Close friend of Putin lashes out at wealthy 'easygoing' Russians at war
A powerful Russian, owner of Wagner's private army Yevgeny Prigozhin, has lashed out at wealthy compatriots for their lack of commitment to Russia's war against Ukraine. In a television interview, President Vladimir Putin's closest confidant portrayed the so-called oligarchs (influential business people) and other wealthy as easy-going faint-hearted.

"They all want to dive into a heated pool in the evening and have fun," Prigozhin complained in an interview with Russian state television RT. The government should take everything away from these Russians as soon as possible. Then they would also be willing to contribute to the battle and to support the troops at the front, the Wagner boss reasoned. "At some point you have to realize that you have to give up everything you have, from the world of temptations, the restaurants, spas, dachas, swimming pools."

Prigozhin's interview is remarkable. For a long time, the Putin accomplice did not even appear in front of cameras. On Saturday he was already at a funeral of a Wagner mercenary who died in Ukraine. The American Institute for War Studies sees his presence at the funeral and the interview as attempts to gain respect and influence in Russian society.

Haha Lavrov has lost so much credibility the last months, he once was considered a moderate and intelligent diplomat.

Russia's Lavrov: Either Ukraine fulfils Moscow's proposals or our army will decide

Dec 27 (Reuters) - Moscow's proposals for settlement in Ukraine are well known to Kyiv and either Ukraine fulfils them for their own good or the Russian army will decide the issue, TASS agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying.

"Our proposals for the demilitarization and denazification of the territories controlled by the regime, the elimination of threats to Russia's security emanating from there, including our new lands, are well known to the enemy," the state news agency quoted Lavrov as saying late on Monday.

"The point is simple: Fulfil them for your own good. Otherwise, the issue will be decided by the Russian army."

Moscow has been calling its invasion in Ukraine a "special military operation" to "demilitarise" and "denazify" its neighbour. Kyiv and its Western allies call it an imperial-style aggression to grab land.

In September, Moscow proclaimed it had annexed four provinces of Ukraine - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson - after holding so-called referendums that were rejected as bogus and illegal by Kyiv and its allies.

On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was open to negotiations and blamed Kyiv and its Western backers for a lack of talks, a stance Washington has previously dismissed as posturing amid persistent Russian attacks.

Lavrov told TASS that when it comes to how long the conflict will last, "the ball is in the regime's court and Washington behind it."

There is no end in sight to the war, which has entered its 11th month and which has killed thousands, displaced millions and turned cities into rubble.

Kyiv has ruled out conceding any land to Russia in return for peace, and publicly demands Russia relinquish all territory. Moscow has insisted it is pursing "demilitarisation" and "denazification" but in reality its aims have not been fully defined.

Putin bans Russian oil exports to countries that implement price cap

https://www.reuters.com/business/en...hat-imposed-price-cap-decree-2022-12-27/

Italy pledges continued support for Ukraine - and why it matters
Italy has pledged its continued support for Kyiv and reiterated its commitment to achieving a "just peace" for Ukraine.

There has been much talk in recent months that Vladimir Putin is hoping that, in time, those supporting Ukraine militarily and financially will grow weary with the cost.

Support for Ukraine has been a contentious topic within Italy's ruling coalition, which includes Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy, Matteo Salvini's League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia parties.

Ms Meloni is a staunch supporter of Kyiv, while her allies Mr Salvini and Mr Berlusconi have been much more ambiguous due to their historical ties with Russia and President Putin.

But in a statement following a phone call between Ms Meloni and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Italian government said: "Meloni renewed the Italian government's full support for Kyiv in the political, military, economic and humanitarian fields, to repair energy infrastructure and (to work) for the future reconstruction of Ukraine."

Xi has to be careful China doesn't want to get dragged into the conflict by Putin they need Europe for business.

The Ukrainian Army and a growing number of posts on pro-Russian social media have suggested that hundreds of recently mobilized Russian troops died in a New Year's attack on a makeshift barracks in a suburb of the occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

If such a scale of casualties is confirmed, it could represent one of the deadliest single incidents for the Russian side since the all-out invasion began 10 months ago and another potential rallying point for Ukraine and its international supporters in the conflict.

RFE/RL is unable to corroborate battlefield accounts in areas of the heaviest fighting, and there was no confirmation from Russian officials of the alleged incident.

But expressions of shock and anger by Russians online about the incident and the apparent failure of the Russian military to guard an occupied vocational school where the purported recruits were gathered suggested that even normally pro-Kremlin Telegram groups were acknowledging a setback.

Some of the Russian groups suggested the shelling was the result of an attack by Ukraine with a high-precision HIMARS rocket.

#HIMARSoCLOCK visit on school 19 in #Makiivka, Donetsk region official number is " 63 " dead and + 250 wounded so the reality is 630 dead

https://twitter.com/Htx_fella_osint/status/1610012103133347843

Police: 25 torture chambers discovered in liberated areas of Kharkiv Oblast
by The Kyiv Independent news desk
January 2, 2023 6:33 pm

Investigators have discovered 25 torture chambers in the liberated areas of the northeastern Kharkiv Oblast, head of the regional police Volodymyr Tymoshko reported on Jan. 2.

