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The official Washington Post channel, sharing live news coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine. You can find our full coverage at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ukraine-russia/.

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Putin secretly pardoned convicts recruited by Wagner to fight in Ukraine

RIGA, Latvia — Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly pardoned dozens of convicts even before they were sent to fight in the war in Ukraine, a member of Russia’s Human Rights Council said — indicating that there were legal flaws in recruitment strategy that promised jailed criminals that their sentences would be set aside only after they had completed military service.

Putin’s decrees were issued secretly both to legally release the prisoners and to avoid the public disclosure of their names, which would normally occur in the issuing of a presidential pardon, said Eva Merkacheva, the member of the Human Rights Council, which is a consultative body set up by Putin in the early 2000s that was recently reorganized to expel voices critical of the Kremlin.

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Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- Fighting continued in Soledar as both sides sought to control the narrative. A Telegram channel affiliated with the founder of Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group posted a photo it said showed Wagner units inside Soledar’s salt mines, as the mercenary group claimed to control the city.

- It was “not true” that Russia had taken over the town, a spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern command said, as Ukrainian military officials dismissed Wagner’s claims as propaganda.

- Poland will transfer Leopard tanks to Ukraine as part of an international coalition, Polish President Andrzej Duda announced Monday after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda in Lviv.

- Putin admitted “there is still fighting” in some Ukrainian territories that Russia claimed illegally to have annexed last year.

- Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu appointed Gen. Valery Gerasimov to lead Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

More live updates here.
Here's the latest from Ukraine.

- Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he could not corroborate reports that the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar was under Russian control, as fighting reportedly continued to rage in the area near Bakhmut. President Zelensky dismissed claims that Russian forces and Wagner Group mercenaries had seized the town.

- Poland will transfer Leopard tanks to Ukraine but only as part of an international coalition, Polish President Andrzej Duda announced Monday after meeting Zelensky and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda in Lviv.

- A majority of Republicans want their member of Congress to oppose further Ukraine funding, according to a new CBS News/YouGov poll this week, the first to test the issue since Zelensky spoke before Congress in December. The poll is the latest to track the growing pessimism among the GOP about Ukraine’s ability to win the war — and more desire to make concessions to Russia in the name of ending it.

More live updates here.
Poland urges allies to join it in sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine

Poland intends to transfer a company of German-developed Leopard tanks to Ukraine, Polish President Andrzej Duda told reporters Wednesday during a visit to western Ukraine, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.

But Warsaw wants the tanks to be sent as part of a broader package of military aid backed by an international coalition, Duda said, suggesting that Poland will not unilaterally or immediately ship the advanced tanks to Ukraine. British officials also said this week that the country could send “game-changing” tanks to join the fight, though no specific plan or timeline was announced.

Duda made the remarks ahead of a meeting next week of the U.S.-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany, where defense ministers from dozens of countries will gather to discuss Kyiv’s most urgent needs.

Read the full story here.
Navy veteran held in Russia is released, U.S. officials say

A U.S. Navy veteran who had been detained in Russia for nine months was released on Thursday, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter.

Taylor Dudley, 35, of Michigan, had been held since April in the Russian province of Kaliningrad, located between Poland and Lithuania. He was released at a border crossing with Poland and was traveling to the United States with a team working for former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, according to a statement from his center, which negotiates for the release of hostages and prisoners abroad.

U.S. officials confirmed the release. It appeared that the U.S. government did not reciprocate with the release of any Russian prisoners, as it has in the past, including with professional basketball player Brittney Griner who was exchanged for convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout.

Read more on this developing story here.
Here's the latest from Ukraine.

- “The battles are ongoing” in Soledar, according to Brig. Gen. Oleksii Hromov, a top official on the Ukrainian army’s general staff. In a military briefing Thursday, he did not provide estimates of “which part of the city we control and which part the enemy is trying to control.”

- Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu replaced Gen. Sergei Surovikin with Gen. Valery Gerasimov, longtime chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, in Wednesday’s shake-up. Surovikin, nicknamed “General Armageddon” for his brutal tactics in Syria, had led the Russian campaign in Ukraine for just over three months.

