Ramstein Day, new head of National Police: highlights of the day

"Ramstein Day"

On January 20, representatives of the defense ministries and governments of 54 countries gathered at the 8th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (Ramstein format). The participants failed to make the main decision — the transfer of German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would still "have to fight" for the supply of Western battle tanks, but that this decision would eventually be made.

Poland and Ukraine convened another meeting on the sidelines of this one, a meeting of representatives of the Leopard owners. A total of 15 countries took part in it. Poland reported that they plan to create a coalition of countries that own Leopard tanks to help Ukraine.

The head of the U.S. Department of Defense, Lloyd Austin, noted that although there is no news about Leopards for Ukraine, other announced assistance from Ukraine's partners also constitutes a "powerful package that, if applied correctly, will allow for success."

How Ukrainians will apply to universities in 2023

The Ministry of Education and Science has presented a model of admission to higher education institutions based on the improved National Multisubject Test, which applicants took in 2022 instead of the usual External Independent Testing. This year's NMT will also contain tasks in three subjects: Ukrainian language and mathematics are compulsory, and one more subject is optional. The test will take 180 minutes to complete.

New head of National Police

The government has appointed Ivan Vyhivskyi, head of the National Police in Kyiv, as acting head of the National Police. Prior to that, National Police Chief Ihor Klymenko was appointed acting Interior Minister due to the death of Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi in a helicopter crash in Brovary, Kyiv Oblast.

Situation in Donbas

The leader of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" Denis Pushilin said that the town of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast is "close to being surrounded", the village of Klishchiyivka near Bakhmut has been captured, and the occupiers are conducting "cleansing" on the outskirts of Soledar (of which Russia announced full occupation a week ago).

Meanwhile, Ukrainian border guards said that the occupiers tried to conduct reconnaissance by combat in the direction of the border guard unit's stronghold near Bakhmut. Ukrainian soldiers killed two scouts and wounded three others.

At night, the occupiers did not abandon their intention and brought in infantry from several axes. The artillery of the Defense Forces opened fire against the occupiers, and the border guards completely stopped them in close combat.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that the occupiers did not abandon their plans, are conducting offensive actions on the Bakhmut, Avdiyivka and Zaporizhzhya axes, and are increasing the intensity of aviation. On the Kupyansk, Lyman, Novopavlivka and Kherson axes, Russian troops are defending.

Sanctions against Wagner PMC

The U.S. Treasury Department is going to recognize the Russian private military company Wagner as a transnational criminal organization and impose additional sanctions against the PMC and its support network around the world. Earlier, the United States said that the Wagner PMC had received a shipment of weapons from North Korea to strengthen Russian forces in Ukraine. The North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the allegations, calling them "baseless."

According to media reports, the Wagner PMC is expanding its mining projects in the Central African Republic, earning millions of dollars. This creates a channel for financing the war against Ukraine.

Other news

• Poltava Mayor Oleksandr Mamay, who is suspected of illegally disseminating data on military deployments, was not elected a pre-trial restriction. The prosecutor's office plans to appeal the court's decision, and has five days to prepare the complaint.
• Russia has destroyed about 10% of Ukraine's energy sector and damaged about half of it. DTEK's Executive Director Dmytro Sakharuk said that the power shortage in the energy sector will continue after the winter, although on a somewhat smaller scale. In addition, since the beginning of the full-scale war, 127 DTEK employees have been killed, dozens are missing, and a number are in captivity.
• The state-owned Russian nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, which is not subject to Western sanctions, could have supplied the Russian military industry with raw materials, technologies and components, The Washington Post reports with reference to a letter received by Ukrainian intelligence.