Tuesday, February 2. Russia’s War On Ukraine: News And Information From Ukraine

People take shelter at a metro station during a Russian air attack, in Kyiv, early on February 3, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Serhii Okunev / AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

Dispatches from Ukraine. Day 1,440.

Russian Attacks

A Russian drone strike killed 15 miners in eastern Dnipropetrovsk region on Feb. 1. The attack hit a bus transporting workers from a coal mine operated by DTEK, one of Ukraine’s largest power producers, after the miners finished their shift. The strike, the deadliest in more than a year, was part of a wave of Russian attacks on energy-related infrastructure in the region, home to resources valued at $3.5 trillion, according to Forbes Ukraine’s estimate.

The incident highlights the limits of a short-term truce that Russia agreed to at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump last week. While the Kremlin said it would pause attacks on Kyiv, Russian forces have continued strikes in eastern Ukraine, hitting logistics and energy facilities. By targeting mines and railways transporting coal, Moscow can degrade Ukraine’s power grid without technically violating its pledge to spare Kyiv.

Russia’s devastating campaign has inflicted severe damage on Ukraine’s energy system. Kyiv endured repeated blackouts in January after multiple large-scale strikes. As of early February, some 250 buildings were still without heat, according to Mayor Vitaliy Klychko, though President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — who has said Ukraine would halt strikes on Russian oil refineries if Moscow stopped attacking power infrastructure — put the number at roughly twice that level.

In addition, Russian strikes yielded 8 people killed and about 59 injured over the last three days in seven regions of the country.

Russia’s Starlink-powered Drones

SpaceX has taken steps to block what Elon Musk described as Russia’s “unauthorised use” of its Starlink, after Ukrainian officials discovered the equipment used in Russian “Shahed” drones. “Looks like the steps we took to stop the unauthorised use of Starlink by Russia have worked,” Musk wrote on X on Sunday, Feb. 1.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s new defence minister, said that “within a few hours after Russian drones equipped with Starlink communications appeared over Ukrainian cities,” his ministry had begun coordinating directly with SpaceX to prevent the system from raining down on Ukrainian cities.

Ukrainian officials say Starlink terminals were found mounted on long-range drones, boosting their range and resilience against electronic warfare. Serhiy Beskrestnov, an adviser to the defense minister, said these were strikes “not on military targets” but on civilian urban areas, “including residential buildings.”

Until recently, most Russian drones relied on pre-programmed routes, limiting their flexibility once launched. That began to change last year, when Ukrainian forces detected drones with Starlink satellite terminals being controlled in real time.

The first confirmed cases occurred in December, when military expert Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov published images of a Russian Molniya drone carrying a Starlink terminal. “Every day we record strikes by Molniya drones with Starlink—not only on the front,” he told the BBC.

Drones with online control, Beskrestnov says, were also used in the Jan. 27 attack on a passenger train in the Kharkiv region, where five people were killed. Investigators say the strike unfolded in two waves, with a second drone hitting as passengers attempted to flee.

Ukraine’s reliance on Starlink has also been disrupted. Beskrestnov said SpaceX’s countermeasures had temporarily affected some Ukrainian military units’ use of the system, though a fix was underway. On Feb. 1, Fedorov said the “next step is to implement a system that will allow only authorised terminals to operate on Ukrainian territory,” adding that “unverified terminals will be disconnected.” Tens of thousands of Starlink units are used by both the military and civilians, serving as a lifeline where power and communications have been knocked out.

Starlink has been central to Ukrainian military communications since the opening weeks of the war. Russian access to the system was formally restricted by SpaceX. But Ukrainian officials acknowledge that Russia could have obtained terminals through third countries.

Russia Pays A High Price For Minimal Gains

After failing to seize Kyiv in 2022 and impose a puppet regime in Kyiv, Moscow shifted to a war of attrition. The strategy has exhausted Ukraine militarily and psychologically, yet Russia’s advancement pace has been slow going. According to a new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), that choice has imposed a staggering cost on Russia itself.

Over four years of full-scale war, Russia has suffered roughly 1.2 million killed and wounded, Zelesnkyy said at the WEF in Davos, more than any major power has lost in a single conflict since World War II. In 2025, Russian casualties reached about 415,000, which would translate to about 35,000 per month.

That toll dwarfs U.S. losses in Vietnam or Korea, and even eclipses Russia’s own wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya (an autonomous region within Russia where Moscow fought two brutal wars to suppress separatist movements in the 1990s and early 2000s) combined.

Despite constant offensives, Russia has captured less than 1.5% of Ukraine’s territory since early 2024. In some regions, advances are measured in meters per day. Near Pokrovsk, a stronghold in eastern Ukraine, Russian forces moved under 30 miles in almost two years. It is slower than the bloodiest offensives of World War I, including the Battle of the Somme, a 1916 campaign fought on the Western Front that became a symbol of industrial-scale slaughter and minimal territorial gain. Around Chasiv Yar, 40 miles northeast of Pokrovsk, progress slowed down to 15 yards a day.

CSIS attributes the losses to systemic failures: poor coordination and flawed tactics, weak training, corruption, and low morale plague Russian units. Assaults are often carried out by small, poorly prepared infantry groups. Ukraine’s layered defenses, which include trenches, mines, drones, and anti-vehicle obstacles, have turned large stretches of the front into killing zones extending up to 10 miles, which additionally slows the Russian troops.

Economically, Russia has been more resilient than many expected in 2022. Energy exports continue. The ruble has avoided collapse; however, in 2025, economic growth slowed to 0.6%, with industrial output falling at the fastest pace since the invasion’s early months in 2022. Oil revenues declined as global prices declined, making a dent in the Russian federal budget.

The Kremlin now directs roughly half of its federal budget to the military and defense industry. That crowds out innovation, civilian productivity, and long-term growth. Russia’s technological position is slipping, including in artificial intelligence, where it ranks near the bottom among major economies. No Russian firm sits among the world’s top 100 technology companies by market value. To compensate, Moscow is leaning heavily on China, its dominant trade partner and a key supplier of sensitive goods, including missile-related inputs.

By Danylo Nosov, Karina L. Tahiliani