‘No More Tears,’ as Air Strike Deaths Hit 18 – War in Ukraine Update for Jan 24

Overview:

• Zelensky vows revenge for deadly civilian airstrikes in Kyiv and Kharkiv
• Foreign Minister meets with German officials, says “We will never give up.”
• Even after strikes, Germany unmoved to provide Taurus missiles
• Kremlin moves more Kalibr missiles to shores of Black Sea
• Luhansk People’s Republic unit said to have captured border town
• Moscow’s troops keep marching on Avdiivka

Moscow’s missiles kill 18 civilians and injure 130 others

Russian missiles hit Ukraine’s capital and other cities on Tuesday morning, Kyiv Post journalists observed, as the death toll reached 18 people by Tuesday evening and 130 other civilians injured in the attacks.

Rescue workers in the oft-shelled city of Kharkiv recovered survivors from the rubble, as apartment blocks were “set ablaze and toppled by the strikes,” AFP journalists reported.

“Ordinary life is what Russia sees as a threat to itself,” said President Volodymyr Zelensky in his nightly address. “[Russia] is a typical terrorist… Let them know in Russia that the Ukrainian character knows how to be far-reaching enough in response,” Zelensky said.

“The Russian war will inevitably be brought back home, back to where this evil came from, where it must be quelled,” he said.

Kharkiv governor Oleg Sinegubov said eight people had been killed in the overnight attack, and more than 50 wounded in his region. Interior Minister Igor Klymenko announced that emergency services in the Kharkiv region by Tuesday afternoon had pulled 27 survivors from the rubble.

“There are no more tears,” resident Oleksandra Terekhovich told AFP reporters on the scene. “Our country has been going through what has been happening for two years now. We live with horror inside of us.”

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Foreign Minister says Ukraine still needs more ammunition and air defenses

In an interview with German media published on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that “insufficient quantities of artillery munitions have been a problem from the start,” with regards to ground combat.

Highlighting Tuesday’s Russian air strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv, Kuleba stressed that such attacks “clearly show the need to provide more [air defense] systems, as well as more surface-to-air missiles,” he told a group of reporters.

According to AFP, the foreign minister is still in talks with the German government about receiving Taurus cruise missiles, even after the lower house of the Bundestag voted a week ago against such a proposal, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz shows no signs of caving on the Taurus missile issue.

“We'll never give up,” Kuleba said.

Moscow deploys another missile-bearing ship to the Black Sea

A social-media post from the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine reported that Russia has deployed another ship to the Black Sea, capable of carrying 20 Kalibr missiles, and warned against continued air strikes.

“The storm is gradually subsiding in the Black Sea. The enemy ship group has been replenished with another submarine missile carrier. The total volley of Kalibr missiles is up to 20 missiles. The level of missile danger is very high," the post reads on Telegram

After Moscow launched a massive missile attack on Ukraine on Tuesday, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) has warned residents not to ignore air-raid sirens. According to official sources, Ukraine's air defense destroyed 21 Russian missiles during Tuesday’s attack.

Operations: Luhansk and Kharkiv regions

Occupation authorities in the Kharkiv region claimed on Tuesday that a Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) unit captured the town of Pletenivka, less than two kilometers from the Russian border, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported, but said it has no confirmation of these claims.

Russian bloggers also made unverified assertions that elements of the Russian 1st Guards Tank Army (Western Military District) pushed forward 650 meters along a 2.2 kilometer-wide-front from the north to the southwest of Krokhmalne (southeast of Kupyansk), and advanced roughly two kilometers towards Tabakivka (just northwest of Krokhmalne) and Berestove (just southwest of Krokhmalne) in the past few days.

Footage geolocated by the ISW, published on Tuesday, seems to show that Moscow’s invading forces also marginally advanced west of Kreminna toward Yampolivka. For those keeping track of specific Russian units rotating on and out of the front lines, the ISW clarified that elements of the Chechen Akhmat Spetsnaz “Aida” detachment have continued to operate along the Kreminna front.

Russian forces continue unanswered wins around Avdiivka

Moscow’s forces have continued their string of successes near the pivotal city of Avdiivka on Tuesday. Geolocated footage seems to show that invading forces have advanced in western Stepove (northwest of Avdiivka).

Ukrainian and Russian sources both stated that fighting continued northwest of Avdiivka near Novobakhmutivka and Stepove; west of Avdiivka near Sjeverne; south of Avdiivka near Opytne; southwest of Avdiivka near Pervomaiske; and near Avdiivka itself.