Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,052

Here is the situation on Saturday, January 11:

Fighting

• Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted investigators as saying two people had been killed and two wounded in a Ukrainian attack on a supermarket in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region, as the war in Ukraine grinds on.
• Denis Pushilin, who heads parts of Donetsk controlled by Russia, said he had “confirmed information” that four people were injured in the attack. He accused the Ukrainian army of firing US-supplied HIMARS missiles into the supermarket area during the morning rush hour.
• Tambov regional head, Evgeny Pervyshov, said people were treated for injures resulting from shattered windows as Ukraine drone attacks hit two houses in the town of Kotovsk, some 480km (300 miles) southeast of Moscow.
• Russia’s defence ministry also said it intercepted and destroyed 85 Ukrainian drones overnight in several regions of the country, including 31 drones over the Black Sea, 16 each in the Voronezh and Krasnodar regions and 14 over the Azov Sea.
• Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 74 drones overnight, adding it had downed 47 of them, while 27 others disappeared from radars without reaching their targets.
• A Ukrainian security service source said a Russian ammunition depot and drone storage facility were hit in a drone and missile attack by Ukraine. The source in the SBU security service said it had launched the joint operation with the navy.
• Russian officials reported that an industrial facility near the village of Chaltyr in the Rostov region of Russia bordering Ukraine was ablaze following a drone barrage, without elaborating.

Shadow fleet

• Germany said that a heavily loaded tanker ship adrift off its northern coast is part of the “shadow fleet” Moscow uses to avoid sanctions on its oil exports. The 274-metre-long Eventin, carrying almost 100,000 tonnes of oil, was reported adrift and “unable to manoeuvre ” in the Baltic Sea.

Sanctions

• The United States and the United Kingdom imposed further sanctions against Russia’s energy sector in a bid to further limit funding for Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Sanctions were also imposed on two of Russia’s maritime insurance providers: Ingosstrakh and Alfastrakhovanie.
• US President Joe Biden said the new sanctions imposed on Russian oil would have a profound effect on Russia’s economy. Biden also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying that he thinks there is a “real chance” that the Ukrainians can prevail against Russia because of the costs this war has had for Moscow.
• “It is now clear that President [Vladimir] Putin’s war against Ukraine has been a disaster for Russia. Due to the Ukrainian people’s courage and resolve, and with the support of the United States, Russia has failed to achieve any of its strategic objectives in Ukraine,” the White House said in a statement.

• Russian insurance company Ingosstrakh said the US sanctions would increase the risk of environmental disasters. “Removing Ingosstrakh from the market creates a vacuum that will inevitably be filled by fly-by-night insurers lacking the capacity or intent to ensure compliance or pay claims,” it said.
• Gazprom Neft, also hit by UK sanctions, said it would continue to operate and maintain business resilience despite the measures, which it called “unjustified, illegitimate and contrary to the principles of free competition”.
• Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he would hold talks with Putin after Washington announced the sanctions against a range of energy companies, including a Serbian firm. Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS), majority-owned by Russia’s Gazprom Neft and its parent company, Gazprom, is the only supplier of gas to Serbia and the majority owner of both gas pipelines that transport gas from Russia to households and industries in Serbia.

Military aid

• The German government is at odds over whether to approve $3.1bn in new military aid to Ukraine, the Spiegel weekly reported Friday.
• Ukraine received $3.1bn from the European Commission as part of a major aid package pledged by the Group of Seven (G7) leading economies. The G7 and the European Union aim to provide Ukraine with a loan of $50bn, secured by interest income on Russian state assets frozen in the West.

Regional tension

• The downing of an Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft shows that flying over Russia poses a “high risk” to civilian flights amid the war in Ukraine, the EU Aviation Safety Agency said. The agency renewed its recommendation for airlines to avoid flying over western Russian airspace.
• The German government will propose allowing the military to shoot down suspicious drones making illegal flights in the country under certain circumstances, according to a document seen by the DPA news agency.

• Poland has identified a Russian group tasked with influencing Polish elections through disinformation and stoking instability, Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said. Warsaw says its role as a hub for supplies to Ukraine has made it a target for spies working for Russia and its ally Belarus, as well as for acts of sabotage.
• The breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria said it was “counting” on Russia to help it overcome an unprecedented energy crisis prompted by Moscow halting gas supplies last week.
• Transdniestria extended its state of emergency for another month as it grapples with an energy crisis after losing access to Russian gas supplies that had propped up its economy for decades.
• Thousands of people protested in cities across Slovakia against the Ukraine policy of Slovakian left-wing populist Prime Minister Robert Fico. The demonstrators accused Fico of following a pro-Russian course and of “betraying” Western allies and neighbouring Ukraine.

Politics

• President Biden’s administration has renewed deportation relief that currently covers 900,000 immigrants from Venezuela, El Salvador, Ukraine and Sudan, a move that would delay any attempts by President-elect Donald Trump to alter those protections.