January 31, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

A General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon fighter jet at Nellis AFB near Las Vegas, Nevada on Feb. 16, 2022.

Top Ukrainian officials have in recent days escalated their public lobbying campaign for US-made F-16 fighter jets, arguing they need them urgently to defend against Russian missile and drone attacks.

But that push is being met with skepticism by US and allied officials who say the jets would be impractical, both because they require considerable training and because Russia has extensive anti-aircraft systems that could easily shoot them down.

More puzzling to US officials is why Ukraine has made such a public show of asking for F-16s, when in private the jets are rarely mentioned atop Ukraine’s wish list of weapons.

Asked on Monday whether the US would be providing F-16s to Ukraine, President Joe Biden responded with a flat “no.” Asked on Tuesday, whether he plans to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky amid his calls for F-16 jets, Biden said, “We’re going to talk.”

Ukraine’s renewed public push for the planes, which Ukraine’s foreign minister publicly described as a “priority” on Tuesday, appears driven in large part by a belief in Kyiv that with enough public pressure, the Ukrainians can eventually secure weapons systems that were once deemed a red line by the west.

So far, Ukrainian persistence has paid off, and Ukrainians appear undeterred by the reluctance from allies to send F-16s.

“What is impossible today is absolutely possible tomorrow,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told NPR on Tuesday.

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Ukrainian soldiers return from the front line in Bakhmut, Ukraine on January 29, 2023. (Photo by Marek M. Berezowski/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Russian troops are pummeling the city of Bakhmut into “total ruin,” a Donetsk region military administration head said, as intense fighting continues in the eastern part of the country.

Some Western countries are shutting down the idea of providing fighter jets to Ukraine, even as Kyiv officials step up requests for more military assistance.

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A Ukraine-European Union summit will take place in Kyiv on Friday, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said. However, he provided no details on who would attend.

The fact that the summit will be held in Kyiv is a “powerful signal to both partners and enemies,” he said at a government meeting.

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak leaves 10 Downing Street on Wednesday, January 18.

A “prolonged stalemate” in Moscow’s conflict with Ukraine “would only benefit Russia,” said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, according to a cabinet meeting readout released Tuesday.

Sunak said he reached this conclusion after reviewing the UK’s approach to the conflict since becoming prime minister in October last year, adding that this led him to decide that there was an “opportunity to accelerate” British support for Ukraine.

This would give Kyiv the “best chance of success and make the most of the window of opportunity where Russian forces were on the back foot,” he said, according to the readout. 

This new UK strategy to accelerate support would include greater diplomatic efforts and planning for how to rebuild after the conflict, the prime minister added, according to the readout. 

Ukraine is expecting to receive 120 to 140 modern Western fighting tanks in a “first wave” of deliveries from 12 countries, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday. 

Kuleba on Tuesday also renewed calls for fighter jets, saying Ukraine’s military “must receive all the types of weapons they need to defend and restore the territorial integrity of our country.”

Russia is unlikely to see strategic success in any potential offensive in Ukraine this spring due to limited support on force ratios, equipment and logistics, according to Western officials speaking to media on background.

These limitations might not prevent Russia “from trying to launch an offensive,” but their “ability to change the course of the conflict at the moment is constrained,” the officials said.

Moscow is struggling to replace its losses, the officials added.

Russia and Ukraine were fundamentally in “a race” as to “who can maintain the supply of weapons,” they said.

Meanwhile, the officials expressed doubt in Russia using its neighboring ally Belarus to launch an offensive in the coming months. 

“Belarus is providing a useful training ground for Russian forces where they can outsource for training and then siphon them back round into the front line in Ukraine,” the officials said. “We do see Russian forces in Belarus. We don’t see them deployed to the border, and at the moment, they don’t have the kind of capability in the logistics to project and threaten Kyiv.”

But the Russian troops presence does prompt Ukraine from stationing its troops in that direction to “offset that potential risk,” the officials said, even though they stressed that it is “hugely unlikely” that Belarus “will be an axis of advance in the next several months.”

The RT-2PM2, Topol-M, one of the most recent intercontinental ballistic missiles to be deployed by Russia, is seen at the Russian international military expo Army Expo 2022 at Patriot park in Moscow on August 20, 2022.

Russia is violating a key nuclear arms control agreement with the United States and continuing to refuse to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities, a State Department spokesperson said Tuesday.

“Russia has also failed to comply with the New START Treaty obligation to convene a session of the Bilateral Consultative Commission in accordance with the treaty-mandated timeline,” the spokesperson added.

