January 12, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

A British visa plan to attract investment was used by 10 Russian oligarchs placed under sanctions to get residency, according to a review from the UK Home Office on Thursday.?

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said a small minority who had used the visa route “were potentially at high risk of having obtained wealth through corruption or other illicit financial activity, and /or being engaged in serious and organized crime.”

Braverman said the 10 Russian oligarchs who used the visa scheme?were sanctioned after the invasion of Ukraine.

The secretary made the disclosure in a statement Thursday at the end of a long-awaited review into the so-called “golden visa” scheme for high-net-worth individuals.

Braverman said that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, the UK has placed sanctions on 1,200 individuals and 120 entities linked to the Russian state and frozen $22 billion in Russian assets.

Some background: The Tier 1 Investor visa route,?often referred to as “the golden visa,”?was introduced in 2008 to encourage wealthy people outside the European Union to invest in the UK.?It was shut down last year.

A?review of the visa scheme was commissioned in 2018 by the then-Home Secretary Amber Rudd following the Salisbury poisonings.?The nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skirpal and his daughter resulted in the death of a woman.

In response to the review, Braverman said that “the Government is clear that any future visa route to facilitate investment-based migration must not offer entry solely on the basis of the applicant’s personal wealth.”

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during the tripartite meeting on January 11, in Lviv, Ukraine.?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his daily address thanked the Ukrainian soldiers defending the eastern town of Soledar from a Russian assault.

The Ukrainian military unit stationed in Soledar said Thursday that the situation in the contested eastern town is “critical.”

“The situation is critical. News coming soon,” the 46th Airmobile Brigade?said on Telegram.

Fighting is?still raging in Soledar, a salt mine town in eastern Ukraine, despite Russian claims that it has gained control of the region.

The significance of Soledar in military terms is minimal. However, its capture would allow Russian forces, and especially?the Wagner mercenary group, to turn their focus on nearby Bakhmut, which has been a target since the summer.

CNN’s Rob Picheta,?Tim Lister?and?Olga Voitovych contributed to this post.

Russia’s appointment of a new head of the invasion operation of Ukraine likely reflects “systemic challenges” for Russia, according to a US Defense Department spokesperson

The announcement of General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, as overall commander of the campaign shows “some of the systemic challenges that the Russian military has faced since the beginning of this invasion,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a press briefing.

Ryder said the department will “continue to monitor” such Russian personnel shifts.

“I think that the world would rather see Russia focus on withdrawing from Ukraine and saving innocent lives versus spending time on numerous management reshuffles, and Russian soldiers and their families would probably like to see that too,” Ryder said.

Wagner, the Russian private military company,?posted a video?on Telegram Thursday directly disparaging the Russian Defense Ministry’s claim that regular Russian military forces have participated in the assault on Soledar.?

A day after Russia’s Defense Ministry reshuffled the command of its so-called “special military operation,” Wagner’s post doubles down on the assertion by boss Yevgeny Prigozhin that his forces alone are responsible for the Soledar operation.

The video shows two men, faces obscured, wearing fatigues and standing in what looks to be an underground bunker, illuminated by flashlight.

Some context: CNN is unable to verify the men’s identity or the veracity of their statement, but the fact that Wagner posted it at all is significant. Which Russian forces are responsible for the assault in eastern Ukraine has become a key point of contention in the machinations of Russia’s power structure.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that regular Russian forces were operating in and around Soledar, without mentioning Wagner.

Prigozhin, in a statement published on a Wagner Telegram channel Monday, called any claim that non-Wagner forces participated in the Soledar assault “fake information.”

In a visit to his forces near Bakhmut over New Year’s Eve, Prigozhin directly castigated Kremlin bureaucrats.

“Once we conquer our internal bureaucracy and corruption, then we will conquer the Ukrainians and NATO, and then the whole world,” Prigozhin told his fighters in a video posted to Telegram.

Some pro-Kremlin Russian military bloggers have speculated that the Russian Defense Ministry’s announcement of Valery Gerasimov as its new commander was motivated in part by Wagner’s success.

On the ground in Soledar: The Ukrainian military insisted Thursday that the town is still contested, and that its forces were even?“conducting counterattacks” in the settlement.

