2/6/24-2/7/24 Ukrainian General Update LanguageLearner

2/6/24-2/7/24 Update, day 713-714 of Russian invasion.


Belarus/Western Border:

The overnight RU missile strike targeted Drohobych, SW of Lviv. An industrial warehouse was damaged, and another Kh-101 missile was shot down in a field without detonating.

Polish fighters were scrambled during the RU missile attack overnight, with no incident along the Polish border reported.

Lithuania's national security commission is proposing to close two more checkpoints on the Belarusian border, and limit all non-vehicle traffic over the border. This comes after a significant rise in Belarusian border crossings towards Kaliningrad.

The Polish Ministry of Agriculture is holding talks with farmers unions who plan to start a new protest on the UA border this friday.

UA citizens in Belarus are reportedly being increasingly targeted by Belarusian KGB officers.


Kyiv/ Central Ukraine:

RU launched a combined strike of lesser quantity then previous ones, encompassing:
20x Shaheds
36x Cruise missiles
8x ballistic missiles.

UA intercepted 29 cruise missiles and 15 shahed drones for a total of 44/64 intercepted.

Following the RU missile strikes on Kyiv, 20 people were injured and 4 killed. Power interruptions were noted in Dnipro district on the E bank of the city, as heating infrastructure was also damaged.

Zaluzhny approved changes to press activity in the combat ones, allowing for more admission to the front line under certain circumstances. He additionally signed a decree instituting a separate military force for drones and other UAS systems.

The draft bill on mobilization was approved following its first reading, but there is some opposition from UA parliamentarians on a lack of clarity re: citizens rights. Specifically, issues regarding movement of UA citizens abroad, personal data logging of conscripts, and the removal of academic exemptions for certain students.

The UA Minister of veterans affairs was dismissed from her position for unsatisfactory work.

EU Foreign policy representative Josep Borrell was in Kyiv at the time, and was relocated to a shelter. He visited a UA drone production center.

UA Foreign minister Kuleba suggested that UA seek to find ammunition from 3rd party countries outside of europe, due to pronounced shell shortages.

UA passed the bill for preserving reproductive material of fallen soldiers for free, for 3 years after death.

Turkey is reportedly building a Baykar drone factory near Kyiv, where 500 people will work to produce up to 120 Bayraktar drones a year. Construction alone will take at least a year.

An in-person poll was taken last week, stating that Zelensky has a 69% approval rating, while his chief of staff Andrii Yermak had 44% approval.


Sumy/Chernihiv/Kharkiv city region:

RU shelled 4 settlements in Sumy 154 times, primarily with grenade launchers.

RU fired 5 missiles into Kharkhiv, damaging a concrete plant. 2 of these missiles were supplied by DPRK, KN-23 derivatives. An earlier missile attack on a hotel killed a 2 month old child.

RU has fired DPRK missiles into UA at least 9 times thus far.

A UA SOF commander who led the breakthrough at Balakliya which started the Kharkiv offensive, has been arrested by UA under accusation of sharing unauthorized combat footage on social media. UA citizens state this is really politically motivated punishment for his interview with French paper Le Monde, where he and his troops expressed concern that generals were incompetent and behaving for political reasons. His unit was additionally disbanded and forcibly integrated into another unit.

UA launched a drone attack towards Belgorod, which was intercepted and damaged 4 houses in Gubkin.


Kupyansk/East Kharkiv/Kreminna:

UA repelled 3 attacks towards Synkivka and Ivanivka, as fighting continues around the forest belt NW of the village.

RU assaulted towards Terny 7 times in the last day, as RU troops continue efforts to break through to the Zherebets river valley and Terny region. The day previous, RU had launched some 21 attacks.

RU is currently about 3 km away from the main valley highway/village strip in this region.


Kramatorsk/Bakhmut:

RU continues efforts to push towards Ivanivska and Kliischivka, assaulting UA positions 5 times over the last day.

An increase in RU drones is noted to the SW of the city.


Avdiivka:

RU continues to heavily push into Avdiivka from the north, launching 25 attacks towards Avdiivka and 9 assaults towards Nevelske.

The situation in Avdiivka is rapidly becoming untenable for UA forces, as RU troops have contested the residential areas along the railroad and near the Coke plant. While RU losses are high, UA losses especially among the 110th brigade are becoming considerable. Per local UA units, there is inadequate ammo and manpower to hold the current positions, and rear-line units like mechanics are being sent in to hold the line, with disastrous consequences.

At least one UA unit tried to call down artillery fire on themselves while being overrun, but was unable to do so due to a lack of artillery ammunition. Numerous UA units and military bloggers are calling for a withdrawal from the besieged city, rather then letting units get overrun and cut off.

