Eurasia Press & News
In today’s summary:
- In the Kursk region, the Ukrainian Armed Forces went on the offensive south of Sudzha in an area of 15 square kilometers and advanced to a depth of 5 kilometers
- In the Pokrovsky direction, the advance of the Russian Armed Forces has “slowed down to a minimum”, the Ukrainian military is counterattacking on the western flank
- The Russian command is making significant efforts to finally eliminate the “Kurakhovo pocket”
- Z-activists criticize the use of the “Navalny rule” on the Seversky salient and the “madness” near Novogorovka
- Russian military expands bridgeheads on Zherebets and Oskol rivers in eastern Kharkiv region
- A boarding school in Sudzha housing civilians was hit; the sides blame each other for the attack
- CIT: At least 2,600 civilians killed in shelling in Russia and Ukraine in 2024
- The first batch of French Mirage 2000-5F fighters and another batch of F-16s from the Netherlands have been delivered to Ukraine
- The situation at the front
- In the Kursk region, there was relative calm for most of the week, with the exception of repelling local Russian assaults – for example, near Makhnovka , south of Sudzha. However, on February 6, Ukrainian troops with up to two battalions launched a new offensive from Makhnovka, probably with the aim of pushing the enemy away from Sudzha – in some areas, the Russian Armed Forces were 3 km from the district center. The depth of the advance was up to 5 km, and the total area of the operational zone where Ukrainian equipment was spotted was 15 sq. km . Z-channels diverged in their assessments of whether the Ukrainian forces managed to take Cherkasskaya Konopelka and Fanaseyevka or simply consolidated their positions in the “forest plantations” near these settlements. It is only known that the Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered significant losses in equipment from strikes by Russian FPV drones controlled via fiber optic cable, but estimates of the scale of losses also vary – from “all combat equipment” to “about five units . “
Z-activist Roman Alekhine notes the “operational defeat” near Sudzha and blames General Sukhrab Akhmedov, who had previously distinguished himself as commander of the 20th Army and now, according to some sources, commands the Kursk group of troops. “War correspondent” Roman Saponkov sees the reason for the Ukrainian breakthrough in the fact that part of the territory near Sudzha was “taken on credit” – that is, it was not actually controlled by Russian troops , so the Ukrainian Armed Forces units managed to pass through there unnoticed. His colleague Vladimir Romanov claims that the commander of the 11th Air Assault Brigade responsible for the disinformation has already been removed from his post.
In the Pokrovsk direction, at the beginning of the week, the Russian Armed Forces advanced ( 1 , 2 ) on the western and eastern flanks near the agglomeration of Pokrovsk (before 2016 – Krasnoarmeysk) and Mirnograd (before 2016 – Dimitrov), forming a kind of arc to the south of these settlements. According to the Ukrainian military observer Konstantin Mashovets, subsequently, Russian offensive actions “slowed down to a minimum”, and soon a series of counterattacks with armored vehicles supported by drones and artillery on the western flank followed , which “war correspondent” Yuriy Kotenok associates with the appointment of the commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mykhailo Drapatiy as the head of the OSGV “Khortytsia”, responsible, among other things, for the Donetsk region. A video of one of these counterattacks in Kotlin (before 2016, Dimitrovo) was published on the Telegram channel of the 425th separate assault regiment.
In the Kurakhovsky operational area, the Russian Armed Forces managed to gain a foothold in Andreyevka on the northern outreach of the “Kurakhov pocket” and advance in Dachnoye to the west of captured Kurakhovo, carrying out a “flag-fight” there . According to a Ukrainian serviceman who runs the Telegram channel “Officer ✙”, the situation in this area is “chaos”, as Russian attack aircraft are constantly trying to penetrate between Ukrainian combat formations.
Konstantin Mashovets believes ( 1 , 2 ) that the Russian Armed Forces have to make significant efforts to eliminate the “Kurakhovka pocket”, while the Ukrainian side retains the ability to conduct organized rearguard battles , thanks to control over the Zaporozhye-Donetsk highway. Mashovets predicts a planned retreat of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Constantinople area, but admits that the threat of encirclement from Andreyevka remains.
