Ukraine Day 1067: LIVE UPDATES BELOW.
Yesterday’s live coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here.
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An Invasion By Any Other Name: The Kremlin’s Dirty War in Ukraine
Two Ukrainian soldiers were wounded yesterday, which Kiev says saw 37 attacks by Russia-backed forces.
According to this morning’s report from the Ukrainian military, Russia-backed fighters used 120-mm mortars to shell positions near Novoaleksandrovka and Troitskoye, in the Lugansk region, firing more than 40 rounds. Positions outside nearby Novozvanovka were attacked with 82-mm mortars, grenade launchers and anti-tank missiles, the report says.
In the Donetsk region, the military claims that mortars were used in attacks on Talakovka, outside Mariupol, while grenade launchers and small arms were used across the south and also near Zaytsevo, north of Gorlovka, and Avdeyevka, north of Donetsk.
The military has not specified so far where the casualties were incurred.
Meanwhile, the separatist-backed head of the Gorlovka municipal administration, Ivan Prikhodko, claimed this morning that Ukrainian forces had shelled the separatist-held, southern edge of Zaytsevo, damaging three homes.
Interpol has rejected a request from the Russian authorities to place Viktor Muzhenko, chief of Ukraine’s General Staff, on their wanted list.
Leviy Bereg reports that Vasiliy Nevolya, chief of Interpol’s Ukraine bureau, told the newspaper that the request ran “contrary to the charter and regulations of Interpol.”
Last year, the Russian Investigative Committee (SKR) opened two criminal cases against Muzhenko, alleging he had used “prohibited means and methods of warfare” and conducted “genocide against Russian-speaking people.”
Nevolya said that the decision to reject the SKR request demonstrated that Interpol remained unbiased in matters concerning Ukraine following the election of the organization’s new vice-president for Europe, Russian Aleksandr Prokopchuk.
Nevolya also said that Interpol is prepared to restore the arrest warrant for Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovych, which was withdrawn in July, 2015.
Ukrainska Pravda reports that Nevolya said that:
“I think that there will be a decision by the end of this month. The session of the commission [on Interpol files] will be held from January 26-29. According to insider information, this issue will be reviewed there.”
Nevolya said that the Interpol commission had been studying the charges against Yanukovych for so long because the fugitive ex-President’s lawyers had been so active in attempting to get the warrant dismissed.
— Pierre vaux