RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia shoots down two Ukrainian jets – MOD

Russian forces have downed two Ukrainian warplanes in the past 24 hours, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Sunday.

The ministry identified one as a Su-25 close air support plane, which it said was shot down by Russian air defense not far from Dnepropetrovsk (known as Dnepr in Ukraine), some 150km north of the frontline. The other jet was a Su-27 fighter, downed not far from Krivoy Rog, about 140km west of Dnepropetrovsk, officials added.

The Russian military also said it had intercepted 14 missiles fired from US-supplied HIMARS and Soviet-era Uragan missile systems, as well as six Ukrainian anti-ship Neptune rockets. According to the statement, Russian forces have also destroyed 38 Ukrainian drones across the frontline over the past 24 hours. 

In total, Russia has taken out 567 Ukrainian warplanes, 265 helicopters, and 10,526 drones since the start of the conflict in February 2022, the Defense Ministry claimed.  

In October, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said Moscow’s forces had received new military systems, which at the time allowed them to shoot down 24 Ukrainian planes in just five days. He did not provide further details. 

However, TASS news agency later reported, citing sources, that Russia had used an S-400 Triumph air defense system, which has a range of up to 400 km. It was also said to have been equipped with active homing heads, and to have been operating in tandem with an A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Japan minister, in Kyiv bomb shelter, pledges funds to fight drones

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, forced into a bomb shelter by an air alert in Kyiv on Sunday, pledged millions of dollars to NATO to help Ukraine avert Russian drone strikes and announced donations of generators and transformers.

"Russia has continued threats and attacks with missiles and drones in various locations, even on New Year's Day," Kamikawa said through an interpreter, after her news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was moved underground.

"Japan is determined to continue to support Ukraine so that peace can return," said Kamikawa, whose stop in Kyiv, announced the same day, was not part of an announcement last month of her Jan. 5 trip to Poland, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada and Germany.

Kamikawa said Japan would allocate $37 million to a NATO Trust Fund that supports equipment such as a drone detection system.

She also announced donations of five mobile gas turbine generators and seven transformers. Russian air strikes caused frequent power cuts across Ukraine last winter, and its two main cities experienced cuts due to a major attack on Jan. 2.

Air alerts have become a fact of life since Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, including in Kyiv, and many pass without casualties or damage.

However, Moscow deployed hundreds of missiles and drones over the New Year, pounding Kyiv and Kharkiv and killing at least 5 civilians and injuring more than 135, Ukrainian officials said.

Kamikawa also met President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who offered condolences for Japan's New Year's Day earthquake, and thanked Prime Minister Fumio Kishida "for elevating the level of relations" with Ukraine during Japan's G7 presidency in 2023.

Sitting alongside his visitor, the Ukrainian foreign minister also noted Kyiv's key ask of its allies, saying, "I informed my colleague ... of Ukraine's needs not only in aircraft, but above all in air defence systems."

Japan said last month that it would prepare to ship Patriot air defence missiles to the United States after revising its arms export guidelines, in the pacifist nation's first major overhaul of such export curbs in nine years.

It still cannot ship weapons to countries at war, but the move could indirectly benefit Ukraine by boosting Washington's capacity to provide military aid to its ally.

Tokyo also intends to show its commitment to the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine under a public-private partnership by hosting a Japan-Ukraine conference on Feb. 19, the Japanese foreign ministry said.

Reuters