Ukraine Conflict Monitor
Update
Ukraine War Situation Update: 25 – 31 January 2025
Highlights of political violence and Russian attacks in Ukraine from 25 to 31 January 2025.
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1138 political violence events 1% decrease compared to last week |
60 incidents of violence targeting civilians 28% increase compared to last week |
At least 24 fatalities from civilian targeting 14% decrease compared to last week |
Key events
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26 Jan.
Kharkiv – Russian forces drop seven glide bombs on Kupiansk, killing two civilians and damaging over 60 residences
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28 Jan.
Cherkasy – Russian drones hit critical infrastructure in Uman, disrupting power, water, and heating supply in surrounding settlements
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30 Jan.
Sumy – A Russian drone strikes an apartment building in Sumy city, killing 11 civilians
Key trends
- In southwest Donetsk, Russian forces occupied Velyka Novosilka and a neighboring settlement, in addition to two villages southwest of Pokrovsk, advancing closer to the administrative boundary with the Dnipropetrovsk region.
- In the Kharkiv region, Russian forces advanced north and east of Kupiansk, seizing two settlements.
- ACLED records 29 Russian long-range missile and drone strikes, including several attacks on Kyiv city and region and the western regions of Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytskyi. Ukrainian forces intercepted strikes in at least 36 other instances.
- Russian shelling, missiles, and drones killed at least 24 civilians in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Sumy regions.
Spotlight: Russia attacks health, aid, and rescue workers
Last week, Russian forces carried out multiple strikes targeting health, aid, and rescue workers, highlighting a longer-term trend of increased targeting since the beginning of 2024, particularly in the frontline Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions. On 29 January, two drones with a video feed struck an ambulance that was transporting two wounded civilians in Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, wounding three paramedics. According to the head of the Kharkiv Regional Council’s Center for Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine, a third of all their ambulances have been damaged in Russian attacks since February 2022. This prompted them to negotiate the installation of devices that jam drone signals on ambulances in the near future.1 Additionally, on 30 January, a Russian drone hit a clearly marked car of volunteers that were evacuating civilians from Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, wounding four people, including a British volunteer who had his arm and leg amputated as a result of the strike.2
Meanwhile, at least one example of a double-tap strike targeting rescue workers was reported in the Donetsk region. On 27 January, Russia conducted a double-tap drone strike in Rodynske, targeting rescue workers who arrived on the scene shortly after a strike on a car service station killed three civilians and caused a fire. While it is hard to track double-tap strikes specifically due to inconsistent reporting, ACLED records the deaths of at least 36 state emergency service workers from Russian shelling and airstrikes since the start of the invasion.
Explore the ACLED Conflict Exposure tool to assess the numbers of people affected by armed violence, disaggregated by locations, time period, and actors involved.
