Key Takeaways
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The Kremlin’s effort to use the mythos of the Great Patriotic War
(Second World War) to prepare the Russian public for a long war in
Ukraine is at odds with Russia’s current level of mobilization and
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rhetorical attempts to reassure
Russians that the war will not have lasting domestic impacts.
•
The Kremlin may be instructing actors in the Russian-backed breakaway
republic of Transnistria to set information conditions for a possible
false-flag operation in Transnistria as part of wider Kremlin efforts to
destabilize Moldova.
•
The Kremlin may also be reviving its efforts to leverage Transnistria
to create instability in Moldova in order to undermine Ukrainian grain
exports along the western coast of the Black Sea.
•
Iran has reportedly developed a new Shahed drone for Russian forces to
use against Ukraine and is “close” to providing Russia with
surface-to-surface ballistic missiles and systems.
•
European Union (EU) Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton stated
that the EU will be able to supply Ukraine with one million shells by
spring 2024.
•
Lithuania announced a new long-term military aid package to Ukraine
worth 200 million euros (about $220 million) on January 10.
•
The very characteristics that make the Russian ultranationalist
milblogger community popular – its perceived independence from and
willingness to criticize the Russian government – likely continue to
complicate the Kremlin’s efforts to co-opt the community as Kremlin
mouthpieces.
•
Russian insider sources continue to discuss the reported removal of
First Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of the Russian General Staff
(GRU), Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev, who was reportedly in
charge of the Russian “Volunteer Corps” that was intended to replace the
Wagner Group in Ukraine.
•
Russian forces advanced southwest of Bakhmut and Donetsk City and in
the east (left) bank of Kherson Oblast amid continued positional
engagements along the entire front.
•
Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov stated on
January 10 that the Russian military plans to reorganize the five
existing naval infantry brigades of Russia’s fleets into naval infantry
divisions and the Caspian Flotilla’s naval infantry regiment into a
naval infantry brigade in the medium-term.
•
Russian authorities continue to deport prisoners from prisons in
occupied Ukraine to Russia and are likely using penal colonies as part
of widespread efforts to collect data on Ukrainian citizens.
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