The Khartia unit maintains control of central Kupyansk, the city’s council building, the National Guard’s commander says. The Kremlin is using Medvedchuk to justify Russia’s rejection of peace efforts, ISW says. At Davos, EU leaders are to discuss with Trump Greenland instead of Ukraine, FT says.
Khartia unit maintains control of central Kupyansk, city council building, commander says
The Khartia search and strike group maintains control of the central part of Kupyansk, in Kharkiv region, and the city’s council building, Commander of Ukraine’s National Guard, Brigadier General Oleksandr Pivnenko said in a post to social media Monday.
The reconnaissance and strike group of Khartia’s 4th battalion continues to mop up the city of Russian forces, he added.
“[Watch] the video filmed with a GoPro camera of Khartia’s assault unit [to see] the service members’ immediate reaction to a direct hit by an FPV drone and a combat engagement with the adversary,” Pivnenko said in post accompanied by a video.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an update on January 17 that Ukrainian forces recently advanced in the Kupyansk direction. Russian milbloggers continue to loudly reject the alternate battlefield reality that Russian President Vladimir Putin and senior Russian military commanders are trying to create. The Russian military command has displayed a clear pattern of publicly presenting false information about the battlefield as part of a wider cognitive warfare effort that aims to influence US decision-making about ongoing peace negotiations, ISW said on January 16.
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov inspected the Russian Western Grouping of Forces on January 16 and heard reports from the grouping commander, Colonel General Sergei Kuzovlev. Belousov specifically asked if Russian forces are clearing Kupyansk, to which Kuzovlev responded that Russian forces control all areas of Kupyansk and that Ukrainian attempts to break through into the town have been unsuccessful. One Russian milblogger stated in direct response to Belousov’s January 16 meeting that statements about Russian control over Kupyansk are “not only inaccurate” but “do not even come close to reflecting the actual situation on the ground,” as Russian forces have not controlled Kupyansk “for a single day,” ISW added.
Kremlin using Medvedchuk to justify Russia’s rejection of peace efforts, ISW says
Russian state media amplified a Kremlin-affiliated former Ukrainian politician’s statements to prepare the Russian domestic populace for the Kremlin’s rejection of peace in the near-team amid ongoing US, Ukrainian, and European negotiations, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an update on Sunday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the report.
Kremlin-affiliated former Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Deputy Viktor Medvedchuk — a close personal ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Putin initially wanted to install in place of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion — claimed in an interview with Kremlin newswire TASS on January 18 that “there will be no peace in Ukraine in 2026.”
Medvedchuk also reiterated claims that “time is on the Kremlin’s side” and emphasized the Kremlin’s commitment to achieving its original war aims without negotiating with Ukraine. Medvedchuk also reiterated the Kremlin’s longstanding rhetoric falsely framing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a war against the West, claiming that the Ukrainian government is illegitimate, and rejecting Ukrainian elections (which the Kremlin itself has demanded to secure a peace deal) on anything but Russia’s terms.
Putin and Kremlin officials have repeatedly used these rhetorical lines to emphasize Russia’s commitment to its original war aims and its theory of victory that maintains that the Russian military and economy can outlast Ukraine and Western support for Ukraine — a theory the West can help disprove with support to Ukraine.
The Kremlin uses Medvedchuk to make more extreme statements than Putin and Kremlin officials themselves make through a voice claiming to represent Ukraine. The Kremlin is likely using Medvedchuk’s January 18 interview to justify Russia’s rejection of peace efforts to resolve its war in Ukraine. Medvedchuk’s statements come against the backdrop of ongoing US-European Union-Ukraine peace talks to develop a peace plan and the most recent round of Ukraine-US talks in Miami on January 16.
ISW continues to assess that the Kremlin likely intends to reject outright any peace proposal that does not acquiesce to Russia’s full demands, including terms that result from the recent negotiations.
In other news, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Rustem Umerov, writing on Facebook Sunday, said the Ukraine-U.S. talks in the U.S. over the weekend had focused on security guarantees and a post-war recovery plan for Ukraine.
“We had substantive discussions on economic development and prosperity plan as well as security guarantees for Ukraine, with a focus on practical mechanisms for their implementation and enforcement,” Umerov said. The talks will continue at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week, he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and U.S. President Donald Trump are expected to have a meeting on the sidelines in Davos, Ukrainian media said.
At Davos, EU leaders to discuss with Trump Greenland instead of Ukraine, FT says
EU capitals are weighing up imposing €93bn worth of tariffs on the US or curbing American companies’ access to the single market, in response to Donald Trump’s threats against Nato allies that oppose his designs on Greenland, the Financial Times said Monday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the article.
EU leaders and their delegations, who are set to meet Trump and US officials at the World Economic Forum starting in Davos today, are tearing up their Ukraine briefing notes and replacing them with what one senior EU diplomat described as “carrots and sticks” — how Brussels could retaliate against the tariffs, alongside offers to de-escalate.
“How can you sit down across the table with this guy and discuss his security guarantees to Ukraine?” the diplomat added. “You can’t trust him, unless you suspend reality.”
EU leaders will meet for an emergency summit later this week, provisionally slated for Thursday after the Davos meetings with Trump.
Many participants voiced their support for putting retaliatory measures on the table as negotiation leverage, but to not pull the trigger until diplomacy has run its course, according to officials briefed on the discussion.
A meeting of western national security advisers in Davos today was initially convened to discuss Ukraine; it will now focus on Greenland.
In other news, the 56th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum starts Monday. World leaders are convening in Davos to discuss the greatest challenges facing the globe. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and U.S. President Donald Trump are expected to meet on the sidelines in Davos, Ukrainian media said.
Kyiv’s G7 allies will meet Donald Trump at Davos to seek his personal backing on security guarantees for a post-ceasefire Ukraine drawn up by his administration.
Leaders of Italy, Germany, France, Canada and the UK, plus the president of the European Commission, plan to attend a proposed leaders’ meeting with Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the World Economic Forum next week, four officials briefed on the plans told the FT, the publication said on January 13.
Officials are negotiating the details of the meeting, which is set to take place on Wednesday next week and could feature other leaders from the so-called coalition of the willing — states supporting Ukraine. National security advisers from the coalition were also planning to hold a separate meeting, the officials said.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday the United States will impose new tariffs on several European countries unless a deal is reached for the purchase of Greenland, escalating his long-running push for U.S. control of the Arctic territory ruled by Denmark, CNN said.
Trump said he will impose a 10% tariff on “any and all goods” from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland starting February 1, increasing to 25% on June 1, until an agreement is reached.
“We have subsidized Denmark, and all of the Countries of the European Union, and others, for many years by not charging them Tariffs, or any other forms of remuneration,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Now, after Centuries, it is time for Denmark to give back — World Peace is at stake!”