A video?posted to Telegram Thursday?evening shows forces from Wagner in the town.

The video has been geolocated by CNN to the northern edge of the town, towards Russian-controlled territory.

“The situation in Soledar is still not easy,” a Wagner fighter says in the video. “The enemy does not reveal themselves because of the artillery fire, but it’s obvious that we’ve decimated them.”

CNN’s Josh Pennington?contributed reporting to this post.

A Ukrainian soldier in the contested eastern town of Soledar described a dire situation to CNN on Thursday evening, saying “we are just abandoned.”

CNN is not identifying the soldier for security reasons.

He said that the soldiers had run out of food, were running low on water, and that they had wounded soldiers. He said that they still had some ammunition.

“The last evacuation was three days ago,” he said. “The order was to hold out to the very end.?Judging by the sounds of the battle, our neighbors [other units] either withdrew or were ordered to withdraw. We were told to hold out.”

“We hold on as long as we can. But anyone can get tired and hit the limit eventually. It is impossible to hold on just on a high morale for so long.”

Wagner, the Russian private military company,?has claimed to have captured all of Soledar.?A video?posted to Telegram Thursday and geolocated by CNN shows Wagner forces on the northern edge of the town.

Ukraine’s 46th Airmobile Brigade claimed Thursday that it was “conducting counterattacks” in the town.

“After several days of pulling back, we’ve even made a small advance,” the unit said on Telegram. “The railway station is ours. The mine is ours. We are waiting for support. Soledar is Ukraine.”

A Ukrainian official said Thursday that Russia is stepping up its “illegal integration” of occupied territory into Russia.

Maliar also claimed that Russian forces were forcibly evicting locals from homes in order to house military forces.

Spain will receive 225 Ukrainian troops late on Thursday at an air force base near?Madrid, including 20 who will get training on HAWK air defense systems to counter air attacks, Spain’s?Defense Ministry said in a statement.?Spain is sending six of the HAWK air defense?units to Ukraine.?

Most of the remaining troops, who are Ukrainian civilians without prior military experience, will get basic training,?the defense ministry said. That will?include training on treating people wounded in combat and on procedures against IEDs.

The training in Toledo, an hour south of?Madrid, is a program designed to handle 400 Ukrainian troops rotating through every two months and is part of the European Union’s military assistance mission for Ukraine, the ministry said.

It is the second group of Ukrainian troops to come to Spain for training after 64 troops came in November and December, the statement added.

Spain’s Defense Minister will receive the 225 Ukrainian troops at Torrejón Air Base, according to the ministry.?

Other allies’ actions:?Polish President Andrzej Duda announced a plan to send Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Lviv on Wednesday.?

And Ukrainian troops are set to begin training on the?Patriot missile system?in the United States as soon as next week, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian military said Thursday that it was conducting counterattacks in Soledar, the eastern town that has been the subject of intense Russian bombardment.

Russia is trying to surround nearby Bakhmut using both Wagner private contractors and regular military personnel, Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, said on Telegram.

“Our soldiers bravely hold their positions and inflict numerous losses on the enemy,” she said.

Why Soledar is important to Russia: The town of Soledar, located in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, has been a target for Russian forces since last May.

With a pre-war population of about 10,000, it has little strategic value in itself, but is a waypoint in the Russians’ attritional slog westward. Moscow has struggled for months to attack Bakhmut from the east. Were it to capture Soledar, Russian forces would at least be able to approach the city from a different path.

As Ukrainian officials say “fierce battles” continue to rage in Soledar, a key town in eastern Ukraine, satellite images show just how much destruction has been inflicted on the area since summer.

Russian forces are “suffering heavy losses” in their attempt to take?Soledar, according to Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Mailar.?On Tuesday, the Wagner mercenary group claimed it had taken complete control of the town, but Ukraine refutes that claim. Russian forces have fought hard to take Soledar, but more battles remain, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.

Over 500 civilians remain?in Soledar, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration.

Here’s a look at before-and-after satellite images of the town:

A satellite view shows a school and buildings, in south?Soledar, Ukraine, on August 1, 2022.

A satellite view shows a destroyed school and buildings in south?Soledar, Ukraine, on January 10, 2023.