Under the New START treaty — the only agreement left regulating the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals — Washington and Moscow are permitted to conduct inspections of each other’s weapons sites, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, inspections have been halted since 2020.

A session of the Bilateral Consultative Commission on the treaty was slated to meet in Egypt in late November but was abruptly called off. The US has blamed Russia for this postponement, with a State Department spokesperson saying the decision was made “unilaterally” by Russia.

The treaty puts limits on the number of deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons that both the US and Russia can have. It was last extended in early 2021 for five years, meaning the two sides will soon need to begin negotiating on another arms control agreement.

The State Department says Russia can return to full compliance, if they “allow inspection activities on its territory, just as it did for years under the New START Treaty” and also scheduling a session of the commission.

On Monday, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the last remaining element of the bilateral nuclear arms control treaty with the United States could expire in three years without a replacement. 

Asked if Moscow could envisage there being no nuclear arms control agreement between the two nations when the extension of the 2011 New START Treaty comes to an end after 2026, Ryabkov told the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on Monday: “This is a very possible scenario.”

The statement comes as Russia continues its war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin in December acknowledged that the conflict is “going to take a while,” as he also warned of the “increasing” threat of nuclear war. And without categorically ruling out the first use of nuclear weapons, Putin said he viewed the Russian nuclear arsenal as a deterrent rather than a provocation.

In this file photo, a pair of Ukrainian Su-25 jet fighters fly near the town of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on June 24, 2022.

Ukraine’s foreign minister renewed calls for fighter jets on Tuesday.

“The [Ukraine] Armed Forces must receive all the types of weapons they need to defend and restore the territorial integrity of our country,” Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a briefing.

Kuleba said Ukraine needs fighter jets and long-range missiles not to escalate but rather to act as a deterrence and defense against Russia’s continued war in Ukraine:

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, also called for more weapons. 

Podolyak tweeted Tuesday addressing a belief he said some EU representatives have that Kyiv shouldn’t be given weapons due to a fear the war will spread to Europe. The Ukrainian official said war is “already in the center of Europe” and Russia “kills people in the most anti-human way.” He also warned that if Ukraine does not get weapons the war will spread to the EU because Russia “won’t stop the expansion.”

What Western nations are saying about Kyiv’s requests: The UK said Tuesday it believes it’s “not practical” to send its fighter jets to Ukraine. The fighter jets are “extremely sophisticated and take months to learn how to fly,” a Downing Street spokesperson told journalists.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that although France had not received any request from Ukraine to send fighter jets, “nothing is off limits in principle.”

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden responded “no,” when asked by a reporter if he would send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. 

Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has also ruled out sending fighter jets to Ukraine, according to an interview with German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on Friday. “This is out of the question,” Pistorius was quoted as saying.

A Caesar self-propelled howitzer at military base 118 in Mon-de-Marsan, France, on January 20.

France will send an additional 12 Caesar howitzers to Ukraine, on top of the 18 howitzers Paris has already delivered to Kyiv, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced on Tuesday.  

Speaking at a news conference in Paris alongside his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov, Lecornu said that Denmark has also committed to giving 19 French-made howitzers to Ukraine. 

The French minister said another priority was the training of Ukrainian troops and that 2,000 of them would be trained in France by the summer. 

Lecornu also announced a new plan to jointly train Ukrainian soldiers with the Polish military.  

“I can confirm that 150 French soldiers will be going to Poland at the end of February to train battalions in conjunction with Poland,” he said. 

When asked whether France would deliver fighter jets to Ukraine, the defense minister said that there were “no taboos” about sending the airplanes but that each request has to fulfill three criteria: a weapon request must not diminish France’s own defense forces; that the weapons must be useful and useable on the ground; and that they are used for defensive objectives only. 

“We discussed the [air] platform because it’s our necessity to make our capabilities stronger to defend our airspace,” said Reznikov. 

“I’m an optimist and I think it will be as soon as possible,” the Ukrainian defense minister said, adding “one year ago when I was in Washington, DC, I asked about stinger [missiles] and the answer was ‘It’s impossible, Oleksii!’ and it became possible.” 

President Joe Biden announcing sending M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine last week.

The US will likely announce further security assistance for Ukraine “soon,” according to White House spokesperson Olivia Dalton.  

“I expect we’re going to have more security assistance to announce soon,” Dalton told reporters aboard Air Force One. 

Asked about whether the US would send F16 jets to Ukraine, Dalton reiterated President Joe Biden’s comments on Monday and pointed to the billions of dollars in aid provided so far.