Tymoshko described detention conditions of civilians as “inhumane,” reporting that Russian troops allegedly used electric shocks for torture and broken people’s fingers.

According to him, 920 bodies of civilians allegedly killed by Russian troops, including 25 children, were found since Sept. 7, and 656 bodies were identified.

In total, 1,699 civilians, including 74 children, were killed, and 2,596 were injured in Kharkiv Oblast since the start of the full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, the official said, adding that 9,617 buildings were damaged or destroyed in the oblast due to Russia’s attacks.

As of Jan. 2, the Ukrainian military liberated 340 settlements in the oblast.

After many years of major cuts in defense Netherlands and most NATO countries now heavily invest in the army. Here we have 4 army units: the Royal Army, the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Marechaussee.

NATO has become so powerful with 30 countries, although Australia is not a member, it has cooperated with NATO forces.

Zelensky is begging for more tanks, The U.S. and the Netherlands are financing upgrades to nearly 100 older tanks destined for the Ukrainian army. Germany is thinking about sending Leopards that would be big one of the best.

I'm sure Ukraine gets Leopard and Challenger tanks soon, Europe knows it has to!

The Russian army has - not for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine - the necessary changes of the guard at the top of defense this week. Sergei Soerovikin, who has been in charge of the offensive in Ukraine since October 2022, has to stand still. The current Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valeri Gerasimov will take over his duties, the Ministry of Defense reports.

In the statement, the Russian ministry says that Gerasimov has been appointed "commander of joint forces" in Ukraine to replace Soerovikin. The latter took office in October, but will now be the vice commander. According to Reuters, the ministry points to the "broadening of assignments", "the need for closer interaction" between the various army units and "improvement of the quality and effectiveness of the management of the Russian army" as an explanation for the replacement.

Putin's discontent with the regular army top has also to do with the Wagner group his favorites.

Wow the US army unloaded 1,275 tanks and other military equipment in the port of Vlissingen, Netherlands on Wednesday.
Not for Ukraine but to protect the Eastern border of Europe what a powerplay!

High-ranking Wagner Group member seeks asylum in Norway

https://apnews.com/article/russia-government-norway-asylum-6a427312ad96ad5398c8a4a03fd7b128

Patriots will be send and British tanks the coming months will be a big battle.

Russian oligarchs already lost 89 billion euros on sanctions against Russia, and Roman Abramovich is the biggest loser

The sharply diminished wealth of the richest oligarchs has everything to do with the harsh sanctions imposed on them by the West since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Converted, those oligarchs have lost 308 million euros a day since the start of the war.

The biggest loser is Roman Abramovich, former owner of the London football club Chelsea. He saw more than half of his fortune, 57 percent, go up in smoke. He now owns 'only' 7.8 billion dollars.

Under intense pressure, Germany decides to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, The United States is likely to announce today that it will supply Ukraine with M1 Abrams tanks, the Wall Street Journal reported .

Ukraine will now push for F-16 fighter jets, government adviser says

https://thehill.com/homenews/383029...16-fighter-jets-government-adviser-says/

Now that Ukraine is finally getting the tanks it wants, it’s already looking for the next big thing — fighter jets

https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/now-th...ing-for-the-next-big-thing-fighter-jets/

Western intelligence is def supporting them.

Russian saboteurs seek to hamper Putin’s war machine
Anti-Putin activists try to slow down Russia’s war in Ukraine and say they are willing to step up their violence.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/25/russian-saboteurs-seek-to-hamper-putins-war-machine

The websites of German airports have been hit by cyberattacks instigated by a Russian “hacker group”, authorities said Thursday.

https://airlive.net/breaking-a-cyberattack-is-targeting-several-websites-of-german-airports/

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday repeated a claim that neo-Nazis were committing crimes in Ukraine as the world marked the Holocaust.

Macron says will not rule out France sending fighter jets to Ukraine

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/...rson-kyiv-calls-for-faster-arms-supplies

INTERNATIONAL
Former Putin aide: Coup a ‘real possibility’

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehil...-putin-aide-coup-a-real-possibility/amp/

Reuters: US may send long-range missiles to Ukraine
By ANP/upday
February 1, 2023, 7:16 AM

The United States is preparing new military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include long-range missiles for the first time, Reuters news agency reports based on talks with two senior US government officials. The package, worth more than 2 billion dollars (1.84 billion euros), will also include ammunition and other weapons.

The military aid is expected to be announced later this week, the officials said. It also supposedly contains "support material" for Patriot air defense systems, precision-guided munitions and Javelin anti-tank weapons.

A significant portion of the package, more than $1.7 billion (1.56 billion euros), would come from a fund known as the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). This allows the government to order the weapons from the arms industry instead of obtaining them from existing US arms stockpiles.

The money from the USAI would be used to purchase a new weapon, the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB), with a range of 150 kilometers. The US has rejected requests from, among others, arms manufacturer Boeing to send the so-called ATACMS missile, with a range of 297 kilometers, to Ukraine.

Other assistance would include mine-resistant vehicles (MRAPs), guided multiple missile systems (GMLRS) and munitions.

Has the Russian Offensive Begun?
Ukraine is bracing for a major escalation in the Donbas.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/01/briefing/russia-ukraine-war-trade.html