- The Wagner Group said it found the body of one of two missing British men in Soledar. In a post on Telegram, the group included photos of two British passports allegedly found with the body and bearing the names of the two men. Volunteers Christopher Parry and Andrew Bagshaw were reported missing this week.

More live updates here.
Here's the latest from Ukraine.

- Ukraine said Thursday that its forces in Soledar were holding their positions against Russia’s assault and had not yet withdrawn — even as the Wagner Group continued to claim control of the town. The Institute for the Study of War's assessment also conflicted with Ukraine’s claims, stating Russian forces probably control most if not all of Soledar and have likely pushed Ukrainian forces out of the western outskirts of the town.

- John Kirby, communications coordinator for the U.S. National Security Council, said Thursday that even if Russian forces were to take Soledar, "it certainly isn’t going to stop the Ukrainians or slow them down in terms of their efforts to regain their territory."

- Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned Moscow against deporting Ukrainians living in occupied territories to Russia, in response to reports that Moscow has those plans for 100,000 residents of Ukraine’s Kherson region.

More live updates here.
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Russia’s new commander reflects Putin’s plan to push for victory in Ukraine

With the appointment of Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s highest-ranking military officer, as direct operational commander of the troubled war in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has doubled down on his conviction that the invasion’s objectives can be achieved without new leadership — and is now turning to a trusted confidant who will carry out his orders without question, analysts said.

“Gerasimov’s appointment is likely intended to support an intended decisive Russian military effort in 2023,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, wrote in an analysis Wednesday.

Other analysts said Gerasimov was potentially being set up to take the fall for further Russian failures on the battlefield.

Read the full story here.
Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- The Russian Defense Ministry announced that its forces took “complete” control of Soledar, calling it an “important” step to help Moscow’s offensive in the Donetsk region, Russia’s Tass news agency reported. Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for the Ukrainian armed forces in the east, said otherwise. The “fighting continues in Soledar,” he said, but would not say how many Ukrainian troops remained or what area they held. The Post could not verify the claims.

- “Our fighters are bravely trying to hold the line” under a barrage through the night, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said earlier Friday.

- Fighting has prevented the evacuation of residents still in Soledar, said Ukraine’s governor for Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko.

- Russian advances in Soledar would not “have a strategic impact on the war itself,” according to John Kirby, communications coordinator for the U.S. National Security Council.

More live updates here.
Here's the latest from Ukraine:

— Russia and Ukraine disputed control of the eastern salt mining town of Soledar, with the Kremlin claiming to have seized it after a bloody battle even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asserted that his forces were continuing to fight.

—Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian in Moscow on Jan. 17. Iran has emerged as a key weapons supplier to Russia during the invasion and Iranian drones have been used to target energy infrastructure in Ukraine.

— Russia is deliberately slowing down the inspection of ships leaving Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and delaying crucial grain shipments to the developing world, according to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

Read more updates here.
Ukraine liberated Kherson city. Now, Russia is destroying it.

KHERSON, Ukraine — Four charred baby cribs were all that was left in the maternity ward’s bomb shelter.

The rest of the room was destroyed when Russian forces attacked the city, striking one of the only hospitals in Kherson where babies can still be delivered.

Residents who survived nine months of Russian occupation say that now that their city is back under Ukrainian control, they face a painful reality: If Russia can no longer have the city, it seems hellbent on destroying it.

The strike on Tomchenko’s hospital marked at least the fifth time Russian forces hit a medical facility in Kherson city since December.

One attack hit a different maternity ward 20 minutes after a baby was born, and this week, another struck the city’s children’s hospital. Russian forces are also shelling other civilian infrastructure. In recent weeks, they hit a market, a museum and many homes. Dozens were killed and more than 150 wounded.

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Russian missile attack kills at least 5; Britain to send battle tanks to Ukraine

Russian missiles rained down on Ukrainian cities in a major attack Saturday, with one strike on an apartment building in the central city of Dnipro leaving at least five dead.

More than three dozen people were wounded in the attack, including seven children. One of them, a nine-year-old girl, was in critical condition Saturday.

