Emergency workers conduct a rescue operation after a Russian missile destroyed a residential building in Poltava, Ukraine, February 1, 2025


Saturday’s Coverage: Russia Damages Historic Odesa


Map: Institute for the Study of War


UPDATE 1848 GMT:

A man remembers his three family members killed in Russia’s destruction of a five-story residential building in Poltava in central Ukraine on Saturday:

This is Ihor's granddaughter Sofia. Russia killed her and her parents yesterday.

Ihor waited at the tragedy site all night. The bodies of his son and daughter-in-law still haven't been found.

The search and rescue operation in Poltava continues.
#StandWithUkraine

[image or embed]

— Anton Gerashchenko (@antongerashchenko.bsky.social) February 2, 2025 at 8:35 AM


UPDATE 1831 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has supported Defense Minister Rustem Umerov’s summary dismissal of the head of the Defense Procurement Agency.

Umerov has been widely criticized for usurping authority by overruling the supervisory board’s renewal of the contract of Maryna Bezrukova. He installed his friend Alexey Zhilyaev.

The Defense Minister amended the charter of the supervisory boardd to enable his move. He declared Bezrukova was removed because of failure to fulfill planned deliveries for the front, poor procurement planning and delays, lack of timely communication with the General Staff, and leaks of classified information.

The Anti-Corruption Action Center accused the Defense Ministry of a “hostile takeover” to “legitimize” Zhumadilov’s appointment.

Zelensky told the Associated Press:

We have a Defense Minister who clearly understands that, God forbid, there will be any interruptions somewhere from anyone in supporting our military: from drones to air defense, there will be not only military losses, there will be civilian losses, children will suffer, there will be more strikes, Russia will be stronger.


UPDATE 1300 GMT:

A medic who deserted from the Russian army and is seeking asylum in France has described the grim conditions on the frontline in Ukraine, including the brutality of Russian commanders and the threats faced by their troops.

Alexey Zhilyaev, 40, fled the army in August 2024 after nine months of service. He escaped Russia with the aid of a dissident group.

He was taken to the frontline in Ukraine a week after signing a contract. He found a “wasteland”:

There is nothing else left there – no production, no work…No one is waiting for us there as liberators. Even if they smile at you, for example in a store, you can tell from their look that they hate you.

He described men dying within minutes of arrival at the front, often by “swarms” of Ukrainian drones.

He said commanders sent individual soldiers into near-suicidal assaults on the basis of personal animosity or, in one case, because a commander objected to a man being unshaven.

An assault battalion is suicide bombers. The average survival rate in an assault squad is 20%.

In a penal assault unit, [survival] tends towards zero. It mainly includes those who are undesirable to the command and those who screw up, for example, drink or use drugs [or] those sick with hepatitis C.

Pits in the ground confined “mostly undesirables” from a day to two weeks: “About 20 people sit in a hole, and between them they get two loaves of bread and a liter and a half of water. For a day.”

Other soldiers were tied to trees for days, including in the freezing winter. One one occasion, a political officer ordered a lieutenant he disliked to be thrown into a pit. When the lieutenant was finally freed, he lost his feet to frostbite.

At least one soldier a week committed suicide. Others deliberately injured themselves, hoping to be sent to hospital. Instead, they were thrown into a pit until they admitted they had shot themselves and pledged that they were ready to “atone for their guilt with blood”.

The privates and junior officers all want to go home, no one needs this war. The political officers basically forced them to go on the assault.


UPDATE 1253 GMT:

The death toll has risen to 14, including two children, from Russia’s missile strike on Poltava in central Ukraine on Saturday (see Original Entry).


UPDATE 0831 GMT:

Implicitly pushing back against Donald Trump, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has emphasized that Kyiv must be involved in any “peace talks”.

Trump said on Friday that his team is already engaged in “very serious” discussions with Moscow about ending Russia’s 35-month invasion.

Zelensky responded, “They may have their own relations, but talking about Ukraine without us — it is dangerous for everyone.”

He said the first step is Ukraine’s high-level meeting with Trump, so Kyiv and Washington can develop plans for a ceasefire.

First and foremost, we hold a meeting with [Trump], and that is important. And that is, by the way, something that everyone in Europe wants….

And I would like to see the United States of America, Ukraine, and the Russians at the negotiating table….And, to be honest, a European Union voice should also be there.

Playing up to Trump, Zelensky said NATO membership for Ukraine would be the “cheapest” possible security guarantee and a chance for Trump to score a geopolitical triumph over Vladimir Putin.

“It will be a signal that it is not for Russia to decide who should be in NATO and who should not, but for the United States of America to decide. I think this is a great victory for Trump,” the President summarized.


UPDATE 0825 GMT:

The UN’s educational, scientific, and cultural organization has posted about Friday’s Russian attacks on Odesa in southern Ukraine.

UNESCO condemns the missile attack on the historic centre of Odesa, a world heritage site, severely damaging at least two cultural buildings placed under UNESCO conventions’ protection.

Our team is already at work to promptly support the urgent documentation of damage and identify with the Ukrainian authorities the required emergency interventions.


UPDATE 0811 GMT:

An explosion at an army recruitment center in Rivne in western Ukraine killed one person and wounded six on Saturday afternoon.

Authorities did not give a cause of the explosion or reveal details of the casualties.

In the Poltava region in central Ukraine, a man with a hunting rifle shot dead a Ukrainian army recruiter and escaped with a conscript on Saturday before both were caught by police.

The recruitment official was escorting mobilized men to a training centre and had stopped at a petrol station. Police have launched a murder inquiry.


ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russian attacks on Saturday killed at least 16 civilians across Ukraine and at least four evacuees in the Kursk region in western Russia.

The Russian unleashed a barrage of drones and missiles, damaging dozens of residential buildings and energy infrastructure.

In Poltava in central Ukraine, a Russian missile destroyed a five-story residential building and set it on fire. At least 12 people, including two children, were slain and at least 17 wounded.

Among the injured are four children. Emergency services, working far in the night, rescued 22 people from rubble.

Three police officers were slain as they patrolled streets in a village in the Sumy region in the north. In the Kharkiv region in the northeast, one civilian was killed and four wounded by a drone attack.

A civilian warehouse in Kharkiv was consumed by fire over an area of 2,000 meters, but no casualties were reported.

In Russia’s Kursk region, part of which has been controlled by Ukraine since last August, Russian forces destroyed a boarding school sheltering people who were preparing for evacuation.

Four people are in serious condition. Another 84 were rescued from the rubble or received medical assistance.

In his nightly video address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke about Friday’s assault which damaged the historic center of Odesa city in southern Ukraine. He noted:

That is why it is absolutely crucial for sanctions to be truly strong and impossible to bypass under any circumstances. There must be no remaining loopholes for supplying Russia with critical components for its defense industry. Sanctions violations must be treated as complicity in war.

Then he posted about Saturday’s mass killing in Kursk:

This is a state devoid of civility. And this is an evil that will not stop on its own. But if we act strongly and decisively, even Russia can be forced to stop. And this must be done to ensure the world is safe from Russian bombs.