Photo : Ali Unal/AP/The Financial Times
Photo : Ali Unal/AP/The Financial Times
War in Ukraine: Day 699
By Padmashree Anandhan
War on the Ground
On 23 January, Vitali Klitschko Kyiv Mayor reported on explosions resulting in injury more than 12 and death of six. According to the report, airstrikes were observed to have struck Kyiv and Kharkiv. Ukraine’s military claimed on countering 21 out of 41 missiles launched by Russia.
The Moscow View
Claims by Russia
On 23 January, Russia’s defence ministry claimed on launching strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv in retaliation to Ukraine’s attack in one of the market’s in Donetsk. According to the statement issued by Dmitry Peskov, Press Secretary for Russian president Vladimir Putin, the strikes were a series of “high-precision missiles” targeting Ukraine’s military facilities involved in producing rockets and munitions. Highlighting the event, he criticised Ukraine for killing dozen through shelling in Donetsk.
On 23 January, RT reported on the expected financial losses which could be faced by the US and its allied due to freezing of Russian assets. According to the report, USD 288 billion of foreign direct investments (FDI) had been frozen till now by the west which is expected to go under the confiscation plan. Under such scenario, RT reported that billions of amount invested the EU, the US and its allies which amounts to USD 223.3 billion would be under the risk of being lost.
The West View
Responses from the US and Europe
On 23 January, NATO announced signing of USD 1.2 billion contract with companies from Germany’s Junghans Microtec and France Nexter Munitions for producing more than 200,000 of 155-millimetre shells to support NATO members and Ukraine. This category of shells can be used in the Caesar and Panzerhaubitze 2000 artillery systems and the first round of delivery is expected to be made by 2026. Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s Secretary General said: “We do all of this to ensure that we have the forces in place to remove any room for miscalculation or misunderstanding in Moscow about our readiness to protect every inch of NATO territory, and as long as we do that, there will be no attack against the NATO territory.” Since the war in Ukraine began, NATO’s artillery stocks have decreased due its support to Ukraine which has led to the contract.
On 23 January, Turkey’s parliament voted in favour of Sweden’s accession into NATO. Finland and Sweden which applied May 2022 for NATO membership faced a roadblock from Turkey over categorising Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as “Terrorist.” Finland which made progress in getting the greenlight from Turkey, Sweden faced a long haul due to Turkey claiming its support to the group. Apart from this demands over arms sales from the both and the US were also under negotiations, with F-16 approved by the US and further pressure from the NATO, Turkey ratified its decision. This leaves Hungary to be the only NATO member to approve Sweden’s entry into NATO.
References
“West faces $300bn loss for seizing Russian assets – RIA,” RT, 23 January 2024
“Russian strikes on Kiev and Kharkov not retaliation for Donetsk – Kremlin,” RT, 23 January 2024
Yurii Kovalenko and Sergiy Karazy, “Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities kill 18, Zelenskiy says,” Reuters, 24 January 2024
“NATO signs key artillery ammunition contract to replenish allied supplies and help Ukraine,” Associated Press, 23 January 2024
“Ukraine updates: Several killed in Russian missile strikes,” Deutsche Welle, 23 January 2024