In the area of the Joint Forces Operation on January 20, 4 violations of the ceasefire by the armed formations of the Russian Federation were recorded, - the headquarters of the JFO reported. The armed formations of the Russian Federation opened fire from 120 mm mortars in the direction of Opytne. The enemy fired from anti-tank grenade launchers in the direction of Katerynivka. The occupiers used 82 mm mortars near Zolote-4. In addition, the enemy unmanned aerial vehicle, probably Orlan-10, was recorded in the Luhansk oblast crossing the collision line. There are no losses among the military personnel of the Joint Forces as a result of the enemy actions. The Ukrainian defenders returned fire without using weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements and forced the enemy to stop shelling.
In the occupied Donetsk region, the deployment of 61 units of military equipment of the armed formations of the Russian Federation, which was deployed in violation of the Minsk agreements, was additionally detected and recorded over the day, - the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination on ceasefire (JCCC) reported.
Representative of the occupation authorities of CADO Eduard Basurin announced a series of terrorist attacks on the critical infrastructure facilities in the uncontrolled territory of the Donetsk oblast. According to the militant, "under the guise of servicemen of the People's Militia of the DNR and special operations forces of the armed forces of the Russian Federation", saboteurs will carry out terrorist attacks at transformer substations, water and gas pipelines and power lines, as well as "at industrial facilities with dangerous chemical production". Allegedly, "critical infrastructure facilities in Donetsk, Horlivka, Yasynuvata, Dokuchaievsk and other settlements located in close proximity to the line of contact will fall under the attack". According to Basurin, in fact, these actions will be carried out by special forces of the AFU. They will film their terrorist attacks "with subsequent presentation as evidence in international organizations", passing them off as sabotage by Russian special operations forces. At the same time, the militant did not specify how the Ukrainian side would explain the presence of an array of video recordings of terrorist attacks secretly carried out in the occupied territory of the Donbas.
243 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were registered in the occupied territory of Donetsk oblast over the day, 28 more people died. This was reported by the so-called "Ministry of Health of the DNR". In total, 121 270 people have been counted as infected with COVID-19 in CADO since the beginning of the pandemic. 9458 people died. 2678 patients are currently undergoing treatment (inpatient and outpatient). In addition, the occupiers revealed 50 cases of "usual" pneumonia over the day, which is 4 cases more than in the past day. Of these, 36 people were hospitalized. 626 patients with pneumonia are on treatment, 426 of them are on oxygen support (+15 over the day).
In the occupied Donetsk region, the average salary at machine-building enterprises seized from Ukrainian owners in 2021 amounted to approximately $210. According to the separatist media, only 5671 people work at the machine-building enterprises today, the average salary is $208. The separatists counted 58 machine-building enterprises in the "republic", including 31 – general engineering and 27 – coal. The total volume of their production over the ten months of last year amounted to $69.6 million. Main customer of the production is the Russian Federation. As OstroV reported, machine-building industry workers on the free Ukrainian territory of the Donetsk oblast earn an average of $763 a month.
A serious road accident occurred in the center of occupied Donetsk. This was reported by eyewitnesses in social networks. "At the intersection of Universitetska St. and Komsomolsky Ave. in Donetsk, a collision of 2 cars with a fixed-route taxi occurred", - was written in local publics. To pull the victims out, "rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations" had to cut off the roof of one of the cars. Three people were injured in the accident. The movement of trolleybuses on routes No.10 and No.17 was temporarily suspended in both directions because of the accident. Also, a traffic jam was formed along the Universitetska Street to the "Golden Ring". The townspeople sadly joke regarding the resulting traffic jam: "Oh, as in the pre-war time!", "Like in metropolis".