January 9, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Ukraine’s Kharkiv region was targeted with a missile strike and shelling on Monday, the head of the Kharkiv regional state administration said on Telegram.

"The enemy shelled the settlements of the Chuhuiv and Kupyansk districts with artillery, tanks and mortars," Oleg Sinegubov said about the region in Ukraine’s east.

"In Kupyansk, as a result of enemy strikes, utility buildings were damaged, a fire broke out. In the village of Vovchansky Khutory, Chuhuiv district, a private residential building was destroyed due to shelling," he added.

Sinegubov said that a missile strike from the S-300 air defense system hit a local market in the village of Shevchenkove, Kupyansk district.

"According to the Regional Center for Emergency Medical Care, 7 civilians were injured as a result of a missile strike on the village of Shevchenkove. Among them is a 13-year-old girl," he said.

Sinegubov added that a 60-year-old woman had also died due to the missile strike and all other victims were hospitalized.

Pope Francis has likened the war in Ukraine to a "crime against God and against humanity," calling once again for an end to the conflict. 

Speaking during an address to the diplomatic corps in the Vatican on Monday, the Pope said that conflicts such as the war in Ukraine with its "wake of death and destruction" and "attacks on civil infrastructures" are akin to crimes "against God and humanity."

He also highlighted the impact of the war in Ukraine on the "most fragile – children, the elderly, the disabled," saying it "leaves an indelible mark on families."

A senior Ukrainian military commander has visited troops defending the embattled area of Bakhmut and Soledar, in eastern Ukraine.

Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi visited troops to work on organizing defense, the Ukrainian Military Media Center said.

"The enemy again made a desperate attempt to assault the city of Soledar from different directions and sent the most professional Wagner units into battle," Syrskyi said.

This comes as Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday called the area around the eastern Ukrainian cities "one of the bloodiest places on the front line."

However, the Ukrainian president said Sunday that the two cities were "holding out" and "the situation on the front line has not changed significantly in the first week of the year."

Some background: Bakhmut has become perhaps the most contested and kinetic part of the 1,300- kilometer (800 mile) front line in Ukraine and the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. 

The greater Donetsk region, where Bakhmut and Soledar are located, has been held by Russian-backed separatists since 2014 and is one of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims as Russian territory in violation of international law.

Shelling has continued overnight in different parts of the front line in southeastern Ukraine, the head of the Donetsk region military administration said on Telegram.

Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russian units continued "shelling at different parts of the front line overnight" in the southeast Ukrainian region.

One person was wounded in one of several shelling incidents, which took place near Vuhledar, Soledar, Chasiv Yar and the direction of Lysychansk, Kyrylenko added.

The greater Donetsk region has been held by Russian-backed separatists since 2014 and is one of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims as Russian territory in violation of international law.

The area around the eastern Ukrainian cities of Bakhmut and Soledar is "one of the bloodiest places on the front line," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Sunday.

Bakhmut has become perhaps the most contested and kinetic part of the 1,300- kilometer (800 mile) front line in Ukraine and the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. 

The greater Donetsk region, where Bakhmut and Soledar are located, has been held by Russian-backed separatists since 2014 and is one of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims as Russian territory in violation of international law.

However, the Ukrainian President said Sunday that the two cities were "holding out" and "the situation on the front line has not changed significantly in the first week of the year."

"Bakhmut is holding out against all odds. Although most of the city is destroyed by Russian strikes, our warriors repel constant attempts at Russian offensive there," he said.

"Soledar is holding out. Although there is even more destruction there and it is extremely hard."

Ukrainian officials on Sunday dismissed Moscow’s claim that a large number of Kyiv’s soldiers were killed in a Russian attack last week in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine.

A CNN team on the ground has seen no indication of any massive casualties in the area. There is no unusual activity in and around Kramatorsk, including in the vicinity of the city morgue, the team reported.

A Reuters reporter in Kramtorsk also reported no signs of a significant Russian strike on two college dormitories that Russia claimed had been housing hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers. “There were no obvious signs that soldiers had been living there and no sign of bodies or traces of blood,” the Reuters report said.

Kramatorsk’s mayor said there had been no casualties, according to Reuters.

Some background: Earlier, Russia claimed that more than 600 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in a Russian strike in Kramatorsk carried out in “retaliation” over the Ukrainian attack on Russian-occupied Makiivka last week, according to a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry.

Read more here.

Russia and Belarus will hold joint air force exercises in Belarus from Jan. 16 to Feb. 1, the Belarusian Defense Ministry announced Sunday. 

A Russian air division team arrived in Belarus Sunday, the ministry said. 

“During the tactical flight exercise, all airfields and training grounds of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of Belarus will be involved,” it added. 

The ministry said Thursday that it is continuing to increase its joint military grouping with Russia in Belarus. 

“Personnel, weapons, military and special equipment of the armed forces of the Russian Federation will continue to arrive to the Republic of Belarus,” the ministry said. 

More background: Some Russian forces are based in Belarus and used its territory in the initial invasion of Ukraine in February. But President Alexander Lukashenko has gone to some lengths to ensure that Belarusian troops do not become involved in Russia's so-called "special military operation." 

Last month, Ukraine said it "did not rule out" a "deliberate provocation" from Russia was behind Belarusian reports that wreckage of a Ukrainian missile landed on its territory.

Russia and Ukraine carried out a prisoner exchange Sunday with a total of 100 soldiers returning home, according to authorities from both countries.  

As a result of the negotiation process, 50 Russian soldiers captured by Ukraine were returned to Russia, Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. 

Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential office confirmed the exchange, saying that 50 Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russia returned home.  

"We returned the people who were captured at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, as well as the defenders of Mariupol, the guys from the Donetsk direction, from near Bakhmut, as well as from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kherson and other regions," Yermak said in a statement. 

This is the 36th exchange between Russia and Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, with 1,646 people — military and civilians — returned home to Ukraine, according to the Coordination Headquarters on the Treatment of Prisoners of War in Kyiv. 

UK Justice Minister Dominic Raab will host a meeting alongside his Dutch counterpart in London in March, which will see justice ministers from across the globe gather to support the International Criminal Court's (ICC) investigation into alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine. 

In a statement Saturday, the UK government said the meeting "aims to increase the global financial and practical support being offered to the ICC and coordinate efforts to ensure it has all it needs to carry out investigations and prosecute those responsible."

Prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan will address the London meeting, providing an insight into the court's work and "the role of the international community in supporting its investigations," the statement added.

Last week, British politicians from across the political divide expressed their support for the creation of a special tribunal to investigate Russia's "crime of aggression" in Ukraine.  

They include opposition leader Keir Starmer and former Conservative Party leader and MP Iain Duncan Smith, according to British newspaper The Observer, which said a copy of the statement was shared with them.