January 20, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has denied that the country’s decision to potentially send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine is tied to whether the United States makes a similar move and sends M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.

When asked about the issue during an interview with German public broadcaster ARD Thursday, Pistorius said he was “not aware of such an arrangement.”  

According to Pistorius, no decision has been made as to whether Germany will send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

The defense minister told reporters on the sidelines of a high stakes defense meeting at Ramstein Airbase on Friday that "we all cannot say today when a decision will be made and what that decision will be on Leopard tanks."

Some background: German and US officials have been stuck in a deadlock over whether to send tanks following numerous appeals from Kyiv’s leadership. CNN reported Friday that German officials indicated they won't send their Leopard tanks to Ukraine or give permission to any other country with the German-made tanks in their inventory to do so, unless the US also agrees to send its M1 Abrams tanks to Kyiv. 

“If America will decide that they will bring battle tanks to Ukraine, that will make it easier for Germany,” German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck told Bloomberg from Davos on Tuesday.

"They have us over a barrel," a senior Biden administration official told CNN Thursday, adding that the Germans are demanding tanks for tanks, and not budging on considering any other offers the US has made to spur Berlin to send the Leopards.

However, German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit denied these claims Friday. "It's hard for me to imagine a German chancellor dictating any conditions to an American president or making any demands." 

The spokesperson added that Germany deems it “important” that Ukraine’s allies “act in a very unified and joint manner,” especially when it comes to the delivery of battle tanks. 

With previous reporting from CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, Kylie Atwood and Oren Liebermann 

The organization responsible for conducting federal elections in Russia has begun preparations for a presidential vote next year, said Ella Pamfilova, the Central Election Commission chairman. 

"We are laying it out now with an eye on the presidential campaign, because we understand what the presidential elections are in the current conditions," Pamfilova told journalists Friday, according to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

Russia is expected to hold the presidential election in the spring of 2024. The current head of state, President Vladimir Putin, has not yet announced his decision to participate.

Some background: Putin has been in power for a long time. He served as president from 2000-2008, and then, a job swap with his then prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, in 2008, allowed him to return to the presidency in 2012. He has been serving since then. He would have been obliged by law to step down after this term, which ends in 2024, but he signed a law in 2021 that paved the way for him to run for two more presidential terms, potentially extending his rule until 2036.

The United States will support Ukraine "for as long as it takes," US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Friday. He is meeting Western allies in Germany to discuss military aid for Kyiv. It comes as Washington is stuck in a standoff with Berlin over whether to send tanks to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made another desperate plea to send more weapons to Kyiv without delay, warning that "hundreds of thank you are not hundreds of tanks."

Here are some of the latest developments:

Russia’s defense ministry said that its troops have captured the small settlement of Klishchiivka, near Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine.

"In the Donetsk direction, the volunteers of the assault detachments, with fire support from operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery of the Southern Military District, liberated the settlement of Klishchiivka of the Donetsk People's Republic," it said in a statement Friday.

CNN cannot independently verify the claim. The Moscow-backed leaders of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic had made the same assertion earlier on Friday.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the mercenary group Wagner, claimed credit for capturing Klishchiivka on Thursday. Prigozhin said in a statement published by his holding company that the settlement had been captured "exclusively by units of the Wagner Group."

Klishchiivka is a few miles southwest of the city of Bakhmut, where both sides have been locked in a fierce battle for months. Prigozhin said Klishchiivka was "one of the important suburbs" to capture near Bakhmut. 

Fighting around Bakhmut has eased slightly as Russian forces focused their efforts on the nearby town of Soledar. If the battle there is in its final stages, it’s widely assumed the Russians will renew their push to take Bakhmut.

Read more on Bakhmut:

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'I won't leave': Civilians struggle on with daily life despite battle for Bakhmut | CNN

CIA Director Bill Burns briefed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv last week on the US’ expectations for Russia’s battlefield planning in the spring, according to a US official and two Ukrainian sources familiar with the meeting.