A satellite view shows apartment buildings and homes, in?Soledar, Ukraine, on August 1, 2022.

A satellite view shows destroyed apartment buildings and homes, in?Soledar, Ukraine, on January 10, 2023.

Why Russia wants to capture Soledar: The Russian armed forces have had nothing to celebrate since the beginning of July, and they’ve had to retreat in both Kharkiv to the north and Kherson in southern Ukraine.

The capture of Soledar, despite its now-ruined state, would therefore be rare progress. But it would be symbolic rather than substantive. The Institute for the Study of War says control of Soledar “will not necessarily allow Russian forces to exert control over critical Ukrainian ground lines of communication into Bakhmut,” the larger prize.

A top pro-Kremlin military blogger suggested Thursday that the appointment of a new commander for Russia’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine was a canny move designed to “stop blurring responsibility” for the war effort, and prevent the Russian General Staff from blaming “the generals in the field.”

Semyon?Pegov, who blogs under the alias WarGonzo,?was personally awarded by President Vladimir Putin with?the “Order of Courage” on Dec. 20.

The appointment of Valery Gerasimov as commander of the war effort means that Russia’s General Staff will no longer be able to say “it was the generals in the field who failed,” Pegov opined on his Telegram channel. “It is an obvious step to stop blurring responsibility for certain episodes related to the Special Military Operation.”

The fact that Gerasimov is chief of the General Staff of the Army means that “the General Staff is now one of those ‘generals in the field,’” Pegov said.

Pegov also said that he did not believe that Sergei Surovikin’s move from commander to deputy commander represented a demotion, but rather a move to better insulate him from politics.

“Strictly speaking he was subordinated to Gerasimov anyway and had to agree his every move with the General Staff. Now ‘General Armageddon’ [Surovikin] is still in the center of decision-making, but in a much less vulnerable staff position. His authority in the troops is still at a high level, and the commanders and soldiers in the trenches still believe in him and trust him, and are ready to follow him further,” he said.

More on Russia’s former commander in Ukraine: Surovikin, who had been appointed to the role on Oct. 8, 2022, and was in charge of Russian forces during their retreat from large swaths of Ukraine’s Kherson region.

Taylor Dudley, 35, of Lansing, Michigan, has been released.

An American Navy veteran who has been detained in Russia for nearly a year was released from Russian custody on Thursday, his family’s spokesperson told CNN, after months of negotiations spearheaded by former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.?

Taylor Dudley, 35, of Lansing, Michigan, was detained by Russian border patrol police in April 2022 after crossing from Poland into Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania. He was in Poland attending a music festival, and it is not clear why he crossed the border.??

Dudley’s detention — which the US government had not deemed as “wrongful,” or based on arbitrary and discriminatory motivations — had not been widely publicized before Thursday because his family wanted the negotiations for his release to remain private.?

The Richardson Center for Global Engagement, a nonprofit founded by Richardson, spearheaded the negotiations, family spokesperson Jonathan Franks told CNN. The former governor and diplomat has long worked to free Americans detained abroad, and his center played a role in securing the release of Trevor Reed, a US citizen and former Marine who had been wrongfully detained in Russia, last summer.?

The Steve Menzies Global Foundation and the US Embassy also helped to secure Dudley’s release, the spokesperson said.?

“The past 9 months have been difficult ones for the family and they ask the media to respect their privacy and give them the space to welcome Taylor home,” he added.

In a separate statement to CNN, Richardson said Dudley had been released at the?Russia-Poland Bagrationovsk-Bezledy border crossing on Thursday, after nearly a year of negotiations. He also acknowledged the involvement of the State Department and the US Embassies in Moscow and Warsaw in helping to secure Dudley’s release.?

“After six months of intensive work, it’s great to see this release of Taylor Dudley happen,” Richardson told CNN by phone on Thursday. “We worked it hard in Moscow and Kaliningrad and first raised it during our meetings with Russian officials on Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed.”?

Several US citizens remain detained in Russia, including former US Marine Paul Whelan, who is designated as wrongfully detained. He was arrested in Russia in December 2018 and sentenced to 16 years in prison. In 2022, the US proposed trading Whelan and American basketball star Brittney Griner in a prisoner swap for arms dealer Viktor Bout, but Russia only agreed to release Griner.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.

Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, gives a statement at the Green parliamentary group's executive board retreat in Berlin, Germany, on January 12.

A day after Poland’s president expressed his intention to send German-manufactured battle tanks to Ukraine, Germany’s vice chancellor has suggested that his country will not block the weapons transfer.

It would be the first time a Western-made tank has been sent to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion. Because the Leopard tank is German-manufactured, its re-export would typically need the approval of the German government.

Steffen Hebestreit, spokesperson for the German federal government, said Wednesday that he was “not aware of any specific inquiries” from foreign governments about re-exporting Leopard tanks.

Polish President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday cautioned during a news conference in Lviv, Ukraine, that “a whole range of formal requirements, approvals and so on must also be met.”

The German government has also come under pressure from Ukrainian officials to itself export battle tanks to Ukraine. German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht on Thursday did not rule out that possibility.

Nonetheless, she said that they would “not rule anything out” and that Germany would make decisions “together with its allies.”

Other allies’ actions: The British government is working with partners to discuss how to go “further and faster” in supporting Ukraine, including the provision of tanks, according to the prime minister’s spokesperson on Wednesday.

And Ukrainian troops are set to begin training on the?Patriot missile system?in the United States as soon as next week, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday.

Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces?Valery?Gerasimov?attends the international military-technical forum Army-2022 at Patriot Congress and Exhibition Centre in the Moscow region, Russia, on August 15.

A top Ukrainian military official said Thursday that Russia’s appointment of a new military commander shows that its war in Ukraine is not going to plan.

“Since the first days of the war, we have been observing the periodic changes in the leadership of the armed forces of the occupying country,” Oleksii Hromov, deputy chief of the General Staff’s main operational directorate, said during a press briefing. “If everything was in order, the personnel changes would not take place with such frequency.”

More on the appointment: ?Russia’s Defense Ministry?announced Wednesday that Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, would become the overall commander of the campaign, with the current commander,?Sergey Surovikin, becoming one of his three deputies.Surovikin was only appointed as the overall commander of what the Kremlin euphemistically calls the “Special Military Operation” in October.

CNN’s Tim Lister contributed reporting to this post.

Oleksii Hromov, Deputy Head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine addresses during a media briefing in Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 12.

Oleksii Hromov, the deputy chief of Ukraine’s General Staff’s main operational directorate, declined to discuss percentages when referring to Ukrainian control of the eastern town of Soledar.

Hromov said “regarding Soledar. There are fierce battles. It is inappropriate to estimate in percentage terms what part of the city we control, what part of the city the enemy is trying to control. Battles are going on, fierce battles.”

During recent days, there has been conflicting language about who controls the Donetsk town as battles over the area continue to unfold.

The comments from Hromov may hint at the difficult situation facing Ukrainian forces in the city, especially as Wagner forces say they control the center of the city and the Russian Armed Forces have blockaded the southern and northern routes of the town.?

On Wednesday, a soldier fighting in Soledar told CNN?“during these days everything will be determined for the city. Because we are being trapped, they want to encircle us,” suggesting a shrinking of territory in Ukrainian control.

The importance of Soledar: The Russian armed forces have had nothing to celebrate since the beginning of July, and have had to retreat in both Kharkiv to the north and Kherson in southern Ukraine.

The capture of Soledar, despite its now-ruined state, would therefore be rare progress. But it would be symbolic rather than substantive. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says control of Soledar “will not necessarily allow Russian forces to exert control over critical Ukrainian ground lines of communication into Bakhmut,” the larger prize.

CNN’s?Rob Picheta and Tim Lister?contributed reporting to this post.

The Kremlin said Thursday it “does not have information” on the two UK nationals reportedly missing in Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

“We know from media reports that we are talking about British citizens who were militants, took part in the hostilities with weapons in their hands. It appears that documents were found on the battlefield,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry?Peskov said in a routine conference call with reporters.

The families of both men, Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Parry, say the two had gone to Ukraine to work as humanitarian volunteers. CNN has seen no evidence they participated in hostilities in Ukraine.?

Peskov also said he is not aware if the British side sought help from Moscow but added “If there is a request for assistance [in finding the bodies and getting them to the UK], of course, it will be considered.”?

