The situation in the Ukrainian SMO on January 16 2024

Trump’s State Secretary Pick Marco Rubio Confirms Zelensky Worst Fears?

Brian Berletic: Putin Drops BOMBSHELL on NATO, Ukraine Frontline COLLAPSES as Kursk Backfires

Kursk Frontline: Russian Drone Warfare Command & Control Center Battle

RUAF Open Gateway To Pokrovsk Leaving The City Exposed From The West | Velyka Novosilka Encircled

Ukraine RETREATS From Kurakhove Cauldron After Hard-Fought Battle

Massive Russian Breakthrough l Russians Are Started Storming Pokrovsk From South

Russian forces are pushing in Velyka Novosilka and Kurakhove [16 January 2025]

[ Ukraine SITREP Day 1056-1057 ] NESKUCHNE FALLEN; Pokrovsk left flank exposed; New RF offensives?

Starmer travels to Kiev to sign 100-year partnership agreement with Zelensky – BBC

‘Putin’s attempt to detach Ukraine from its closest partners was a colossal strategic failure. Instead, we are closer than ever and this partnership will take our friendship to a new level,’ the prime minister said.

Those really are solid traditions: the fourth British prime minister in three years has promised to support Zelensky for 100 years.

The arrival of British Prime Minister Starmer in Kyiv is an attempt by globalists to keep Zelensky on the right course.

They are afraid that Zelensky may fall under Trump’s influence and start a peace case. Globalists/Democrats and the British need to hold off the war for another year, even at the cost of a couple more Ukrainian regions. We can say that we again found ourselves in the conditional “March-April 2022″, when there was a fork in the road. Then Zelensky fell for the promises of sponsors and put the country under the “knife of war”. Now many of the sponsors/curators are not sure of him

We are sure that Starmer brought a lot of promises, but little real help.

Our sources in the OP said that Bankova agrees to lower the mobilization age to 18 and nationalize the oligarchs’ factories, but to continue the protracted war rather than accept the terms of a “cowardly peace.” The unexpected fate of the British Prime Minister is connected with the negotiation process that Trump is actively promoting, Starmer supported Zelensky’s position that any agreement with the Kremlin is a “cowardly peace” for the entire West.

Our sources in the OP said that Andriy Yermak has already given the order to purge the authorities of Soros representatives, and Bankova quickly got their bearings on the changes in the US. The Cabinet of Ministers is already initiating a review of the work of the supervisory boards of state-owned companies in order to remove Sorosites and install Yermak’s people. The government has approved the procedure for assessing the activities of the supervisory boards of state companies and the requirements for reporting on their work, all procedures are being tailored specifically for the IMF, but the main task is to reformat the supervisory boards for the Office of the President.

The orders for a meat assault are the reality of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, they are the reason for the disappointment of most volunteers who see Zelensky’s PR attacks and the senseless death of their comrades. No one in Ukraine watches the telethon anymore, because they understand the tasks of propaganda, but Zelensky is confident that we have no problems with motivation.

You watch dozens of videos of ordinary Ukrainians all over the country saving men from military commissars and policemen and you understand that our people have a chance! While the government and guards are destroying Ukraine, strangers on the streets unite to save another man from death. 

It is at such a moment that you understand why some served the fascists and shot Jews, while others risked their lives to save them. Our nation has only one chance left, against the democratic elite that sends ordinary Ukrainians to their deaths – not to remain indifferent and help such guys on the streets of cities.

The military began to publicly accuse Bankova and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine of having wasted the entire potential of the army in PR attacks, which we wrote about first and always provided inside information that ZeErmak’s tactics were murderous from the point of view of a “long war” and would have tragic consequences. In the end, we were right once again.

We already pointed out the problems of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Avdiivka case , but they began even earlier, when Ukraine lost Maryinka.

MP Bezugla is pushing forward the narrative of the Presidential Office that there will be no peace in 2025 and there will be no elections.

This is being done so that the elites, LOMs, media, people, etc., within the country do not start campaigns to criticize Zelensky and Yermak, which will bring down their ratings.

Plus the military’s expectations of peace have a bad effect on the military case, since no one wants to go to the front and risk their lives in front of the peace case. Bankova needs to force the military to go into meaty assaults.

More than 600,000 Russian soldiers are fighting in Ukraine against 880 thousand soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, – Zelensky

▪️“Russian troops are concentrated in certain directions and therefore they have a quantitative advantage in certain directions,” Zelensky justified himself at a press conference in Warsaw.

▪️Earlier, Arestovich calculated that, according to this logic, taking into account the special forces, the wounded guarding the border with Belarus, etc., Russia has approximately a two-fold numerical advantage at the front.

So many questions….