The secret meeting comes as US officials are closely monitoring a potential Russian offensive in the coming months – and in the midst of a fraught debate between the US and its European allies over whether to send increasingly sophisticated and long-range weaponry to Ukraine. Western defense leaders are scheduled to meet Friday to discuss further weapons shipments to Ukraine.

“Director Burns traveled to Kyiv where he met with Ukrainian intelligence counterparts as well as President Zelensky and reinforced our continued support for Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression,” a US official said in a statement.

Burns, a veteran diplomat, has become a trusted interlocutor in Kyiv, and last week’s trip was not his first. He made two known back-to-back trips to Kyiv in October and November of last year, including one that took place amid a spate of Russian missile strikes across the country.

Read the full story:

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CIA director briefed Zelensky on US expectations for Russia's battlefield planning | CNN Politics

Germany has a “fundamental problem” with the idea of sending its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, Poland’s deputy foreign minister said in a radio interview Friday morning.

Pawel Jablonski told the RMF FM radio talk show: “Less and less countries today have problems with the transfer of tanks. Today, Germany has a fundamental problem.” He said Poland and other countries were “trying to convince” Berlin to agree to send the tanks to Ukraine.

“We have been hearing such stories for a long time, that if we hand over some weapons to Ukraine, then we will provoke Putin. But he acts in such a way that only hard power can stop him,” Jablonski said.

Some background: This comes as the US is stuck in a standoff with Germany over whether to send tanks to Ukraine. In recent days, German officials have indicated they won’t send their Leopard tanks to Ukraine, or allow any other country with the German-made tanks in their inventory to do so, unless the US also agrees to send its M1 Abrams tanks to Kyiv – something the Pentagon has said for months it has no intention of doing given the logistical costs of maintaining them.

At least one person has died after three missiles hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Friday morning, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on national television. 

The missiles hit “a kindergarten, one of the schools in Kramatorsk and a private health center,” Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration, said.

“The necessary measures were taken in advance. Both children and teachers were moved to other places in advance,” he added. “Thus, fortunately, we managed to avoid more dire consequences that could have occurred.” 

All students in the Ukrainian-held parts of the Donetsk region currently study online, Kyrylenko noted. 

He said between 75,000 and 77,000 people live in Kramatorsk today, compared to the approximately 205,000 permanent residents before Russia attempted to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

The Ukrainian defense minister Oleksii Reznikov has laid out his country’s priorities for a meeting in Germany Friday where Kyiv’s allies will discuss sending more weapons to Ukraine.

“There are three priorities of Ukraine at #Ramstein … More air defence systems … Weapons for the offensive operations (tanks, howitzers, ammo) … Systematic ammo supplies [and] service [and] repair for armament and machinery,” he said in a post on Twitter.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that any new deliveries of heavy weapons to Kyiv "will not change anything" in regards to Russia achieving its goals in Ukraine.

His comments come as NATO partners gather in Germany Friday for a key meeting focusing on military aid for Kyiv.

"The consequences will be with a minus sign, definitely. We have repeatedly said that such deliveries will not fundamentally change anything, but will only add problems to Ukraine," Peskov said during his daily call with journalists.

He added that the importance of weapons deliveries to Kyiv "should not be exaggerated in terms of the ability to change something."

"All these tanks need both maintenance and repair, and so on and so forth, so this will add problems to Ukraine, but will not change anything in terms of the progress of the Russian side in achieving its goals," Peskov said.

This comes a day after the Pentagon announced a $2.5 billion Ukraine security package, including for the first time Stryker armored vehicles and more Bradley fighting vehicles that could be used against any potential Russian offensive in Ukraine this spring.

Peskov added that Russia will "closely monitor" the situation related to US attempts to convince Latin American countries to transfer weapons to Ukraine.

According to Peskov, Moscow has "no hope" of improving relations with Washington in the foreseeable future, adding that bilateral relations "are now probably at their lowest point historically."