On Thursday a Downing St spokesperson said “the reports we have had today are deeply concerning. They have been reported by the Wagner Group as the source of that, so I would urge caution in reporting that until any such claims are verified.”

Key developments in the case: On Wednesday, Russian oligarch?Yevgeny Prigozhin posted a claim on his Telegram feed?that his private military company Wagner?found a body of one of the two missing?Britons.?In the post,?Prigozhin’s press service said that they received a call to their hotline on Jan. 8?asking for help?finding?the two men.?

“Today?[Wednesday],?one of those was found, along with documents for both,” the post claimed.

A subsequent post on the same Telegram channel published photos?appearing to show?two passports with the names of the missing Britons.

On Jan. 9, Ukrainian police reported that they were searching for?Bagshaw and Parry. Ukrainian police noted that the two Britons “left Kramatorsk for Soledar” — the scene of intense recent fighting — “and contact with them was lost.”

The Russian Defense Ministry commission, headed by the Commander-in-Chief of Russia’s ground forces Oleg Salyukov, has arrived in Belarus to inspect the Russian units of the joint forces, the Belarus Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday.?

“The military units and subunits of the Russian component of the regional grouping of forces located at the training grounds of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus were inspected,” the statement reads.

Salyukov is one of the three deputies of?Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who has been?appointed as the overall commander of what the Kremlin euphemistically calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.?

The Belarus Defense Ministry declared Wednesday that the joint air defense forces of?Belarus?and Russia have been reinforced, according to the ministry’s press service.

More on Russia-Belarus relations: Some Russian forces are based in?Belarus?and used its territory in the initial invasion of Ukraine in February. But President Alexander Lukashenko has gone to some lengths to ensure that?Belarus?troops do not become involved in Russia’s “special military operation.”?

In December, Ukraine warned it does “not rule out” a “deliberate provocation” from Russia after?Belarus?said that the wreckage of a Ukrainian missile landed on its territory.?

CNN’s Eve Brennan contributed reporting to this post.

Ukraine has contested the Wagner mercenary group’s claim that it has taken control of the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, saying that Russian forces are “suffering heavy losses” in continued fighting there.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian defense official has said that he expects a delivery of Leopard battle tanks from Poland to arrive “very, very fast,” in what would be the first delivery of a Western-made tanks to Ukraine since Russia invaded almost 11 months ago.

Here are the latest headlines:

Russian forces have fought hard to take the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, but more battles remain, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.

“Enormous effort has been done in Soledar. These are absolutely selfless heroic actions. Not only in Soledar, but in many areas where offensive operations are being carried out,” said Peskov. “The main work is still ahead,” he added.

CNN asked Peskov whether the Kremlin is satisfied with the efforts of the Wagner mercenary group to take Soledar – as it has previously claimed – but the Kremlin spokesman didn’t cite the private military company by name in his response.

Conflicting reports are circulating about the status of Soledar.

On Tuesday, Wagner claimed it is in complete control of the town, and a day later the Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces had “blocked?Soledar?from the northern and southern parts” of the settlement.

However, on Thursday, Ukraine said that fighting continues and Russian forces are “suffering heavy losses” in their attempts to take Soledar.

A Ukrainian military doctor has removed part of an undetonated grenade from the body of an injured soldier, according to a Facebook post from the Ukrainian Military Medics.

An X-ray image that accompanied the post showed the fragment lodged in the soldier’s torso, while another photo shows a doctor holding the grenade.

The grenade was removed “in the presence of two sappers who were ensuring the safety of medical staff,” reads the post.

The surgery was a success and the soldier was “sent for further rehabilitation,” reads the post.

The grenade was a “VOG grenade” and is usually fired from a grenade launcher.

Polish military drive a Leopard tank during a live fire demonstration at the Nowa Deba training ground in September 2022.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, has spoken bullishly about the delivery of tanks from Poland.

“I am more than sure the tanks that will be provided to us, it will be very, very fast,” said Danilov on Ukrainian television.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces will “master” the use of the tanks “in a matter of weeks,” added Danilov.

Polish President Andrzej Duda announced the plan to send Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Lviv on Wednesday.?

It would be the first time a Western-made tank has been sent to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion.

