For more information, including previous situation summaries and an interactive dashboard, visit our Ukraine Conflict Monitor.
Situation Summary
On 17 February, Ukrainian forces withdrew from their Avdiivka stronghold north of Donetsk city to avoid encirclement by overwhelming Russian forces amid a shortage of ammunition. Russian forces also reportedly advanced south of Marinka and west of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. In the Zaporizhia region, fighting concentrated south and southeast of Orikhove. Clashes continued along the Kharkiv-Luhansk administrative boundary, particularly in the area of Kupiansk. Russian forces also reportedly gained ground south of Kreminna. Meanwhile, on 14 February, Ukrainian navy drones sank the Russian ‘Tsezar Kunikov’ landing ship off the southern coast of Crimea.
Russian shelling, missiles, and drones killed over a dozen civilians in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Sumy regions. On 13 February, Russian shelling of Selydove in the Donetsk region killed three civilians and wounded 12 others. Russian missiles also hit areas further from the frontline, including the western regions of Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytskyi, and Lviv, the central regions of Kirovohrad and Poltava, and Kyiv city, causing civilian injuries and damage to infrastructure.
In occupied areas, on 15 February, Russian forces abducted and killed a Ukrainian priest in Kalanchak in the Kherson region, reportedly for his refusal to join the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and hold sermons in Russian. Russian soldiers also abducted a civilian man in Melitopol in the Zaporizhia region. In the same region in Berdiansk, on 10 February, a probable Ukrainian resistance group killed a local businessman who had been collaborating with the Russian occupation authorities.
