[Korrespondent] 23:13 Ukraine has received "very reliable intelligence data" about Russia's intentions to launch a new offensive, the Financial Times writes, citing sources. According to the publication, the attack could occur within ten days. Experts call the western part of the Luhansk region in the area of ​​Kremennaya and Liman, where the Russian Federation has been gathering troops for several weeks, the likely place for a new offensive.
21:59 Arakhamia announced new personnel decisions in the government:
- Aleksey Reznikov is being transferred within the government to the post of Minister for Strategic Industries to strengthen military-industrial cooperation, "which is absolutely logical, given his expertise on Ramstein and the need to "elevate" the ministry, which should do more."
- Kirill Budanov will head the Ministry of Defense , which is absolutely logical for wartime.
- The Ministry of Internal Affairs will be headed by Igor Klimenko.
- Vasily Malyuk will become the head of the SBU.
"War dictates personnel policy. Time and circumstances require strengthening and regrouping. This is happening now and will continue to happen in the future. The logic is the same. Law enforcement agencies at this stage should be headed not by politicians, but by personnel security officials. The enemy is preparing to attack. We are preparing to defend ourselves and return his own," Arakhamia explained.
21:45 Zelensky said that it is very difficult in the Donetsk region now: "There are already many reports that the occupiers want to do something symbolic in February. Try to win back for their last year's defeats. We see this increased pressure in different directions of the front, as well as pressure in the information field. It is very difficult in the Donetsk region - fierce battles. But no matter how hard it is and no matter what the pressure, we must endure."
21:41 Zelensky said that following the results of the week, there are important agreements with energy partners: "In particular, the European Union is ready to support Ukraine with the supply of electricity. We are increasing cooperation in the supply of energy equipment. There are also extremely successful examples in energy-saving initiatives. For example, just for one this week, people have already received the first million LED lamps in exchange for energy-consuming incandescent lamps. More than 800 thousand applications for this program are already in DÑ–Ñ—, that is, it is most convenient. When we fully implement the program - and this is 30 million LED lamps, - This will result in significant savings in consumption.
21:21 Reznikov confirmed that Israel plans to transfer missile and drone warning technologies to Ukraine. At the same time, he did not specify when exactly these technologies will arrive and how they will be used.
21:13 Zelensky said in an evening video message about another sanction step by Ukraine against the Russian Federation: "The decision of the National Security and Defense Council on sanctions against the Russian nuclear industry has been put into effect . And this is not the last decision regarding this industry of theirs. The meaning of our steps is also in to support the efforts of our diplomats to expand global sanctions on this part of the Russian machine of aggression."
The President's website published a list of 200 legal entities subject to sanctions for a period of 50 years. Among them are Rosatom and its subsidiaries, a number of institutes and research centers, plants, as well as JSC Operating Organization of Zaporozhye NPP.
19:26 Reznikov advocates partial openness of defense procurement following the example of the Prozorro system and proposes to create Military Prozorro. The minister also said that a public anti-corruption council would be created under the Ministry of Defense, which would allow the department to receive expertise from the public.
18:34 The enemy continues to regroup in separate directions. The main efforts are being concentrated on conducting offensive operations in the Kupyansky, Limansky, Bakhmutsky, Avdeevsky and Novopavlovsky directions, the General Staff said in an evening summary.
In Tokmak, Zaporozhye region, Russians are forcibly evicting civilians from their homes and settling in local collaborators, including those from the so-called "law enforcement agencies." In the settlement of Krynki, Kherson region, the invaders conduct searches and take away boats, water engines and other equipment for moving through the water from the civilian population.
18:25 The Wall Street Journal writes that Russia wants to create a faster drone than Shahed, but Iran will still produce them - however, already on Russian territory. According to the publication, the production will presumably be located in the city of Yelabuga (Tatarstan, 1100 km to the border with Ukraine). The establishment of the plant is part of a $1 billion deal between Russia and Iran. In early January, a high-level Iranian delegation visited the site where the plant is planned to be built.
The deal was finalized in early November in Tehran. By moving production to Russia, Iran hopes to shield itself from new Western sanctions, according to WSJ sources.
17:42 The exercises of Ukrainian crews on Leopard tanks begin on Monday, February 6, Reznikov said. He also expressed confidence that partners in the anti-Russian coalition will provide Ukraine with planes: "Today, in terms of weapons, we have received everything, only planes remain. I can add optimism to you. There will also be planes. The question is simply - what kind."