Duda cautioned during a press conference that “a whole range of formal requirements, approvals and so on must also be met.”

The Leopard tank is manufactured in Germany and a shipment would typically require permission to re-export a German-manufactured weapon.

CNN contacted the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action for comment, but spokesman Robert S?verin referred CNN to the Polish government.

Russian forces are “suffering heavy losses” in their attempt to take the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Mailar.

“The approaches to the city today are actually strewn with the bodies of killed Putin’s troops,” she said.

The area around Soledar has seen intense fighting in recent days.

Yevgeny?Prigozhin, the head of Russian private military company Wagner, claimed Tuesday that his forces had taken control of the “entire territory of?Soledar.”

But Mailar denied that was the case Wednesday afternoon.

Smoke billows during fighting in Soledar, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on January 11.

More than 500 civilians remain in Soledar as Russian and Ukrainian forces continue to struggle for control of the city, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration.?

Speaking on Ukrainian television on Thursday morning, Kyrylenko said that “as of now, there are 523 people there.”

Most of the people left are over 50 years’ old, he added, with “no information” that children are among their number.?

Evacuations will resume “when I know it is possible to get there by special transport and leave from there,” he said.

Russia claims to have made advances on Soledar in recent days, amid some of the fiercest fighting of the war.?

Ukrainian officials have claimed that a strike on a Russian position near the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine has killed 100 enemy soldiers.

In a statement published Thursday, the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said it had detected a “concentration of the enemy,” and employed artillery and a Soviet-designed missile system to carry out the attack.

“As a result of these several strikes, the destruction of more than 100 occupiers, two machine gun crews and two mortar crews was confirmed,” Ukraine’s military stated, praising the work of its “Special Forces warriors, artillerymen and rocketeers.”

CNN cannot independently verify the claim, and Kyiv did not provide any evidence of such an attack.

In recent weeks Ukraine has claimed a number of attacks which it says have killed large numbers of Russian soldiers.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of?Ukraine?said around 500 Russian troops were either killed or wounded in a hit near Chulakivka, a town in?Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, on New Year’s Eve.?

CNN cannot independently verify that Ukrainian?claim and Moscow has not publicly commented on it.

However both Ukraine and Russia acknowledged a strike that took place just after midnight on New Year’s Day on a vocational school housing Russian conscripts in Makiivka, eastern Ukraine.

The Russian Ministry of Defense reported 89 Russian servicemen were killed in the strike, whereas the Ukrainian military reported higher figures, initially claiming up to around 400 Russian soldiers were killed.

CNN cannot independently verify either side’s reported death toll, but that strike appears to be one of the deadliest episodes of the conflict for Moscow’s forces.

A man pushes a bike through debris and destroyed Russian military vehicles in Bucha in April 2022.

Russian war crimes and?human rights abuses?during the war in?Ukraine?add up to a “litany of violations of international humanitarian law,” according to Human Rights Watch.

In the rights group’s annual report reviewing human rights standards in nearly 100 countries, it said that evidence of war crimes in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, are part of a pattern that “has been repeated countless times.”

HRW’s World Report 2023 also highlights the bombing of a theater in Mariupol, despite signs warning that children were sheltering there, as well as strikes on other non-military targets.

Read more here.

As the fight for control of the eastern Ukrainian towns of Soledar and Bakhmut continues, new satellite images from Maxar Technologies show the extent of the destruction in the area.

Satellite image shows destroyed apartment buildings and homes in Soledar on January 3, 2022.

Destroyed buildings in Soledar on January 3, 2022.

A destroyed school in Soledar on January 3, 2022.

Some background:?Soledar, a salt mine town in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, has been the site of intense fighting in recent days and a target for Russian forces since last May. The head of Russia’s private military company claimed Tuesday that his forces had taken control?of the “entire territory of Soledar,” but Kyiv officials deny the claim, insisting that the fight persists.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that Russia sees its attempted capture of Soledar as a propaganda tool with which to maintain domestic support for its war.

Should Russian troops indeed capture the town, it would mark Moscow’s first gain in the Donbas for months —? potentially offering President Vladimir Putin some welcome news after a string of defeats on the battlefield since last summer.

