in Ukraine continues many musicians outside their country are trying to leverage their position in Western countries to build solidarity with non-Ukrainians.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Nadia Shpachenko had to endure two tragedies.
“The war started on my birthday, so I was crying all night,” said Shpachenko. This was the first tragedy – the start of a brutal war and a violent bombing of her home city, where her father remained during the initial attack.
A photo posted on the Shield AI company website on Dec. 31 as well as open-source social media, confirms rumors that its V-BAT drone has been undergoing tests in real combat conditions in Ukraine.
As early as June last year, there were rumors that the US manufacturer Shield AI had deployed its latest high-tech product, the V-BAT MQ-35A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), to Ukraine for real-life testing under combat conditions.
In October, the US military issues website Defense One cited Shield AI CEO Brandon Tseng as saying that, during one test mission, the V-BAT had actually located a Russian BUK-M1 9K37 (NATO: SA-11 Gadfly) surface to air missile system and called in a HIMARS strike which destroyed it.
The reduced quota being sent to the EU has shifted Ukrainian producers’ export geography to the Middle East, North Africa and North Macedonia.
Ukraine’s sugar exports to the EU decreased from 97% in 2023 to just 40%, with the remaining 60% of exports refocused to the Middle East, North Africa, and North Macedonia, Forbes Ukraine estimated.
This did not happen to the shortage of supply inside the country either.
Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.
Key Takeaways from the ISW:
Ukraine proposes a prisoner exchange with Pyongyang after capturing North Korean soldiers; Zelensky offers aid to wildfire-hit Los Angeles; Russia intensifies its offensive in the east.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that two North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia were captured alive by Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region for the first time.
Kyiv first revealed the capture on Saturday, but concrete details were confirmed by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) a day later. The soldiers, aged 20 and 26, were reportedly wounded in battle and are now being held in Kyiv for further interrogation.