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.

On January 3, in front of the Croatian Embassy in Vienna, a rally of representatives of the Chechen diaspora took place, protesting against the extradition of refugees who are fleeing to Europe from mobilization in Russia and encountering opposition on the borders of the Balkan countries.

On January 2, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhny, announced that by the end of 2022, the Ukrainian army had managed to liberate 40% of the territories occupied by Russia since the beginning of the invasion.

On January 1 and New Year's Eve, Russian troops launched attacks on Ukraine. There are victims in Orekhovo and Khmelnitsky. In Kyiv, the campus of the Kyiv National University was damaged.

Another exchange of prisoners of war took place. Ukraine reported the return of 140 people, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported the return of 82 people.
On New Year's Eve, Ukrainian air defense shot down 45 Iranian-made Russian drones and 12 missiles.