RU has intensified its airstrikes across the main road into the city, and are reportedly contesting the northern rail bridge area, less then 1 km away from the main GLOC/supply route. RU is extensively using glide bombs to pummel the city. Less then 950 people remain in the city, with a family and children evacuated yesterday.

RU forces appear to have regained some territory around the Tsarka Ohorta forest belt restaurant in the S of Avdiivka, following UA pushing them out of the prior RU assault in this region.

RU has dropped 750 glide bombs on Avdiivka so far this year. It is widely believed that Putin wants to capture Avdiivka prior to RU presidential elections for both domestic and international propaganda value.


Donetsk/Luhansk/Occupied areas:

Per the UN, 641 civilians were killed or injured in January, up 37% from November of last year.

RU continues efforts to push out from Marinka towards Novomykailivka, with considerable vehicle losses.

Alcoholism remains rampant in the RU armed forces, with a few soldiers apparently forgetting to put on/misplacing their body armor before getting hit by drones.

RU is reportedly blocking access to Google services in the occupied territories, with it being known the RU Yandex search engine freely passes info to RU authorities.


Zaporizhia/Southern Axis:

IAEA Director Grossi visited the ZNPP today, to assess the status of the occupied plant. The plant doesn't have enough personnel, and the plant's nuclear fuel is reaching the end of its service life.

UA repelled 2 attacks along the southern front today, with 20 settlements shelled 180 times.

RU is actively bringing soldiers into schools, to meet children for propaganda events in the occupied territories.

RU is establishing a drone production line in a former tractor factory in berdyansk.



Kherson:

RU continues to assault Krynky, attempting 3 times. RU shelled Kherson 37 times in the last day, killing one person.

UA forces dropped a flag further into Krynky via drone as they remain predominantly along the riverside streets. It appears that UA may be successfully contesting area 2km SW of Krynky, as RU forces are assaulting that area.

RU targeted Mykolaiv with Shaheds and missiles, damaging 20 houses following a previous large scale attack on Mykolaiv that destroyed a gas line and killed 2 people.

Video of RU casualty evacuation in this region continues to show poor training and equipment, broadly soviet-era.


Odessa/Black Sea/Crimea:

RU drones targeted Odesa overnight.

UA confirmed they took control of an RU Neva-B Radar platform which was used as a radar/guidance hub for operations in the W Black sea, emplaced on a oil platform last year. This was reportedly used to expand the range of RU/IRGC Mohajer-6 recon drones, and seek out UA USVs with a range of approximately 30km.

UA has disabled 24/74 RU ships in the black sea thus far.


Russia:

There were significant leaks about the RU-Iran Shahed drone program. Specifically, RU is paying a considerable import markup of $193k USD (vs a production cost of approx $25k). RU reportedly paid some $1.75 billion USD for production of 6000 drones, and is using student and immigrant labor to construct these.

Specifically, the RU documents state that 15-16 year old school students and certain racial groups are specifically used to build these under a fake "boat building" program, with 175/286 employees under the age of 17. This certainly qualifies as child labor, and giving the poor safety considerations noted in the production line, is essentially poisoning child laborers in a factory to produce these drones.

The idealized goal for RU was completely domestic production at a cost of $50,000 apiece. The total cost for all drones, licensing, and other associated costs is about $4.5 billion USD per year per ISW.

A large explosion and subsequent fire occurred near Izhevesk at RU's main ballistic missile production plant.

RU is rolling out some "mandatory donations" from employees at a electronics factory in Kursk, where the upset plant staff were told they needed to "opt out" of paying a days wage to needs of the military. When complaints arose, the management threatened the employees to resign or enlist.

General:

Over the last day UA forces conducted 15 airstrikes and RU forces 27 air strikes (including drones) and 4 missile strikes. 88 RU MLRS strikes were additionally recorded as RU redoubled its efforts in the East.

Yesterday Ukrainian forces eliminated:
890x troops (391,470 in total)
22x APC
7x Tank
1x Air defense
23x Artillery (1x MLRS)
0x Aircraft
33x vehicles
4 x UAV



Overseas:

A new meeting of the Ramstein group will take place next wednesday in Poland. The EU plans to start disbursing the 50 Billion Euro package in March.

Israeli courts have stated that all UA refugees in Israel are eligible for temporary resident Aleph-5 visas. This comes after 2 years of a lack of defined policy, and the visas are to be issued within a month.

The US Senate failed to pass a previously negotiated UA/Border bill, 49-50. There is potential for a standalone bill to be passed in the senate, but it remains to be seen whether House Majority leader Mike Johnson would allow such a bill to be voted on. The Senate passed the first part of a standalone bill 58-41, with hope that following additional negotiations tomorrow a 60 vote majority will be reached.

Rheinmetall plans to supply several tens of thousands of artillery shells this year.

Sweden will close its investigation into the Nordstream pipeline explosions, reportedly due to a lack of swedish territorial involvement. German and Danish investigations continue.