According to the Minister of Defense, Ukraine's partners are likely to announce the number of tanks and the timing of their provision during the meeting of the Contact Group on February 14. He clarified that this time the meeting will take place not in Ramstein, but in Brussels.
17:03 Reznikov said that Ukraine does not plan to use the longer-range weapons promised by the United States for strikes on Russian territory: "We always officially declare to our partners that we will not use weapons provided by foreign partners to shell Russian territory. We shoot only at Russian units in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory.
16:00 Ugledar is under enemy fire every day. Despite the losses, the Russians are trying to take the city by storm, said Alexei Dmitrashkovsky, spokesman for the Tauride Defense Forces. According to him, the enemy deployed two brigades of marines, special forces, tanks and artillery to this direction.
15:55 The Russians shelled Chernobaevka this morning, the Kherson OVA reported. Enemy shells damaged six residential buildings and vital communications, one person was injured.
15:04 During the nine months of the existence of the fundraising platform UNITED24, 278 million 890 thousand dollars have already been collected to support Ukraine, Zelensky said.
13:17 The situation in the Luhansk region is tense, but completely controlled, and Belogorivka remains under the control of Ukrainian forces, despite the stuffing of the Russians about the alleged capture of the city, said the head of the OVA Serhiy Gaidai. According to him, the number of attacks in the region has indeed increased, but they are all reflected. Also, the Russians are constantly pulling up reserves and equipment, and increased the number of shelling.
In addition, Gaidai said that as soon as a Kadyrovite gets into Ukrainian captivity, the Russians immediately agree to exchange him.
12:23 Commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mykola Oleshchuk said that units of the anti-aircraft missile forces have already gone for training in managing the SAMP/T-Mamba air defense / missile defense system, which France and Italy will transfer to Ukraine.
11:35 Electricity consumption in Ukraine on February 5 is gradually growing due to increased frost. A more rapid growth is expected on February 6, with the start of the working week, Ukrenergo said. During almost all day there is an import of electricity from other countries. The deficit has slightly decreased due to the increase in production, but remains at a significant level. There are network restrictions in Kyiv and Odessa regions.
Consumption limits have been brought to all regions. Restrictions will apply, with the exception of Kyiv and Odessa, only for the period from 16:00 to 20:00. For the rest of the day, consumption restrictions are not planned to be applied. In Odessa and nearby areas, emergency shutdowns continue to operate.
11:02 The number of people injured as a result of a Russian missile attack on a residential area in the center of Kharkov has increased to four people, Oleg Sinegubov, head of the OVA, said. Another wounded man is a security guard at the university where the second missile attack was carried out.
10:41 The Russians launched two rocket attacks on Druzhkovka, Donetsk region, at night: five people were injured, four high-rise buildings and a kindergarten were damaged. Vuhledar and the neighborhood of the community are also under shelling, Pavel Kirilenko, head of the UVA, said.
10:27 The Guardian writes that a secret Ukrainian battalion called the Brotherhood is working in Russia. According to the publication, these fighters are technically independent of the Ukrainian army, but operate side by side with the official forces. The last operation in Russia in which they participated was a month ago in the Belgorod region, where several ammunition depots have exploded in recent months. The fighters claim that it is "very easy for them to cross the Russian border."
10:04 Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in an interview with journalist Hanoch Daum that Putin allegedly promised him not to kill Zelensky. According to Bennett, he flew to Moscow in the early days of the war as an intermediary and held a meeting with Putin on March 5, 2022. Then the Russian president allegedly gave him his word not to kill Zelensky. After that, as Bennett said, he called Zelensky, and after the conversation, he came to his office and recorded a video in which he said that he was not afraid of anything.
Recall that on February 25, a video appeared on Zelensky’s Telegram channel, recorded on Bankova Street near his office. The next day, February 26, he recorded another video with Bankova, in which he urged not to believe fakes.
Bennett also claims that Putin agreed not to push for the disarmament of Ukraine, and Zelensky abandoned his desire to join NATO that same weekend. In addition, Bennett assured that he coordinated all his actions at that time with the United States, Germany and France. According to him, negotiations with the Russian Federation in March-April were interrupted at the initiative of the West.
09:39 British intelligence reports that Bakhmut is becoming increasingly isolated, and Russian troops have made little progress over the past week in their attempts to surround the city. According to intelligence, M03 and H32 - the two main roads into the city for the Ukrainian defenders - are now likely under the threat of direct fire after the Russian advance.