Biden said “no” when asked by a reporter Monday on whether he would send the jets to Ukraine. His answer comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sought fighter jets to help sustain his war effort against Russia. Biden has consistently said the planes aren’t on the table, even as he has given aid in other areas, including providing Abrams tanks.

Dalton also emphasized that the US remains in “regular contact” with Ukrainian officials about their needs. 

More on US aid to Ukraine: As of Jan. 19, the United States has committed $26.7 billion to Ukraine in security aid since the beginning of the war nearly a year ago.

The UK said Tuesday it believes it’s “not practical” to send its fighter jets to Ukraine. 

The fighter jets are “extremely sophisticated and take months to learn how to fly,” a Downing Street spokesperson told journalists Tuesday, adding that given those conditions they “believe it is not practical to send those jets into Ukraine.”

The comments come as Ukrainian officials continue to pressure their Western allies for further resources. 

The spokesperson said the UK is committed to continuing to “discuss with our allies about what we think what is the right approach” when it comes to assisting Ukraine. 

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that although France had not received any request from Ukraine to send fighter jets, “nothing is off limits in principle.”

Other nations saying no to jets for Kyiv: On Monday, US President Joe Biden responded “No,” when asked by a reporter if he would send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. 

Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has also ruled out sending fighter jets to Ukraine, according to an interview with German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on Friday. “This is out of the question,” Pistorius was quoted as saying.

A Ukrainian serviceman looks out into Bakhmut amid Russia's attack on January 27.

The key eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut continues to be one of the main directions for Russian attacks and “everything is being done” to prevent Russian forces from blocking the movement of Ukrainian units, Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for the eastern grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said during an interview on Ukrainian television on Tuesday. 

“Bakhmut continues to be one of the main directions of the enemy’s attack – they’ve hit our positions there with cannon and rocket artillery 197 times, and there were 42 combat encounters. The enemy got significant losses in personnel during the last 24 hours: 277 enemies were killed, 258 were injured to varying degrees,” Cherevatyi said.

CNN is not able to independently confirm the number of sustained casualties. 

When asked whether the Russians have been able to cut off the transport artery to Bakhmut, Cherevatyi replied “not yet.”

When asked to comment on reports about a Russian offensive north of Bakhmut in the Lyman direction, Cherevatyi said Russian forces “do counteroffensive in this direction from time to time” and that he “can’t say it’s a big offensive operation.”

“They are moving there — their motorized rifle units and artillery — first of all, to hold the line there, and secondly, as I said, to regain an advantage. In particular, during the last 24 hours in Bilohorivka and Novoselivske the enemy did a counteroffensive, but they were repulsed and pulled back,” he said. 

A farewell ceremony for American volunteer Daniel Swift who died fighting in Ukraine took place in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Tuesday, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said in a message on his official Facebook page. 

“He fought with the International Legion and was awarded with [Ukrainian commander] Bohdan Khmelnitskiy award of the 3rd degree. The brave seal is now taking his last path home,” Sadovyi said. 

Swift, a former US Navy SEAL, who deserted the military nearly four years ago, was killed fighting in Ukraine earlier in January, according to a statement by the US Navy.  

In his post, Sadovyi went on to say that Ukraine needs “powerful weapons to stop these deaths.”

“We are calling on the whole world not to postpone what can save lives today. This year all of us have understood the war can be stopped with force only. So we are calling to give us tanks, give us fighter jets,” he said. 

“Russia is a wounded bear at the moment. It needs to be put back into its cave. And this we can do only if we are unite all our resources,” Sadovyi said. 

A building destroyed by shelling in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on January 29.

Russian troops are pummeling the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut into what the Donetsk region military administration head Pavlo Kyrylenko called a “total ruin.” 

Two people were killed in the last few hours, including one underage boy, Kyrylenko says on Telegram. Four civilians were wounded, he added. 

CNN reported in January that the US and Western officials are urging Ukraine to shift its focus from the brutal, months-long fight in the eastern city of Bakhmut and prioritize instead a potential offensive in the south, using a different style of fighting that takes advantage of the billions of dollars in new military hardware recently committed by Western allies.

Russia had to send home more than 9,000 people who were “illegally mobilized,” Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

“Through the efforts of [the Prosecutor General Office] supervision, more than 9,000 citizens who were illegally mobilized were returned home, including those who, due to their health condition, should not have been mobilized in any case,” Krasnov said at a televised meeting with Putin in the Kremlin.

Mobilization had not been carried out for a long time in Russia, he added, and it “revealed a lot of significant problems.”

In addition, most issues with supplying body armor and uniforms to the front “have been resolved,” according to Krasnov. 

