Russia said that it destroyed, yesterday, Tuesday, 4 American Himars launchers, and on the first of the month, it destroyed another in Donetsk Province, eastern Ukraine, which is the missile system that Kyiv used to kill dozens of Russian soldiers in the Makeyevka region at the beginning of the month. On the other hand, the Ukrainian military leadership stated The Russian forces are in a defensive position in Zaporizhia and Kherson provinces, in the south of the country.

A spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov, stated that his country's forces destroyed 4 HIMARS bombers, and killed 200 Ukrainian soldiers during the bombing of the city of Druzhkovka, located in the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donetsk Province.

Konashenkov said that the Russian forces continue to attack the Donetsk axis, and have eliminated more than 40 Ukrainian soldiers in the Kobyansk axis, along with two Ukrainian reconnaissance groups in Kharkiv province.

He added, "In the Krasny-Lyman axis, more than 120 Ukrainian soldiers were killed or wounded in an attack by Russian heavy artillery. As for the Air Force, more than 130 foreign mercenaries were killed in the city of Kramatorsk."

Also on the Donetsk front, Sergei Severyukov, deputy of the military administration in the Russian army, said that his country's forces destroyed the Himars missile launcher from which the missiles were fired, which destroyed a building in which Russian soldiers were stationed near the town of Makeyevka, and the Ukrainian bombing left 89 dead among the soldiers.

Preliminary investigations

The Russian military official added that preliminary investigations indicate that the soldiers' use of mobile phones - contrary to the ban orders - was the reason for revealing their location to the Ukrainian forces.

The Makeyevka attack took place on New Year's Eve, and it is one of the rare times that Russia admits that a large number of its forces were killed in a Ukrainian missile strike since the start of the war on February 24, 2022, and Russia is in a state of anger and mourning after the strike on the Russian forces. in Makeyevka.

Russian lawmakers and bloggers called for accountability for those responsible for the largest reported losses of Russian forces in one day, at a time when the Russian military leadership faced severe criticism over what happened in the city of Makeyevka.

The American HIMARS launchers have become an increasing role in the battles of the battle fronts in the east of the country, and the launchers are distinguished as a mobile weapon unit that can fire several missiles simultaneously, and each of them carries 6 227-millimeter missiles with an estimated range of 80 km.

On June 23, 2022, the first batch of HIMARS missiles arrived in Ukraine for use on the front of the Ukrainian region of Donbass, in which Russian forces and pro-Moscow separatist forces control the majority of its territory.

Bakhmut Front

The Ukrainian General Staff said that the Russian army focused its attacks on the strategic city of Bakhmut, bombing more than 15 residential communities there, and that it is seeking to support its tactical positions in the Liman-Kopiansk axes.

The head of the "Wagner" group of Russian mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, acknowledged the difficulty of the battles in the city of Bakhmut, and said that the Ukrainians had turned "every house into a fortress."

Prigozhin - who is described as close to Russian President Vladimir Putin - said in an interview with the Russian news agency "RIA Novosti" published yesterday, Tuesday;

His men would sometimes fight "weeks to take over a house".

Wagner's forces have been fighting in the front lines alongside the Russian forces, which have been trying for months to control Bakhmut, but to no avail.


Recently, the fighting moved to the outskirts of the city, which was inhabited by about 80,000 people before the war, but the Ukrainian forces said they had forced the attacking forces to retreat.

defensive position

The Ukrainian General Staff said that Russian forces are defending themselves in Zaporizhia and Kherson provinces (south) in particular.

The authority added that about 260 Russian soldiers were killed and wounded in the regions of Melitobel, Tokmak and Berdyansk in Zaporizhia province.

It said that the bombing of its forces on those areas on the second day of the new year also resulted in the destruction of 10 units of military equipment, two ammunition depots, and other deployment points for the Russian forces.

The General Staff indicated that during the past hours, the Ukrainian aviation launched 13 raids on the positions of the Russian forces and another location for their missile systems, in addition to destroying two control points and an observation point for unmanned aircraft.

And the Al-Jazeera correspondent, quoting the Ukrainian military administration in Zaporizhia canton, stated that the Russian forces continued yesterday to bomb the infrastructure in 18 regions and towns of the southern province.

The commander of the Ukrainian army, Valery Zaluzhny, said that his country's forces maintain defensive lines, which he described as reliable, towards Zaporozhye province, and that they are making unremitting efforts to protect Kherson province from the continuous Russian bombardment, especially with regard to the population and civilian infrastructure.


The Ukrainian army commander also said that he had discussed with the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, in a phone call, his country's needs in order to continue the fight against Russia, considering that increasing the capabilities of the Ukrainian army would ensure security throughout Europe.

In Crimea, in southern Ukraine, local Ukrainian websites reported that explosions were heard at dawn today, Wednesday, on the peninsula, and the governor of Sevastopol, who was appointed by Russia, said that two Ukrainian drones were shot down over the Black Sea off the coast of Sevastopol (the largest city in Crimea), adding that the sounds of explosions caused by the action of antibiotics.

And in the Russian province of Rostov, bordering the Ukrainian province of Donetsk, Russian media said that last night, air defenses shot down two drones that flew over Rostov.

prospective contacts

Turkish media quoted the presidential spokesman as saying that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will make two phone calls today with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss developments in the war.

The Ukrainian President had stated earlier that Russia would mobilize all its capabilities in order to change the course of the war and delay its defeat, and pledged to work to thwart the Russian plan.

Oleksiy Aristovich, adviser to the Ukrainian president, said that it will become clear to the Ukrainian forces in the next stage where and when the Russian army will use its reserve forces.

The Ukrainian president's adviser added that his country's army will exhaust those forces within two to three months.