A fire burns in Novomoskovsk in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine, after Russian missiles hit a residential area, January 8, 2024 (Dnipropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office)

Monday’s Coverage: 5 Children Slain in Latest Russian Mass Killing

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1349 GMT:

Two drones have struck a fuel and energy complex in Russia’s Oryol, 230 miles south of Moscow and 137 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Governor Andrei Klychkov said three people were moderately injured. A fire was contained.

UPDATE 1144 GMT:

Hungary’s Orbán Government has indicated that it may lift its blockade on European Union aid to Ukraine, according to “three EU diplomats”.

Last month Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a long-time ally of Vladimir Putin, blocked authorization of a €50 billion fund to support Kyiv, part of the EU’s budget through 2027.

The diplomats said Budapest has indicated it will lift the veto if annual funding of €12.5 billion is reviewed each year. Hungary submitted the proposal during a meeting of the EU’s 27 budget experts on Friday and in a written document to the Belgium’s Presidency of the European Council.

Politico Europe summarizes, “In practical terms, this would give Orbán the power to block EU funding to Ukraine every year – or gain concessions from Brussels for withholding his veto.”

UPDATE 1135 GMT:

The death toll from Monday’s Russian missile attacks has risen to five.

The body of a 68-year-old man was found by rescuers in the Khmelnytskyi region in western Ukraine. Two other men, aged 76 and 59, were slain in the area on Monday.

UPDATE 0723 GMT:

BBC Russian reports on Russia’s deportion and detention of thousands of Ukrainian civilians without charges, trials, or access to legal counsel.

The outlet has gathered accounts from people, living under Russian occupation, who were arrested for failing to support Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation”.

None of the attorneys interviewed by BBC Russian knew of an example of a defense lawyer being able to meet a detained civilian.

Lawyer Maria Eismont says, “Neither I nor other colleagues have been able to find such people and meet with them, despite the fact that relatives asked to go [see them] and there was information about where they were.”

Attorney Leonid Solovyov adds, “Quite often it happens that I arrive and they tell me that the person is not there. Either they simply don’t let him in, or the person could actually be transferred to another place.”

Some former detainees reported abuse and torture by Russian captors. They spoke of beatings, chokings, electric shocks, and mock executions.

Anton Lomakin, 29, described his arrest:

They used a stun gun on my legs and other parts of my body. On the way, they simulated my execution. They took me out, I saw that in front of me there was some kind of trench, hole or trench — a cliff of earth. They put me on my knees and told me to pray, and asked if I smoked cigarettes. They asked if I had anything else interesting to tell them.

The machine gun was reloaded. Then they shot above the left ear to the side. There were three or four short lines. One of those gathered there’s phone rang. He turned on the speakerphone. And the other side told me not to shoot me.

In the detention center, the abuse continued:

Once they told me to raise my legs with my heels up. I refused. They put a machine gun to my genitals and gave me a choice. I, of course, chose the legs. They took two rubber sticks and beat them on my heels for a very long time. If I lowered my legs, they forced me to raise them again. If they went down, they hit me on the head and back.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia killed 4 people and injured 45 in its latest missile strikes across Ukraine on Monday.

The Russians fired 53 missiles. Only 18 were downed by Ukrainian air defenses: in part because of the use of hypersonic weapons, in part because targeted areas are not as well-defended as those like the capital Kyiv.

Two people were killed and critical infrastructure hit in the Khmelnytskyi region in western Ukraine. An elderly woman pulled from the rubble of a destroyed house in the Kharkiv region in the northeast.

A 62-year-old was killed in Kryvyi Rih in south-central Ukraine, where a shopping center and more than two dozen private buildings were damaged. Governor Serhiy Lysak posted, “The mad enemy once again struck civilians. Directed missiles at people.”

Explosions were also reported in Dnipro city and in the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine.

In his nightly address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy again spoke of the need to bolster air defense and called for the confiscation of $300 billion in Russian assets abroad.

“The terrorist must pay the most for the damage caused by terror, and Russia will pay,” he said.