“Now we control the supply of winter uniforms to mobilized military personnel, as well as the formation of appropriate warehouses and their safety,” he said.

Russian citizens had used crowdfunding to equip soldiers deployed to Ukraine as troops said they’ve been short of even basic equipment.

Some background: Putin announced a “partial mobilization” in late September 2022 after Russia suffered a series of major setbacks on the battlefields in Ukraine. The controversial draft sparked protests and an exodus of men from the country before it was suspended Nov. 1 after the target of 300,000 personnel was met.

The area around the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine is seeing fierce fighting as Russian forces mount an offensive intended to take a key highway.

Russian forces have also carried out strikes in Luhansk region and Kharkiv region, where one civilian was killed by shelling.

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Russian airborne units have joined Wagner mercenary fighters in the battle for the key eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, according to Maksym Zhorin, a former co-commander of Ukraine’s Azov regiment.

Zhorin is not fighting on the battlefield but is in contact with Ukrainian soldiers and helps with supplies. 

“Not only the Wagnerites are fighting in the Bakhmut sector on the Russian side,” Zhorin said on his official Telegram channel Tuesday.

“Previously, the assaults were carried out first by convicts, followed by more ‘elite’ Wagner units, but now airborne units have also joined the fight,” he said.

“First of all, this is notable because of the use of their regular equipment. Wagner’s troops are forced to advance on foot, while Russian paratroopers have armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, which they actively use,” added Zhorin. 

“Another difference is that for some reason regular troops are less willing to die than Wagner’s men. That is why they act a little more cautiously. But they are still dying, just not in such huge numbers.”

CNN is unable to independently verify those claims. 

Other Ukrainian military commanders have echoed Zhorin’s assessment in recent days, saying that regular Russian military troops are now assisting Wagner private military contractors in the fight for Bakhmut. 

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shake hands after holding a joint media briefing on January 31, in Tokyo, Japan.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged on Tuesday to strengthen ties, saying Beijing and Moscow are leading “an authoritarian pushback against the international rules-based order.”

“If President Putin wins in Ukraine, this would send a message that authoritarian regimes can achieve their goals through brute force. This is dangerous. Beijing is watching closely and learning lessons that may influence its future decisions,” said Stoltenberg.

During a visit Tuesday to Japan’s Iruma Air Base, Stoltenberg said that “the war in Ukraine matters for all of us, and therefore we’re also very grateful for the support that Japan is providing, also using the planes and the cargo capabilities.”

Japan has provided nonlethal aid to Ukraine in the form of drones, bulletproof vests, helmets, tents and medical supplies. However, due to defense guidelines that effectively ban weapons exports, Tokyo has not delivered weapons.

Stoltenberg arrived in Tokyo on Monday from South Korea, where he had urged Seoul to increase its military support for Ukraine.

Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol became the first leaders from their countries to attend a NATO summit last year, joining alliance leaders as observers.

As the battle for the key eastern city of Bakhmut continues, Ukrainian forces managed to destroy Russian trenches on the outskirts of the city, turning them into a “grave,” the Ukrainian Border Guard said Tuesday on its official Telegram channel.

The Border Guard reported that five “invaders” were buried under rubble and another four occupants were wounded after the attack destroyed the structure.

The city of Bakhmut has been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting in recent days, as Russian forces try to take control of the Kostiantynivka-Bakhmut highway and disrupt supplies to Bakhmut. Keeping the city under Ukrainian control would represent a symbolic victory for Kyiv but if the city is taken by Russian forces it would give them an opportunity to advance further to the strategically important cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

Fighters from the Russian mercenary company Wagner have been leading the fight against Ukrainian forces in and around Bakhmut but on Monday, Volodymyr Nazarenko, deputy commander of the “Svoboda” battalion of the 4th Rapid Reaction Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard, said in an interview on Ukrainian television that it seemed Wagner fighters have now been replaced by Russian paratroopers.

A post published Tuesday on the official Telegram channel of Dmytro Kukharchuk, commander of the 2nd assault battalion of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, says the claimed invincibility of the Wagner military unit is now a “myth.”

“I have to admit that in some areas they do manage to carry out the tactics of a creeping offensive. In their opinion, it is successful, in my opinion - absolutely not, because the round-the-clock bombardment of our positions with corpses, which results in rare cases in advancement of 50 meters, can hardly be called a success,” the post reads.

CNN is unable to independently verify these claims.

“Ultimately, the war is not about territories, but about people who will then liberate even more territories, as it happened in Kharkiv or Kherson. Their attitude towards people has not changed since [Red Army General] Zhukov’s time,” the post continues.