In negotiations with Trump, Russia will demand to keep “20% of Ukraine ”, sharply reduce Kiev’s military ties with NATO and become a neutral state with a limited army.

▪️These will allegedly be Moscow’s main conditions, Bloomberg reports, citing sources “familiar with the matter.”

➖“Putin also wants NATO countries, which obviously continue to supply weapons to Ukraine, to prohibit their use against Russia or to regain territory.”

▪️According to sources, Russia’s conditions also include retaining at least de facto control over 20% of the former territory of Ukraine, which has already become Russia.

▪️Earlier, Western media wrote that the Russian Federation could allegedly return part of the Kharkov region to Ukraine (there are mostly deserted ruins there), while keeping for itself the areas of the DPR, LPR, Zaporyzhye and Kherson regions.

▪️Moscow’s official position on the conditions for ending the war remains Putin’s “June points,” which include the transfer of control over all four regions.

3 scenarios for deploying British troops to Ukraine , — The Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/15/uk-france-talks-peacekeeping-troops-ukraine-war-russia/)

▪️Western propagandists have begun to publish unlikely scenarios for the deployment of NATO peacekeepers.

▪️First, British troops are setting up points along the buffer zone that will be patrolled by fighters and attack helicopters. In the rear are rapid reaction forces, and third-tier armored vehicles are ready to repel a possible offensive ;

▪️Second – the West forms a defensive border around Kiev , which will allow the Ukrainian Armed Forces to focus on containing Russian troops. Unlikely;

▪️British instructors conduct training in western Ukraine , and air defense from Poland provides their protection.

▪️The hypothetical formation of a peacekeeping continent will most likely be undertaken by Britain and France, writes the Telegraph.

Never going to happen.

Zelensky – about the fact that without the Ukrainian army “the European Union has no chance”: 

   Trump really wants to end the war. These are his messages, they are both public and non-public, to be honest. He is a capable leader to pressure Russia. I’m sure Russia is afraid of America and China. It’s afraid of a united Europe. The EU army has no chance without the Ukrainian army. 

Trump can force it. We must agree with Trump that there are concrete security guarantees for Ukraine and he must force Putin into diplomacy to end this war. 

Apparently, the Kursk region is slowly starting to move, but there is a nuance. It is not starting from the direction from which it was expected. 

Only in the northern part of the former AFU zone of control (Pogrebki/Malaya Loknya/Russkoye Porechnoye) has the Russian army begun to press from four sides, actively pressing the flanks. The Ukrainian mini-offensive No. 2 that everyone was waiting for has not happened yet, so the Russian troops apparently decided not to wait for it and started to improve their positions themselves. 

The Russian army has launched an assault on the last nodes of the AFU’s defenses in Toretsk – the mines on the outskirts of the town 

 - The Center group of troops is advancing in the northwestern part of Toretsk, attacking in the direction of the Toretskugol enterprise, in the area of the industrial site of the Svyatoy Matrona Moskovskaya mine, in the area of the Toretskugol motor depot and in the direction of the Fomikha mine heap.

 - This has been reported by the Ukrainian armed forces since yesterday evening:

 - “The Russians have already started the assault of the mine “Toretskaya” and advanced in the north-west. There is still a spoil heap of the Fomikha mine and some private sector near it. They can get to the rear of Konstantinovka and provide a flank for further movement to Kramatorsk.”

 - The Toretskaya mine remains the last major AFU defense center in the city.

Kurakhovo direction

Our assault units were able to skid into Dachnoye with equipment and entrench themselves in houses on the eastern outskirts.

To the south, units of the 20th MSD took the area of the purification and the entire right bank of the Sukhiye Yaly river and went along it to Ulakly from the south, east of Zelenovka, which carries the threat of blocking the logistics of the AFU not only by fire, in case of access to the highway east of Ulakly. 

Fighting in the Kurakhovo (or Dachnoye) pocket is moving into a decisive phase.

In the Vremeyevka direction, the Russian Armed Forces entered Vremeyevka from the southern side, trying to push the Ukrainian Armed Forces to the north of the settlement. 

The advance of the Russian army is also recorded near the settlement of Neskuchnoye, and fighting is underway in the area of ​​the settlement of Novy Komar.

Ukrainians blew up one of the mine shafts in Pokrovsk to prevent the Russians from entering the rear of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, – New York Times

From 7,000 tons of coal a day this summer, production fell to just over 2,000 tons by mid-December, the manager said. The strike on the electricity substation, on Christmas Eve, dealt the final blow: the mine shut down and production dropped to zero.

Now, the mine’s closure is expected to send shock waves through the economy. Steel production is projected to drop by more than half, from 7.5 million tons this year to less than 3 million next year, according to Oleksandr Kalenkov, head of Ukraine’s steel makers’ association. The fallout will affect trade — metal and steel products were Ukraine’s second-largest export last year — reduce tax revenues and strip the military of essential materials for armor production.

