Ukraine Conflict Update: 27 January - 2 February 2024

For more information, including previous situation summaries and an interactive dashboard, visit our Ukraine Conflict Monitor.

Situation Summary

The number of armed clashes increased in the Kharkiv region, compared to the weekly average in the past four weeks, with Russian forces reportedly advancing northeast of Kupiansk and claiming to have captured Tabaivka on the road between Svatove and Kupiansk, despite Ukrainian forces claiming that fighting is ongoing in the village.¹ Heavy fighting continued in the areas of Bakhmut and Avdiivka in the Donetsk region. Russian forces reportedly advanced northeast of Lyman in the Donetsk region and in the area of Priyutne near the Zaporizhia-Donetsk administrative boundary.  

Ukrainian forces launched several successful long-range strikes on Crimea. Ukrainian drones and missiles hit a Russian air defense system in northern Crimea and three stationary Russian military planes at the Belbek airfield near Sevastopol.² On 1 February, Ukrainian naval drones sank a Russian missile carrier near Novoozerne – the 25th Russian warship Ukrainian forces put out of operation since the beginning of the invasion.³  

Russian shelling and airstrikes killed over a dozen civilians in the Donetsk, Kherson, and Sumy regions. Russian forces repeatedly targeted Beryslav area in the Kherson region, killing four civilians, including two French aid workers, and wounding six others, as well as damaging residential buildings and humanitarian aid headquarters. Meanwhile, Russian forces reportedly executed three civilians in Kreminna in the Luhansk region and two others in Andriivka in the Sumy region.