Earlier, explosions shook Kyiv residents awake in what Ukraine’s air force said was “most likely” a ballistic missile attack. Ukraine lacks the capability to detect ballistic missiles, so Kyiv residents heard sirens only after the attack. The city’s mayor said missile fragments landed in a nonresidential part of the city, sparking a fire that caused no casualties.

In Lviv and Kharkiv, regional authorities reported missile strikes targeting infrastructure.

The attack came as Britain confirmed plans to send heavy battle tanks to Ukraine.

Read the full story here.
Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- At least 12 people were killed and 64 hospitalized in the residential building attack, Dnipro regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said on Telegram.

- The Dnipro strike may have destroyed as many as 30 apartments inside the sprawling complex. Zelensky said all upper floors of the building, from the second to the ninth, were smashed by the missile.

- The initial Kyiv blasts hit the city early Saturday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. He said missile fragments landed in a nonresidential part of the city, where a fire erupted with no casualties.

- “Most likely, these are missiles that flew along a ballistic trajectory from the northern direction,” Yuri Ignat, a spokesman for Ukraine’s air force said about the earlier blast.

- On the eastern front, Russia and Ukraine disputed control of the salt mining town of Soledar, a gateway to the city of Bakhmut that has become a recent focus of the fighting.

More live updates here.
Here's the latest from Ukraine:
—A weekend attack on a residential apartment block in Dnipro killed at least 14 people, including a 15-year-old girl, and injured dozens, shattering the relative calm in a central Ukrainian city that had previously served as a safe haven for people displaced from other regions.

— Missile attacks on Dnipro and several other cities, including the capital, Kyiv, come as Western allies prepare to send more advanced military equipment to Ukraine. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the United Kingdom would provide Challenger 2 tanks, along with additional artillery systems.

— The Ukrainian air force said on Telegram that it had shot down 25 of 38 rockets launched by Russian forces on Saturday as part of a massive attack on infrastructure.

Read more updates here.
When Russia bombs a building full of people, this is the aftermath

DNIPRO, Ukraine — Two hours after a Russian missile slammed into a Ukrainian apartment complex on Saturday, shocking the city that has served as a relatively safe haven for the war’s displaced, rescue workers digging through rubble spotted a sudden movement from above.

On the eighth floor, they could see the arm of a bloodied elderly woman, so buried in debris she could barely move, waving a piece of red fabric. Below her, dozens of apartments had collapsed, swallowing residents into some 30 feet of rubble.

From inside the damaged building, she was somehow alive — and calling for help.

Russia’s blatant attack on civilians here — the worst to strike this city since Russia invaded Ukraine last February — came just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed his most senior military officer, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, as the new overseer of his relentless war in Ukraine.

Read the full story here.
Here's the latest from Ukraine.

- The death toll of Saturday’s strike in Dnipro has risen to 35, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said Monday on Telegram, adding that the search-and-rescue operation had been going on for 40 hours and would continue.

- The commander of Ukraine’s Air Force, Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk, said in a statement that Russia fired five long-range Kh-22 missiles at Ukraine on Saturday. Ukraine doesn’t have the ability to shoot down such missiles, he said. The Post couldn’t immediately verify the type of missile used in the attacks.

- Russia has ramped up its assault around the Bakhmut area in recent days, as it seeks to capture a city many military analysts view as having relatively little strategic significance to the broader battlefield, but which has become a potent political symbol on both sides, The Post reports. Seizing the city would give the Kremlin its first victory since the summer.

More live updates here.
As Dnipro deaths mount, survivors plead for anti-missile defense

DNIPRO, Ukraine — Anger and grief consumed this central Ukrainian city Sunday as rescue workers continued to dig for survivors in the wreckage of an apartment block that collapsed when a Russian missile struck it the day before, killing at least 30 people and wounding dozens of others, including children.

The brazen, midday attack on civilians in their homes has renewed urgent calls for Ukraine’s allies to immediately provide the country with upgraded air defenses that can help repel the missiles used in the attack, which officials here said their current system cannot detect. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said the death toll from the attack had risen to at least 30, added Sunday that another 30 residents were unaccounted for.

Read the full story here.