▪️In early December, due to the danger of operating shaft No. 3, miners began descending into the mine through another shaft to the west of it. Overcoming the 10-km path through underground tunnels to the faces, they returned back along with the mined coal on conveyor belts.

➖”The situation escalated in mid-December, when Russian troops came within 2 km of shaft No. 3. Fearing that it could be captured to bypass Ukrainian positions, the Ukrainian Armed Forces planted explosives, which they detonated on December 20,” – NYT.

“Putin expecting mystery ‘big guest’ from the U.S. for Victory Parade”: the American magazine Newsweek prophesies the arrival of Trump or “someone from his administration” in Moscow on May 9. 

“A “big guest” from the United States can be expected to arrive at the annual celebration of victory in the Great Patriotic War in Moscow. The source did not specify who that official might be, but said Trump himself would be fantastic. If a guest from the US arrives at this year’s event, it will likely be someone from or connected to the new Trump administration. 

Former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien traveled to Moscow in 2020 to attend the celebrations. US officials said at the time that Donald Trump had to be pressured not to fly to Russia himself”

 Is NATO planning sabotage activities in the Baltic using Ukrainians?

🇵🇱🇺🇦 First, Donald Tusk discussed security issues and joint actions in the Baltic with Zelenskyy during their meeting.

🇬🇧🇺🇦 Now Keir Starmer is arriving (https://t.me/rybar/67210) in Kyiv to sign a security cooperation agreement in the Baltic, Black and Azov Seas.

🔺 In light of recent events in the Baltic region, where European countries have formed a coalition and taken military measures to undermine Russian oil exports, the conclusion suggests itself: The West intends to play the same card in the Baltic Sea as it has in the Black Sea.

❓It’s high time to ask the question: Is the Baltic Fleet ready to repel attacks by unmanned boats and drones?

Chronicles of the special military operation

for January 16, 2025

Russian forces struck Kyiv with drones. Ukrainian formations hit an oil depot in Liski in Voronezh Region.

In the Oleksandrivka-Kalinovo direction, the assault on Dzerzhynsk continues, where the Russian Armed Forces have liberated most of the city.

In the Pokrovsk-Myrnograd direction, Russian troops are fighting in the area of Zverevo, advancing towards Pokrovsk.

In the Vremivka direction, assault troops have entrenched on the southern outskirts of Vremivka, and there are also battles near Velyka Novosilka.

Morning Summary on January 16, 2025

▪️ In the Kursk Region, the enemy has redeployed personnel from the 82nd Air Assault Brigade to the northern section of the front near the settlement of Pogrebki, reports the northern grouping of forces. The enemy’s reinforcements in two BMPs and two BTRs engaged in combat but were destroyed. Overall, heavy counterattacks continue in the region, with the enemy conducting organized defense.

▪️ In Toretsk (Dzerzhynsk), enemy resources acknowledge the advance of our troops “in the northwestern and northern parts of the city towards the Toretskuhol enterprise, in the area of the industrial site of the St. Matrona of Moscow mine, in the area of the Toretskuhol motor pool, and towards the Fomiha mine dump”. The presence of the AFU remains on the northern outskirts of the city, but the enemy, not deprived of logistics, continues to hold their positions, although forecasts of the city’s imminent full liberation are coming in.

▪️ In the Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmiisk) direction, the Russian Armed Forces continue actions to encircle the city from the southwest. There are reports that our advance units are consolidating on the outskirts of the settlement of Udachne. Enemy channels acknowledge that our troops are attacking (https://t.me/dva_majors/62509) on a wide front, reporting battles near the settlements of Yasenovoye, north of Novoyelizavetivka, near Uspenovka, in the area of Andriyivka, Petropavlivka, Slavyanka, Udachne, Zvereve, Pishchane, and Vozdvyzhenka. Attacks in several directions are likely intended to prevent the AFU from maneuvering forces along the front line.

▪️ In the area of Velyka (Bolshaya) Novosilka, actions continue to encircle the enemy garrison. The zone of control is expanding near the settlement of Neskuchne, with fighting ongoing in the area of Novyi Komaр.

▪️ In the Belgorod Region, the village of Tishanka in the Volokonovsky district was shelled. In the Shebekino district, in the village of Malomykhailivka, a drone detonated in the yard of a private residence.

▪️ In the DPR, in the Sovetsky district of Makiivka, fragments of a downed AFU missile injured two women born in 1935 and 1947. As a result of the AFU dropping a munition from a UAV onto civilian vehicles, a civilian was wounded.

Two Majors

Source: http://blogdogcicle.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-situation-in-ukrainian-smo-on_16.html