Result 24.01: The story of IL-76 and Fico changed its mind

A Russian military aircraft Il-76 crashed in the Belgorod region. The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed there were Ukrainian prisoners on the plane, allegedly taken for another exchange. Ukrainskaya Pravda, citing sources in the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, reports that the Il-76 contains missiles for the S-300 air defense system, which the Russians frequently fire at Kharkov from the Belgorod region. The Main Intelligence Directorate confirmed that a prisoner exchange was supposed to take place that day, but it did not. Russian propagandists published a list of 65 Ukrainian prisoners who were said to have died in the crash. However, as Ukrainian journalists found out, the data of 17 people from the list published by the Russians coincided with the data of 17 Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen who were exchanged on January 3. President Vladimir Zelensky said that the Russians were playing the lives of Ukrainian prisoners and stressed that Ukraine would insist on an international investigation.

Slovakia will not block the allocation of 50 billion euros to Ukraine from the European Union. This was announced by the head of the Ukrainian government Denis Shmigal following negotiations with his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico in Uzhgorod. The Ukrainian Prime Minister also announced Slovakia’s full support for Ukraine’s integration aspirations. In addition, the parties reached several other agreements.

In the city of Tuapse in the Krasnodar Territory of the Russian Federation on Wednesday night, an explosion occurred at an oil refinery, after which a huge fire broke out. Before this, local residents saw and heard drones flying.

The Russian military destroyed more than 200 schools in Ukraine and damaged another 1,600. Every seventh school in the country suffered at the hands of the invaders. This was announced by Deputy Minister of Education and Science Andrei Stashkov. And the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine said that since the beginning of the mass invasion of the Russian Federation, 521 children have died as a result of armed aggression, and more than 1,211 children have been injured in various degrees of severity. It is noted that these numbers are not final, since we are only talking about documented data; in fact, the number of children killed and injured at the hands of Russians in Ukraine is much higher.

Germany plans to train at least 10 thousand soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine by 2024, as well as continue to supply Ukraine with tanks and other equipment. This is what German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. He noted that Germany intends to transfer additional IRIS-T anti-aircraft systems and Gepard anti-aircraft self-propelled guns to Ukraine this year. According to him, Berlin must accelerate the production of weapons and it is ready to do this work. The German Defense Minister in Kyiv promised additional supplies of artillery and artillery ammunition and more than 80 Leopard 1 tanks.