Did you miss the latest events on the war in Ukraine? 20 Minutes takes stock for you every evening. Between the strong declarations, the advances on the front and the results of the fighting, here is the essential part of this Tuesday, January 14, 2024, the 1,056th day of the war.
Fact of the day
“The most massive attack” since the start of the war. This is how the Ukrainian army describes the air raids it carried out during the night from Monday to Tuesday in enemy territory. “Ukrainian Defense Forces carried out the most massive strikes against military targets […] at a distance of 200 to 1,100 kilometers deep in Russia,” welcomed the Ukrainian general staff.
According to him, the strikes “successfully” hit an oil depot in Engels, which had already been targeted on January 8, causing a five-day fire in which two Russian firefighters died. Another target: the Seltso chemical plant, in the Bryansk region, which, according to kyiv, produces components for artillery, multiple rocket launchers, aviation and missiles.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not confirm the damage. But she maintains that in the attack on Bryansk, Western missiles were used: six American ATACMS missiles and six British Storm Shadow missiles to be precise, ensuring that they were all shot down without causing any casualties. However, the use of Western projectiles is the “red line” set by Moscow, which has already threatened if it is crossed to target the center of kyiv or even to use its new experimental hypersonic missile Orechnik. The response risks being bloody.
Today’s statement
« When President Trump, once (again) becomes president, finally formulates his position on the Ukrainian file, we will of course study it” »
Sergei Lavrov, the head of Russian diplomacy, does not generally take easy compliments. But Donald Trump found favor in his eyes. Vladimir Putin’s close friend welcomed some of the US president-elect’s comments this Tuesday. “First of all, the simple fact that people have started to mention the realities on the ground more, that probably deserves to be welcomed,” said Sergei Lavrov, referring to the “understanding” towards Russia shown by the billionaire last week. “At one point, Biden said ‘they should be able to join NATO.’ Well Russia had someone on its doorstep, I can understand the feeling (of the Russians) on this subject,” Donald Trump declared from his residence in Florida.
Moscow insists that any potential agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine, launched almost three years ago, must take into account these “realities on the ground”. A way of emphasizing that Russia, in a position of strength on the front, does not intend to return the approximately 20% of Ukrainian territory that it has seized. Last week, even Emmanuel Macron called on the Ukrainians to be “realistic” in their future territorial negotiations.
The number of the day
2. The number of villages that Russia claims to have retaken from the Ukrainians on Tuesday. These are Terny and Neskoutchné, towns in the Donetsk region, in eastern Ukraine, where the fighting is concentrated. These two villages had been liberated by Ukrainian forces from a first Russian occupation in 2022 and 2023. Their second fall clearly illustrates the difficulties of kyiv’s troops on the eastern front.
The trend
The blow is hard, very hard, for the Ukrainian economy and logistics. The industrial giant Metinvest announced on Tuesday the shutdown of the Pokrovsk coal mine, essential to the national economy, due to the rapprochement of Russian soldiers from this city in eastern Ukraine, the last two active wells located precisely in the two villages taken over by the Russians.
Our file on the war in Ukraine
This Pokrovsk mine is the only one under kyiv control to produce coke, a coal necessary for the manufacture of steel, which occupies second place in Ukrainian exports. This exploitation “is the energy heart of Ukrainian metallurgy,” Youriï Ryjenkov, the boss of Metinvest, even declared on Tuesday. Despite the war, the mine has strived to maintain its annual coal production at 5.6 million tonnes in 2022 and 2023, down slightly from 2021 (6.2 million tonnes). The number of its employees fell from 10,000 before the conflict to 3,500 at the beginning of December. With the loss of Pokrovsk, the Ukrainian steel industry will have to import coke, which will undoubtedly increase the price of its production and lead to a drop in its exports, Volodymyr Landa, an analyst at the Strategy Center, told AFP. economy in kyiv.
Ukraine made 7.5 million tons of steel in 2024, 20% more than the previous year, but still far less than the 21 million tons in 2021, before the invasion, according to experts.