Russia’s Defense Ministry?announced yet another realignment of the commanders leading the?war in Ukraine?on Wednesday, as criticism mounts over its handling of the?stalled campaign.

It said that Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, would become the overall commander of the campaign, with the current commander,?Sergey Surovikin, becoming one of his three deputies.

Surovikin was only appointed as the overall commander of the what the Kremlin euphemistically calls the “Special Military Operation” in October.

In terms of the bureaucratic hierarchy, the announcement is hardly an upheaval. Surovikin already reported to Gerasimov.

But the decision puts Gerasimov, who has been chief of the General Staff for more than a decade, closer to direct supervision of the campaign —?and to responsibility for it. While Gerasimov was a key figure in planning the invasion, he appears to have been at arms’ length since, with just one reported visit to the command of the campaign inside Ukraine, though the Defense Ministry did not confirm that either.

Mark Galeotti, senior associate fellow with the Royal United Services Institute, said “it is a kind of demotion [for Gerasimov] or at least the most poisoned of chalices. It’s now on him, and I suspect Putin has unrealistic expectations again.”

Read the full analysis here.

The British government is working with partners to discuss how to go “further and faster” in supporting Ukraine, including the provision of tanks, according to the prime minister’s spokesperson on Wednesday.?

When asked by lobby journalists if the United Kingdom would supply tanks to Ukraine, the prime minister’s spokesperson said, “We are accelerating our support to Ukraine with the kind of next-generation military technology that will help them win this war.”?

But, while it is “constantly looking at what equipment we can provide,” that does not mean that any decisions have been made about providing?Challenger 2 tanks right now, the spokesperson said.

A Ukrainian soldier in the contested?eastern town of Soledar?told CNN Wednesday evening that he and his comrades remained in the settlement, but the situation was “very difficult” and the next 24 hours or so would be critical.

“It is tough here, but we are more alive than anyone else,” the soldier, whom CNN is not identifying for security reasons, said via text message.

The head of Wagner, the Russian private military company, claimed Tuesday that his forces had taken control of the “entire territory of Soledar.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov tempered that sentiment on Wednesday, saying only there was a “positive trend.” The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that its forces had “blocked Soledar from the northern and southern parts” of the settlement.

He said that the next 24 hours would be “very difficult.”

“During these days everything will be determined for the city. Because we are being trapped, they want to encircle us,” he said.

The soldier said that if the nearby Ukrainian units held their ground, his unit would be able to safely retreat. He said the Russians were jamming Ukrainian communications, making coordination extremely difficult.

“It is not clear who our neighbors are, but someone is there and fighting. We have no connection with them,” the solider said.

Smoke raises after shelling in Soledar, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on January 11.

Fighting is?still raging in Soledar, a salt mine town in eastern Ukraine, despite Russian claims that it has gained control of the region.

Should Russian troops indeed capture the town, it would mark Moscow’s first gain in the Donbas for months —?potentially offering President Vladimir Putin some welcome news after a string of defeats on the battlefield since last summer.

The significance of Soledar in military terms is minimal. However, its capture would allow Russian forces, and especially?the Wagner mercenary group, to turn their focus on nearby Bakhmut, which has been a target since the summer.

Taking Soledar would also represent a symbolic PR win for the man who runs Wagner — oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has frequently criticized the Russian Defense Ministry’s management of the “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine.

Read more about Soledar here.

Russia’s defense minister has appointed Gen. Valery Gerasimov as commander of the Joint Group of Forces leading the country’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Gerasimov replaces Gen. Sergei Surovikin, who had been appointed to the role on Oct. 8, 2022, and was in charge of Russian forces during their retreat from large swaths of Ukraine’s Kherson region. Surovikin will now serve as a deputy commander, according to a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry.

“On 11?January?2023, Russian Defence Minister General of the Army Sergei Shoigu assigns new leadership of special military operation,” the ministry?said Wednesday on its official Telegram channel.?

“Chief of General Staff General of the Army Valery Gerasimov has been assigned the commander of the Joint Group of Forces,” it said.

“The deputy commanders are: the Commander-in-Chief of Aerospace Forces General of the Army Sergei Surovikin, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army General of the Army Oleg Salyukov, as well as the Deputy Chief of General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Colonel General Aleksey Kim,” it added.