In the Bakhmut direction, Russian sources reported ( 1 , 2 ) the capture of the Severny microdistrict in Chasovy Yar . In the neighboring Toretsk direction, the Russian Defense Ministry reported ( 1 , 2 ) the capture of Druzhba and Toretsk itself (until 2016 – Dzerzhinsk) , however, in the first case, the Z-channel “Rybar” doubted the department’s statement , and in the second – DeepState . Ukrainian analysts claim that fighting continues on the outskirts of the city, although the Russian Armed Forces tightly control the central part.
Speaking about the situation in the Seversky Salient, Rybar criticizes the practice of false reports and the “Navalny rule” – according to the authors of the project, brigade commanders in this area retain their posts thanks to, and not in spite of, the coverage of problems in these units by “foreign agent” media, like the officials who are the subjects of Alexei Navalny’s investigations.
In the Liman direction, DeepState reported on repelling a major Russian assault in the Vishnevoe area by the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade and related units. In the same direction, a situation has developed that Z-blogger Yuriy Podolyaka characterizes as “MADNESS” – Russian assault troops are being thrown into suicidal attacks on Novoegorovka, which, according to reports, has already been taken under control . At the same time, the Russian Armed Forces have created a dangerous situation on the right bank of the Zherebets River, expanding the bridgehead ( 1 , 2 ) in the Ivanovka area. Konstantin Mashovets believes that decisive actions by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in this area are necessary – otherwise, in his opinion, not only the defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from Yampolovka to the Seversky Donets will be under threat, but also the entire east of the Kharkiv region. The Russian Armed Forces are expanding their bridgeheads on the right bank of the Oskol in the Kupyansk direction, in particular by occupying Zapadnoye and Figolovka ( 1 , 2 ), Novomlynsk and Kalinovo , and have also crossed the Oskol in the Topoli area.
Overall, DeepState notes a significant decrease in the overall rate of advance of the Russian Armed Forces in January 2025 and the total number of Russian attacks in early February. At the same time, the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue ( 1 , 2 ) to transfer specialists from the Air Force to the infantry, which is now explained by the plan of Commander-in-Chief Alexander Syrsky to attract 50 thousand people from the rear units to begin a full rotation. It was also announced that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have begun to transition to a corps system.
Mutual shelling and sabotage
The Ukrainian Air Force reported ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ) the interception of 365 Shahed UAVs and other unidentified types out of 607 launched over Ukrainian territory over the past week. Another 218 UAVs were “lost in location.” In addition, it was reported that 46 missiles of various types were launched, 42 of them on the night of February 1. The exact number of missiles intercepted that day was not given, but it was claimed that most of them did not reach their targets.
During the week, the following Russian strikes on civilian targets became known:
On the evening of January 31, a missile attack was launched on the center of Odessa, injuring seven people and UNESCO cultural heritage sites ;
On the night of February 1, as a result of a missile strike on Poltava, the entrance to a five-story building was destroyed, 14 people were killed and another 17 were injured;
On February 4, a ballistic missile struck the center of Izyum in the Kharkiv region , killing five people and injuring 55 more ;
On the evening of February 6, three people died after a KAB hit a two-story apartment building in the village of Miropolye in the Sumy region;
As a result of shelling in the Kherson region from February 6 to 7 , one person was killed and five were injured.
In addition, on the night of February 1, a boarding school in Sudzha in the Kursk region , occupied by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, was attacked, 6 people were killed , dozens of people were injured. The parties accused each other of the attack ( 1 , 2 ), at the same time, Russian federal channels, simultaneously with accusations against the Ukrainian side of “self-shelling”, reported on Russian airstrikes in the Kursk region.
The Russian Ministry of Defense, in turn, reported ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ) on the destruction of 138 Ukrainian fixed-wing UAVs, two unmanned aerial vehicles , and a Neptune cruise missile over the territory of Russia, the Crimean Peninsula, and in the waters of the Black and Azov Seas over the past week . During the week, Ukrainian forces struck the following known targets:
on the Volgograd Oil Refinery and the Astrakhan Gas Processing Plant on the night of February 3. The previous attack on the Volgograd Oil Refinery took place three days before, at the Astrakhan Gas Processing Plant the gas condensate processing unit was damaged , the plant may not resume operations until July ;
a jet drone was probably used against the Albashneft mini-refinery in Krasnodar Krai on the night of February 5 ;
at the military airfield in Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Krasnodar Krai, on the night of February 6.
