On the 313th day of the war, Russia launched one missile and 28 air strikes on Ukraine, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the evening report on January 2. The representative of the General Staff, Alexander Shtupun, said that 27 strikes were carried out on civilian infrastructure using the Shahed-136 UAV. According to him, all the drones were shot down.
According to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Russian Federation continues to concentrate forces in the Bakhmut direction , tries to attack and shell the areas of the settlements of Disputed, Belogorovka, Vesele, Soledar, Bakhmut, Konstantinovka, Stupochki, Kleschievka, Belaya Gora, Kurdyumovka, Maiorsk and New York of the Donetsk region. Also, the RF Armed Forces are trying to improve the tactical situation in the Kupyansky and Avdeevsky directions. In the Kupyansk direction, Russia fired mortars and artillery at the districts of Novomlinsk, Dvuhletny, Liman Pervy, Olshanaya, Kupyansk, Orlyanka, Kotlyarovka in the Kharkov region and Andreevka, as well as Stelmakhivka in the Luhansk region.
In the Seversky and Slobozhansky directions, Russian shelling is observed in the area of \u200b\u200bthe settlements of the Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv regions. In the Limansky direction, Makeevka, Chervonopopovka and Dibrova in the Luhansk region, as well as Terny in the Donetsk region came under fire from Russia. In the Zaporozhye direction, Russia hit the settlements in the Donetsk and Zaporozhye regions, as well as the Dnipropetrovsk region.
In the Kherson direction , shelling of settlements along the right bank of the Dnieper River continues. The civilian infrastructure of Kherson, Antonovka and Berislav suffered from artillery shelling, there are wounded among civilians, their number is not specified. The Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated Bolshoi Potemkinsky Island near Kherson, deputy Oleksiy Goncharenko said , posting a video with a Ukrainian soldier on Telegram.
The island is located between the left and right banks of the Dnieper.
Officially, the General Staff did not comment on the information about the release. At the end of December, Bolshoi Potemkinsky was still under the control of Russia, then the “authorities” forcibly evacuated Ukrainian citizens from there to the territory under their control.
The death of Russian military personnel
The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged that as a result of a missile attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the building of vocational school No. 19 in Makeevka, Donetsk region, where military personnel were stationed, 63 military personnel were killed. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, during the strike on Makiivka on the night of January 1, up to 10 units of military equipment of various types were destroyed and damaged, while the Ukrainian side clarifies the loss of Russian personnel. Unofficial pro-Russian Telegram channels claim that there are more dead. Thus, the Veteran's Notes channel, citing a soldier from this unit who was on leave, reports that 89 bodies have been recovered from the rubble, and the search continues. Less than 300 people were inside the building at the time of the impact, the channel claims.
Videos showing the moment of the attack have been posted online. In the footage, people are celebrating the New Year, at which time an explosion is heard.
Video and photos of the consequences also appeared, the vocational school building was completely destroyed.
The Russian Defense Ministry claims that the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked the location of HIMARS mobilized from the MLRS.
“During the missile strike of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Makiivka in the DPR, 63 Russian servicemen were killed. All necessary assistance and support will be provided to the relatives and friends of the servicemen who died in Makiivka.”
The reason for the strike on the vocational school building was the high “cellular activity” of the mobilized, Russian state agencies and representatives of the “DPR” recognized. This is recognized by the Russian military correspondents. According to them, the servicemen could use mobile phones with Russian cards. The Ukrainian Armed Forces established their location with the help of the ECHELON reconnaissance complex.
The governor of the Samara region, Dmitry Azarov, on his page on VKontakte, said that during the shelling of a vocational school in Makeyevka, mobilized from the region he headed were killed.
“Our compatriots were also under attack by enemy forces. There are wounded, alas, there are dead. The information is currently being finalized. I understand that now many are worried, they want to know more about their loved ones. Unfortunately, there is a lot of incorrect, often fake information on social networks.”
He advised his relatives to contact the military registration and enlistment offices or call call centers.
The press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of PMC Wagner , posted on the Telegram channel an answer to questions about the strike. So, he was asked whether it is necessary to take away communications from the military, what are the rules about smartphones in PMCs, and why the Russian air defense systems did not repel the attack.
“Unfortunately, I cannot give you a public answer to any of these questions, since my public answer will be the reason for the next blow. For clarity, I suggest you hang a wartime poster “Don’t talk” in your office.”
Shelling of Russian regions and explosion in Voronezh
Russian border regions continue to be shelled. On January 2, the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, announced a new strike, according to him, the shells flew at the cemetery in the village of Murom, Shebekinsky district.
“Part of the shells during the shelling of Murom flew to the cemetery. At least 15 graves were damaged: fences were uprooted, monuments were cracked and slashed. In the middle of the week, we will examine the territory again to understand how we will restore it all.”
The village of Vyazovoe in the Krasnoyaruzhsky district of the Belgorod region was also shelled. According to Gladkov, there are no casualties and injured, power lines are damaged.
The governor of the Bryansk region Alexander Bogomaz on the morning of January 2 also reported on shelling in the region. According to him, the Ukrainian drone attacked the Klimovsky district, as a result, the power supply facility was damaged. There were no casualties, the fire at the facility was extinguished, but there was no electricity in the village for several hours. The district hospital and the boarding school were temporarily reconnected to the reserve line. Later, the governor reported that power supply in the area was restored.
Residents of Voronezh on the night of January 2 reported the sounds of explosions that were heard in the city. Both pro-Russian military correspondents and Ukrainian Telegram channels announced the work of air defense in the area of the Baltimore military airfield in the Soviet region, where Su-34 bombers are based. The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Voronezh claimed that they had not received any reports of explosions.
Later, in the official channel of the government of the Voronezh region, they said that a drone launched from the territory of Ukraine was shot down on approach to Voronezh.
“Tonight, on the approach to Voronezh, a small-sized reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle launched from the territory of Ukraine was detected and shot down by air defense means. There are no casualties or destruction on earth, the situation is under control.”
Air defense in Crimea
Crimean publics on the evening of January 2 reported explosions in Sevastopol. The “Governor” of the annexed Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozzhaev, said that a drone was shot down over the sea.
“An air defense system is operating in Sevastopol. According to preliminary data, a UAV was shot down over the sea. All services are operating normally."
Read also The Insider’s summary of January 1: “Ukraine shot down 45 New Year’s drones, Prigozhin is in the morgue, Russian missiles are enough for three powerful attacks. What's going on at the front .