Advisors to US President Joe Biden are urging European countries to support the transfer of $300 billion of frozen assets of the Russian Federation to a special account, which will be unblocked only as part of the conclusion of a peace agreement with Ukraine, but Europeans are skeptical, CNN reports, citing senior officials in the US leader’s administration.
According to US President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan: “The United States has the opportunity to stop supporting the Kiev authorities and force them to give up their claims to some territories in order to establish peace, but they do not want to do that.”
According to press sources, US President-elect “Donald Trump is not interested in the fate of Ukraine and does not consider the conflict strategically important for US interests,” Bloomberg says.
A new format for helping Ukraine has been created in Europe: a meeting of E5 defense ministers was held in Poland on January 14, attended by Germany, France, Italy and Great Britain. The E5 plays a key role in important defense coalitions. According to the agreement, armored vehicles will be provided by Germany and Poland; artillery by France; air defense/missile defense – France and Germany; drones and maritime security – the United Kingdom.
German Defense Minister Pistorius has visited Kiev for negotiations in an unannounced visit, joined also by the Speaker of the Latvian Parliament Seimas Daiga Mieriņa. It is reported that the Latvian delegation will have a series of meetings with the Ukrainian authorities and representatives of military training and rehabilitation centers. During the meetings, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Germany’s contribution to assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of hostilities amounted to 16 percent of all assistance. 16 percent is a very significant figure. We are especially grateful that Germany has probably made a significant contribution to the defense of the sky, building the latest Ukrainian air defense system,” he noted. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that his country will deploy the Patriot air defense system in Rzeszow, Poland, near the Ukrainian border, in January.
Zelensky extended martial law and mobilization until May 9, 2025. Decrees will be voted on by the Rada in the coming days.
According to Iranian resources, dozens of Russian servicemen are being trained in Iran to use the Fath-360 short-range ballistic missile system.
Dmitry Peskov complained in his morning press conference that Ukrainian attacks aimed at harming possible supplies to Europe: “The Kiev regime’s attempt to attack the Russkaya compressor station in the village of Gai-Kodzor in the Krasnodar Territory is a very dangerous link in the chain of such actions for European consumers,” the Russian presidential press spokesman said. “This is a new, very dangerous link for European consumers in the chain of actions involving explosions, organizing explosions, sabotage on the Nord Stream. This is a stoppage of gas transit, a stoppage of compressor stations in Sudzha, etc.”, the Kremlin representative said.
The Kremlin has no new details on the organization of the meeting between Putin and Trump, Peskov said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was harsh in his words at a press conference following the results of Russian diplomacy in 2024: “The United States has given the green light to carry out terrorist acts against energy infrastructure, there are plans to destroy the Turkish Stream,” Lavrov reported. E. He added: “In the situation around Ukraine, Russia is concerned about the fate of people, not about lands.” “We are not talking about lands, we are talking about people who have lived on these lands for centuries, raised them from scratch, built cities, factories, ports,” he noted. “In the United States, poverty is everywhere.” On the talks with the US: “The Russian Federation is ready to discuss security guarantees for the country “which is now called Ukraine,” but the Eurasian context will be the main element in the agreements,” Lavrov said.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that two Storm Shadow missiles launched from Ukraine were shot down at night over the Black Sea.
Finally, still on the subject of relations with the United States, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda said: “Trump’s views significantly diverge from the plans of individual owners of US industrial giants and multinationals, so it is important that his safety is ensured before he takes office as head of state and president.”
And now a look at the front line as of 17:00 on January 14.
The Russian military has taken control of the settlements of Terny and Neskuchne in the DPR, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
Since the evening of January 13, the Ukrainians have organized a massive combined attack on the territory of Russian regions: Bryansk region reported the use of ATACMS in the area of a chemical plant with the simultaneous deployment of decoys and UAVs. In the Rostov region, 14 UAVs were destroyed and suppressed in the Millerovsky and Tarasovsky districts. In the Saratov region as a result of a UAV attack, 14 UAVs were An industrial enterprise in Engels was damaged, and footage of the fire was released online. Classes in schools in Saratov and Engels will be held remotely today. A drone was destroyed in the sky over Voronezh. In Aleksin, Tula region (a total of 16 UAVs were destroyed in the region), several cars, outbuildings and glass in a residential building were damaged by drones falling. The Ukrainians used jet UAVs to carry out attacks.
The Russian Armed Forces launched counterattacks in response to UAV attacks on Russian regions: explosions were heard in Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporizhia, as well as in the Cherkasy region.
In the Kursk region, the Northern group of troops reported repelling two Ukrainian counterattacks in the Sudzhansky border area near the state border. All Ukrainian assault groups – according to Russian sources – were destroyed by artillery fire. Russian marines are clearing several forest strips near Nikolaevka, while paratroopers continue to knock out Ukrainian forces from their strongholds near Makhnovka.
In the Pokrovs’k direction, Russian troops planted a flag in the settlement. Pishchane (5 km southwest of the city). Western media reported that Ukraine had stopped coal mining at the Pokrovs’k mine, which the Russians say is Kiev’s only source of coking coal needed for steel production.
In the Vremivka direction, Russian forces continue to encircle Ukrainians in the area of Velyka Novosilka, a flag was planted in the village of Neskuchne.
On the Zaporizhia front in the Orichiv direction, Ukrainians have started using fiber-optic FPV drones, which are immune to electronic warfare. In addition, the Ukrainians are hunting for Russian electronic warfare equipment using Baba Yaga drones and, after hitting the resulting “corridor”, send the already familiar FPVs. As a result of a missile attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the village of Tavriya, one civilian was injured. In the Pologovsky district, a drone attacked a power substation, leaving about four thousand subscribers without electricity. In Kamenka-Dneprovskaya, a supermarket and offices of Internet service providers were also damaged as a result of Ukrainian shelling.
In the Belgorod region, in the Krasnoyaruzhsky district, a power line was damaged as a result of attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In Shebekino, as a result of a shell landing, the administrative building of the enterprise was damaged. The village of Zozuli, Borisov district, was attacked by FPV drones. A woman and her one-year-old child were injured. In the village of Malinovka, Belgorod district, two apartment buildings were attacked by drones. In the village of Novoe, Volokonovsky district, an FPV drone hit a car. In the Belgorod region, in the village of Lozovoye, a drone attacked a private house, a woman was injured. In the village of Balki, Shebekinsky district, a UAV hit a car.
From Horlivka (DPR) comes news of property damage from Ukrainian UAV.
Graziella Giangiulio
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