The Russian army continues to storm Soledar and shell Ukrainian cities. Kharkov, Ochakov and Kurakhovka were struck. Two people were killed and dozens were injured.

On January 8, the Chechen opposition telegram channels 1ADAT and NIYSO reported mass kidnappings by security forces in the village of Alkhan-Kala, located 15 kilometers from Grozny. According to the chairman of the United Force movement, Dzhambulat Suleymanov, Kadyrov’s supporters could consider the villagers an “anti-government cell” because of their interest in an “unreliable” Internet resource.

Russian forces shelled Kharkov, Zaporozhye region, Kherson and Kherson region. The suburb of Bakhmut was almost completely destroyed. Most of the population left the city.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that, despite the declared “truce,” the Russian army is advancing in the Bakhmut direction.

The UN dissolved the commission of inquiry into the deaths of Ukrainian prisoners in a colony in the Donetsk region in July 2022, because it could not obtain security guarantees for investigators from participants in the armed conflict in Ukraine.

On January 4, the publication Kavkaz.Realii reported on another criminal case filed against a woman who returned from Syria, where she followed her husband. A resident of Dagestan with many children is accused of terrorism - involvement in the Islamic State banned in Russia. The woman is under arrest and faces up to 20 years in prison.

On January 4, the founder of Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that the first group of Russian prisoners recruited by the company to participate in the war in Ukraine had completed a six-month contract. All criminal records were cleared from the mercenaries.

On January 4, rallies were held in Georgia and other countries around the world in support of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. The protesters demanded that the Georgian authorities allow the prisoner Saakashvili to continue treatment in a foreign clinic. He is now in the Vivamedi clinic in Tbilisi due to complications after a long hunger strike.