‘The Threat Remains Constant and Severe’ – War in Ukraine Update for Feb 5

Overview:

• Zelensky visits Robotyne and Kryvyi Rih
• Death toll from attack on occupied Luhansk city hits 28, Moscow says
• Civilians killed and wounded, fire station destroyed by Russian strikes in Donetsk
• Weekend strikes hit Lukoil refinery in Volgograd region
• Kremlin’s forces continue marginal gains north of Avdiivka
• Despite weekend gains, Russian forces might be winding down near Donetsk city

“This is Robotyne, so there are explosions,” the president’s spokesperson says

President Volodymyr Zelensky was “relatively close” to exploding ordinance during his trip to the Zaporizhzhia front lines on Sunday, AFP quoted a spokesperson as saying. 

“This is Robotyne, and there are active hostilities there, so there were relatively close explosions,” said Zelensky’s spokesperson Sergiy Nykyforov.

Zelensky’s office posted a video of his meeting with soldiers in the Ukrainian-held village of Robotyne, telling his troops: “I have the great honor to be here today, to reward you, because you have such a difficult and decisive mission on your shoulders, to repel the enemy and win this war,” Zelensky told fighters. 

He followed up with a visit to Kryvyi Rih and the East Air Force Command, reporting a “detailed discussion on the protection of the skies over the Dnipropetrovsk region. “The threat remains constant and severe,” said Zelensky.

Kyiv has not confirmed deadly strikes on occupied Lysychansk

Occupying forces in the Luhansk region said an airstrike had hit a popular bakery in the city of Lysychansk on Saturday, with the death toll reportedly reaching 28 on Sunday.

Russian authorities blamed the strike on Ukraine, but Kyiv has yet to comment on the attack.

Moscow’s occupation forces Saturday said Ukrainian forces had struck a building that housed a bakery popular with locals on weekends.

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 “Search operations continue on the site of the collapsed bakery... 28 people, including a child, have died,” the Russian emergency situations ministry posted on Telegram. Officials specified that there were 18 men, nine women and one child among the dead civilians.

Civilian killed in Russian shelling of Donetsk town

The regional head of the Donetsk military administration said that Russian artillery killed one civilian and wounded two others over the weekend.

“At least one person was killed and two others were injured as a result of today’s shelling of Toretsk. At around 13:00, the Russians shelled the city with artillery, hitting a residential building,” Vadym Filashkin said, adding that the wounded were taken to a nearby hospital with no updates on their condition.

According to state media outlet Ukrinform, Russian troops attacked the Donetsk region 12 times on Saturday, hitting apartment blocks, an administrative building and a local business.

The same Russian strikes also destroyed a fire station in nearby Pokrovsk, Ukrinform reported.

Drone attacks lit up a major Russian refinery over the weekend

As reported Saturday in Kyiv Post, drones presumed to have been launched by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) successfully hit a critical source of refined Russian oil in the Volgograd region, causing a major fire.

“Last night, the air defense and electronic jamming repelled an attack by drones in the Volgograd region’s Kalachyovsky and Zakanalye districts,” governor Andrei Bocharov said on Telegram.

The Volgograd refinery is operated by Lukoil, an industry giant, and is said to be the “biggest producer of oil products in the federal South district.”

Operations: Bakhmut area

Geolocated footage published over the weekend appears to show that Russian forces have marginally advanced southwest of Bakhmut. The troops are seen occupying positions north of Klishchiivka (7 km southwest of Bakhmut), while Kremlin-affiliated bloggers claimed that their country’s invading forces also advanced near Bohdanivka (northwest of Bakhmut).

Fighting was reported northeast, northwest, west and southwest of the city, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported.

The spokesperson for a Ukrainian brigade operating in the area stated that “Russian forces have advanced five to seven kilometers closer to Chasiv Yar over an unspecified period and that Russian forces recently began conducting mechanized assaults in the area. Units involved include elements of the Russian 98th Guards Airborne (VDV) Division and the Russian Sever-V Volunteer Brigade (Russian Volunteer Corps),” ISW analysts said.

Operations: Avdiivka

While bloggers’ reports contend that Moscow continued to regain land around Avdiivka’s coke and chemical plant on the city’s northwestern outskirts, the only movements that the ISW confirmed over the weekend are along the H-20 highway east of the city, citing geolocated footage.

Positional engagements continued northwest of Avdiivka near Novobakhmutivka and Stepove, near what remains of the “Tsarska Okhota” restaurant area on the southeastern outskirts, west of Avdiivka near Tonenke and Sieverne, and southwest near Opytne, Pervomaiske, and Nevelske

Operations: Donetsk city

Geolocated footage from Sunday seems to show that Russian forces marginally advanced northwest of the heavily contested settlement of Marinka as fighting continued west and southwest of Donetsk city.

The ISW reported that engagements continued west of the city near Krasnohorivka and Heorhiivka and southwest near Novomykhailivka. One Russian blogger said that some Moscow-controlled brigades in the area, such as the 5th Motorized Rifle Brigade (1st Donetsk People’s Republic [DNR] Army Corps) may be conducting a “tactical pause” in the area.