Russia pressed its attacks near the eastern cities of Pokrovsk and Lyman, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted a new video purportedly showing a captured North Korean soldier speaking of heavy losses fighting alongside Russian forces.
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The developments on January 20 came as U.S. President Donald Trump, in his first day back in office, said President Vladimir Putin was “destroying Russia” by not seeking a peace deal with Ukraine and that he expected to speak to the Kremlin leader soon, although he didn’t give a time frame.
Zelenskiy released the new video purporting to show a wounded North Korean soldier following a similar release on January 11.
The latest video showed a young man lying in bed and speaking Korean saying that North Korean troops had suffered serious losses fighting alongside Kremlin forces in Russia's Kursk region.
Moscow and Pyongyang have not commented on the deployment of North Korean troops in the Kursk region. Kyiv and Western leaders say some 11,000 troops have been sent there and have suffered substantial casualties.
Separately, the Ukrainian military said in its evening update on January 20 that "the enemy is intensively attacking Ukrainian defenders in the Pokrovsk direction."
It said 65 of the attacks had been repulsed while seven more clashes were still under way.
Pokrovsk has been the target of a long, brutal offensive by Russian forces as they attempt to capture the vital logistics hub in Ukraine's Donetsk region.
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Amid Russian Assault, Ukrainian Children Evacuated From Pokrovsk
The DeepState open-source intelligence resource, meanwhile, said Russian forces appear to have broken through another defensive line in the Donbas region that had otherwise been stable in recent months.
A sustained breakthrough there could pose a threat to Lyman, a strategic city with a prewar population of around 20,000. With its closeness to the front line, the area has been regularly bombarded by Russian forces and been left mostly in ruins.
Russia's Kazan airport said for the second day in a row on January 21 that it was suspending all traffic to "ensure the safety of flights," without providing details.
A day earlier, authorities reported Ukrainian drone attacks in the city, the capital of Russia's Republic of Tatarstan.
SEE ALSO: Why Are European Troops For Ukraine A Nonstarter?Local officials said drones had targeted a defense industrial facility, but they said there were no casualties or significant damage.
The Kazan Aviation Plant, which manufactures strategic bombers used in Russia's war against Ukraine, was reportedly the main target, which if hit, could cause a major disruption to Russia's military operations in Ukraine.
Russia's Voronezh regional government said a falling Ukrainian drone sparked a fire at an oil depot in the Liski district, where a similar incident caused a blaze on January 16, as Kyiv maintains its campaign of attacks against Russian oil-storage sites.
And early on January 21, authorities in Russia's Smolensk region reported an ongoing attack of Ukrainian drones.
Hours after Trump’s inauguration and his remarks of a quick pace deal, French President Emmanuel Macron cautioned that the war was not likely to end anytime soon.
"Let us not delude ourselves," Macron said in an address to the French military in northwestern France. "This conflict will not be resolved tomorrow or the day after."
Macron said Western partners must give Ukraine "the means to last and to enter any future negotiations from a position of strength."
Macron said that regardless of the outcome of the war, Russia will pose a security challenge for Europe and the wider world for the foreseeable future, and he urged Europe to bolster its defenses amid uncertainty coming out of the United States.
On January 19, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his embattled nation had been struck by more than 1,000 Russian projectiles over the past week, prompting him to renew his urgent plea for additional air defense weapons, particularly the U.S.-made Patriot missile system.
SEE ALSO: Ukrainian Military Officials Detained Over Failures In Defense Of Kharkiv Region“More Patriots for Ukraine means more protection of life. More range for Ukraine means more guarantees that the Russian war can be stopped,” he added.
Ukraine is thought to have at least five of the $1 billion Patriot systems, although details have been kept mostly secret.
Zelenskiy is expected to speak at 2:30 p.m. at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21 as he presses his calls for additional economic and military aid.