WAR IN UKRAINE: January 10, 2023
Members of the disbanded OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. The current Secretary-General says she opposes expulsion of Russia from the Vienna-based regional security body.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 321
‘Fierce battle’ rages in Soledar, with 22 combat clashes over past 24 hours. A “fierce battle” rages in the town of Soledar near Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast, Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Eastern Group of Forces, said on Jan. 9. Meanwhile , Serhii Cherevatyi, Ukraine's Eastern Military Command spokesman, reported that the city of Soledar, Donetsk Oblast, long a target of Russia's Bakhmut offensive, is "practically destroyed." According to Cherevatyi, Russian troops recently attempted to find a weakness in Ukraine's defenses. Russia is reportedly deploying the most trained Wagner mercenaries to the area - Kyiv Independent
Russia is "likely" to finally control most of the salt-mining town of Soledar in Ukraine's east after a months-long battle with Ukrainian forces, the UK's Ministry of Defence says. Russian troops and the mercenary Wagner Group have made advances in the past four days, the UK says. Soledar is near Bakhmut, where Ukraine is also locked in a bloody battle. President Zelensky said there was "almost no life" in Soledar, with "no whole walls left". He also said "the whole land near Soledar is covered with the corpses of the occupiers" - BBC
The United States said on January 9 that Iran's sale of lethal drones to Russia for use in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine means the country may be "contributing to widespread war crimes."
Two British nationals missing in Donetsk in Ukraine, Ukrainian police have said. Andrew Bagshaw, 48, & Christopher Parry, 28, were doing voluntary work, police said, were last seen Fri heading to Soledar - where fighting has been intense. Been no contact with them since - BBC
OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid told German television channel Welt that “it makes sense” to keep Russia in the organization to maintain diplomatic channels. “One day, we will need conversation means again. And the OSCE is the only security organization in which everyone important to the European security architecture sits at one table,” Schmid said. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba earlier urged to expel Russia from the OSCE, calling its participation “a threat to security and cooperation in Europe.” The OSCE announced the closure of its Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine in April after Russia had blocked the extension of the mission mandate on March 31.
MY OPINION: The view of the OSCE’s top official reflects a naïveté displayed by many western leaders that Russia still subscribes to the rules based international order and that it deserves a seat at the diplomatic table. “Russia’s blatant disregard for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of its neighbors, including its malign efforts to undermine their democratic institutions, has upset the international security order and is in direct contradiction of the principles and values of this organization as enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act,” said the US Mission to the OSCE. Moscow-backed thugs are still holding Ukrainian staff of the recently-disbanded OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. In addition, Moscow is reportedly blocking the renewal of the OSCE mission to Moldova. While Russia continues to threaten Ukraine, other OSCE member states and the organization itself, Schmid’s coddling of the Kremlin comes as a mystery.
Russia as we know it may not survive the coming decade and risks becoming a failed state as it pursues its costly war in Ukraine, according to a survey of global strategists and analysts. The Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security polled 167 global strategists and practitioners last fall on the biggest prospective drivers of geopolitical, societal, economic, technological and environmental change. Respondents comprised primarily men and workers in the private sector, academia, non-profit organizations, as well as independent consultants or freelancers. One of the poll's most surprising takeaways, according to the Atlantic Council, was that respondents pointed to a potential Russian collapse over the next decade. This was "suggesting that the Kremlin's war against Ukraine could precipitate hugely consequential upheaval in a great power with the largest nuclear-weapons arsenal on the planet," the U.S. think tank noted in the Monday report - CNBC