The Ukrainian resource “Oko Gora ✙ News and Analytics” summed up the results of raids on Russian territory in January 2025. A total of 24 cases of hitting the following targets were recorded:
eight factories/warehouses related to the military-industrial complex,
six oil depots,
four oil refineries,
two UAV warehouses,
Druzhba oil pipeline,
oil pumping station,
arsenal of GRAU ,
distillery.
In addition, representatives of Russian regional authorities and occupation administrations reported the following Ukrainian attacks on civilian infrastructure:
On February 4, in the Vasilievsky municipal district of the Zaporizhia region, a drone attacked a school bus, injuring the driver and five children; on the same day, seven civilians were injured in shelling of Gorlovka in the Donetsk region;
On February 6, in the village of Logachevka in the Belgorod region, three civilians were killed after a UAV attacked a car.
According to CIT volunteers , in January 2025, at least 153 civilians were killed and at least 1,034 people were injured to varying degrees as a result of shelling and attacks on civilian infrastructure on both sides of the front line .
CIT also published an article entitled “Civilian Casualties from Shelling in 2024”. In total, at least 2,600 civilians were killed , including 1,915 in the territory of Ukraine controlled by Kiev, 452 in the occupied territories, and 233 in Russia. At least 14,100 people were injured.
Losses
The BBC Russian Service, together with the Mediazona publication and a team of volunteers, identified the names of 91,059 people killed in the war with Ukraine on the Russian side. Between January 17 and January 31, 2025, the list was expanded by 2,333 people. According to calculations based on inheritance cases, the real number of dead could be around 120,000 people.
According to Volodymyr Zelensky, during the war with Russia, 45 thousand Ukrainian servicemen were killed and about 390 thousand were wounded, some were wounded multiple times . Russia’s losses are 300-350 thousand killed and 600-700 thousand wounded. These figures differ significantly from the data announced by US President Donald Trump (1 million killed on the Russian side and 700 thousand on the Ukrainian side), as well as from the estimates of The Economist (60-100 thousand Ukrainian servicemen killed and 106-140 thousand Russian servicemen) and the calculations of the UA Losses website (68,437 Ukrainians killed by February 4, 2025).
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has recorded a sharp increase in the number of killings of Ukrainian prisoners of war – 79 cases in 24 separate incidents since the end of August 2024. The mission confirmed the veracity of these cases based on video and photographic materials, as well as witness testimony.
OSINT researcher Cloooud |🇺🇦 conducted an analysis of documented cases of suicide in the Russian Armed Forces for January 2025. According to his calculations, 30 Russian soldiers committed suicide in a month , 20 of them using firearms, 10 with a grenade.
In the Kemerovo and Novosibirsk regions, Radio Liberty discovered special camps for military personnel, including the wounded, who refused to participate in combat or left their units without permission. According to eyewitnesses, more than a thousand people are being held in these camps in harsh conditions . The soldiers are handcuffed to bunks, limited in food and medical care, and threatened with being sent to the front lines without conducting legal proceedings to determine whether they can be discharged for health reasons.
Researcher Cyrus, relying on Oryx data , notes a downward trend in Russian tank losses over several months. This may be further evidence of a general trend toward a reduction in the number of combat-ready armored vehicles in the Russian army, which The Insider detailed in a recent article .
Weapons and military equipment
Reuters reported on the resumption of American military aid deliveries to Ukraine after a short pause caused by disagreements within the Donald Trump administration . We are talking about packages allocated during the Biden administration – the new administration has not yet announced any packages under the PDA , although funds not spent by the previous president remained for this purpose. It also became known about the delivery of 1,000-pound (460 kg) Mark 83 air bombs with the JDAM-ER planning and correction module to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
In addition, this week it was reported that the first batch of French Mirage 2000 fighters and a new batch of F-16s from the Netherlands had been delivered to Ukraine , as well as the start of production of Patria 6×6 armored personnel carriers in Latvia for the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces confirmed the use of 250 kg of aerial bombs by Ukrainian-made drones, while manufacturers of Ukrainian high-tech weapons warned of an impending crisis in the industry due to a lack of state defense orders.
The main news in terms of equipping the Russian Armed Forces was the appearance of donkeys ( 1 , 2 ) at the front, designed to deliver ammunition to positions. In addition to pack animals, Russian troops received a batch of North Korean ballistic missiles of “high accuracy” (with a deviation from the target of 50-100 m, and not 1-3 km, as before), as well as the first delivery of BMP -3 this year .
