(Reuters) – Ukraine is strengthening its forces in the eastern Donbas region and repelling constant attacks on Bakhmut and other towns there by Russian mercenary group Wagner, Ukrainian authorities said on Monday.
FIGHTING:
Ukrainian forces are repelling constant attacks on the town of Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region and holding their positions in nearby Soledar in very difficult conditions, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday.
* A Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk missed its targets and there were no obvious signs of casualties, a Reuters reporter said on Sunday. Moscow had claimed the strike killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers in retaliation for a Ukrainian strike that killed scores of Russians on New Year’s Eve.
* A 60-year-old woman was killed and several other people were wounded in a Russian missile strikeon a market in the village of Shevchenkove in eastern Ukraine on Monday, the regional governor said.
DIPLOMACY
* Russia and Ukraine each returned 50 captured soldiers in the latest prisoner swap in the war. Ukraine said the returnees included fighters from Mariupol and Chernobyl. Freed Ukrainian’s sang the national anthem on their release.
* Russia and Belarus will hold joint aviation drills of the air divisions that are part of the two countries’ regional grouping of troops. The drills will last from Jan. 16 to Feb. 1.
* Justice ministers from around the world will gather in London in March to boost international support for the International Criminal Court in its investigations of alleged war crimes in Ukraine, the British government said.
(Compiled by Peter Graff)
