Victory Chronicles-DAY 693

Over the past 24 hours, Russian attacks on Ukraine have resulted in 23 people wounded. Civilian casualties were reported in Odesa, Kharkiv, and Kherson Oblast. In Odesa, a drone attack wounded three people and caused damage to residential buildings. In Kharkiv, two missile strikes injured 17 people and damaged a multi-story building.

The missiles hit the city center, targeting residential areas without military infrastructure. In the Kherson Oblast, two people were wounded due to the Russian shelling of the village of Tyahynka. The Oblast was shelled 75 times, with Kherson being targeted 36 times. The injured individuals have been hospitalized and are receiving medical treatment. 

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Ukrainian troops successfully shot down 19 out of 20 Shahid-type attack drones launched by Russia overnight. The drones were launched from southern Russia near the Sea of Azov. Air defense teams in several regions of Ukraine, including Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Dnipro, and Kirovohrad, were mobilized to counter the attack. The Southern Operational Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that the air defense units were active for nearly three hours. The majority of the drones were targeting Odesa, approaching the city from a low altitude over the Black Sea. Out of the 11 drones that were shot down as they neared the coast, most fell into the sea. Unfortunately, the debris damaged several shops, cars, and apartments, resulting in three injuries.

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A Russian kamikaze drone attack in the Nikopol district of the Dnipro Oblast has left a 13-year-old child and a 19-year-old man injured. According to the head of the Dnipropetrovs’k Oblast Military Administration, Serhiy Lysak, the attack targeted the Marhanets community, striking a car with people inside. The 13-year-old child is in serious condition, while the 19-year-old man is in moderate condition, both receiving medical assistance. 

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Despite the West’s effort to suffocate Russia’s war machine through sanctions by banning the export of crucial components, Western-made parts such as microchips are still found in Russian weapons two years into the full-scale invasion. Nearly three-quarters of the roughly 2,500 foreign components found in Russian weaponry and analyzed by Ukrainian authorities were made by U.S. producers, a database by the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NAZK) reveals.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin continued to demonstrate that Russia is not interested in negotiating with Ukraine in good faith and that Russia’s maximalist objectives in Ukraine – which are tantamount to full Ukrainian and Western surrender – remain unchanged. Putin claimed on January 16 during a meeting with Russian municipal heads that “Ukrainian statehood may suffer an irreparable, very serious blow” if the current battlefield situation continues. 

Putin also reiterated Kremlin allegations of the prevalence of Nazism in Ukraine and claimed that ”such people…cannot win.” Russia’s continued calls for Ukraine’s “denazification” are thinly veiled demands for the removal of the elected Ukrainian government and its replacement with a government acceptable to the Kremlin. Putin reiterated the Kremlin narrative that Ukraine – not Russia – is to blame for the absence of negotiations, claiming that Ukraine’s “peace formula” is actually a continuation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ban on negotiating with Russia and amounts to “prohibitive demands” on the negotiation process.

Putin claimed that any negotiation process is an “attempt to encourage [Russia] to abandon gains [it] has made in the past year and a half” and that this is “impossible.” The Kremlin appears to lack a consistent framing for current Russian offensive operations to present to the Russian public, despite the fact that Putin appears to be – at times – using his role as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian military as part of his election campaign.

Putin declared that Russian forces “completely” have the initiative in Ukraine following a failed Ukrainian counteroffensive. This is a notable departure from Putin‘s claim on December 14, 2023, that almost all Russian forces are in “the active stage of action” and from Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s previous characterization of Russian offensive operations in Ukraine as an “active defense.” ISW continues to assess that Russian forces have regained the initiative throughout most of the Ukrainian theater but have not seized the battlefield initiative in Kherson Oblast.

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Defender Aleksan Amirdzhanian died on August 13, 2023, near the village of Klishchiivka in Donetsk Oblast. While performing his duties, he suffered a fatal explosive injury. The defender died four days short of his 34th birthday.

Aleksan was born in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. At the age of 4, he moved to Ukraine with his family. He grew up in the village of Lipove, Poltava Oblast. He graduated from school and a mining academy in the town of Sviatylivka. After his military service, he worked as a truck driver at a mining company. In recent years, he lived with his family in Hlobyne, Poltava Oblast. He worked as a trucker.

When the full-scale war broke out, the man was abroad at work. On February 27, 2022, Aleksan returned home and went to the military registration and enlistment office. At first, he served in the 107th Rocket Artillery Brigade. In March 2023, he transferred to the 5th Separate Assault Brigade.

His older brother, Hrant Amirdzhanian, died on February 26, 2023, in Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast.

“After his brother’s death, he could have been demobilized, but he returned to service to take revenge on the enemy. Aleksan was responsible, modest, polite, attentive, and ready to help at any time. This is how we should remember him!” the Hradyha community said.

“Aleksan sincerely believed in victory and made every effort to achieve it. He was a very responsible, reliable and decent person, he was never indifferent to the grief of others,” added Oksana Reder, a family friend.

“My husband had a chance to resign from the service for health reasons, as he had received numerous contusions while on the front line for four months, but, until his last breath, he did not leave his fellow fighters, always saying: “Who else but us?”. All of my husband’s fighers-in-arms will confirm that he was a brave, experienced and strong warrior, a very responsible, reliable, loyal and worthy comrade, never indifferent to the grief of others and always fighting for justice,” wrote Iryna Amirdzhanian.

The defender was buried in Poltava Oblast. Aleksan is survived by his wife, daughter, and parents, who lost both sons in the war.

*Aleksan’s story on the Heroes Memorial – a platform for stories about the fallen defenders of Ukraine.

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