Earlier this week, the Wagnerites most likely captured a secondary route linking Bakhmut with Seversk. However, several alternative supply routes remain for Ukrainian forces, analysts say.
09:10 In the Kherson region over the past day due to Russian shelling, one person was killed, another was wounded, the OVA reported.
09:08 In the Donetsk region over the past day, as a result of enemy shelling, four people were killed - three in Bakhmut and one in Yampol. Another 11 people were injured in the region, Pavel Kirilenko, head of the OVA, said.
09:04 In the morning, the Russians fired two missiles at the center of Kharkov, preliminary S-300. Mayor Igor Terekhov said that one of the rockets hit a residential area in the Kievsky district, it is known about a fire in one of the residential buildings and about one injured person.
08:48 The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) notes that Russia has not demonstrated the ability to conduct several major offensive operations necessary to simultaneously reach the administrative borders of the Donetsk region and capture Zaporozhye. Russian offensive operations are unlikely to be directed at Zaporozhye, analysts say, as the invaders continue to prepare for an offensive in the western Luhansk region. Russian troops are also stepping up attacks on Bakhmut, ignoring the front around Donetsk.
As for the statements by Russian sources that Russian troops allegedly captured a number of settlements in the Zaporozhye region, according to ISW, this was most likely an information operation aimed at dispersing Ukrainian forces on the eve of a "decisive offensive in the east of the country."
ISW also reports that the Russian Defense Ministry has begun restructuring and consolidating the disparate irregular formations participating in the war in Ukraine. Russian irregulars in Ukraine include contract soldiers, mobilized soldiers, forces of the fake Donetsk and Luhansk "people's republics", volunteer battalions, forces of the Russian Combat Army Reserve, Cossack and Chechen detachments, as well as mercenaries of the Wagner group. These formations have different goals, limitations, hierarchies and legal status.
After Gerasimov's appointment as commander of the Joint Group of Forces in Ukraine on January 11, the Russian Defense Ministry initiated a series of professionalization measures, and it is only logical that the Defense Ministry will try to streamline the current mixture of forces into a more traditional structure. At the same time, analysts point out that the implementation of complex structural and administrative changes during the conduct of major offensive operations is an unusual step, however appropriate they may be. Gerasimov likely feels he has limited time to make changes to Russian forces before failing to achieve his grandiose goals causes him to fall out of Putin's good graces again, analysts conclude.
08:39 The General Staff announced the approximate losses of the enemy as of the morning of February 5.
- personnel - about 131,290 (+700) people liquidated,
- tanks - 3220 (+2),
- armored combat vehicles - 6405 (+11),
- artillery systems - 2226 (+6),
- MLRS - 460 (+0),
- air defense systems - 227 (+2),
- aircraft - 294 (+0),
- helicopters - 284 (+0),
- UAV operational-tactical level - 1958 (+2),
- cruise missiles - 796 (+0),
- ships/boats - 18 (+0),
- automotive equipment and tankers - 5091 (+10),
- special equipment - 203 (+0).
08:31 Russia is focusing its efforts on conducting offensive operations in the Kupyansky, Limansky, Bakhmutsky, Avdeevsky and Novopavlovsky directions, the General Staff said in the morning summary . Over the past day, units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine repelled the attacks of the invaders in the areas of the settlements of Kremennaya and Shipilovka in the Lugansk region and Verkhnekamenskoe, Blagodatnoe, Krasnaya Gora, Paraskoveevka, Bakhmut, Ivanovskoye and Klescheevka in the Donetsk region.
In Gorlovka, Donetsk region, all medical facilities are overcrowded with wounded invaders, so they are equipping kindergartens, schools, or simply storage facilities for field hospitals. Medical personnel from Yakutia arrived at one of these hospitals in Svetlodarsk.
The General Staff also reported cases of refusals to participate in hostilities by mobilized Russian servicemen. As of February 3, about 600 such persons have been returned to the territory of the Russian Federation from the Luhansk region.
04:26 Putin is trying to justify the war in his own words that "German tanks threaten Russia again," Scholz said in an interview with Bild. The chancellor noted that Putin's words are part of a "series of incomprehensible historical comparisons" that the Russian president uses to justify the war in Ukraine. "Nothing can justify this war. Russia is waging a merciless war against Ukraine," he said.
Scholz is sure that the provision of Western tanks will not lead to an escalation of the war: "Together with the allies, we are giving Ukraine battle tanks so that they can defend themselves. We carefully weighed each batch of weapons, closely coordinating this with our allies, primarily with America."
Earlier, Putin said: "Unbelievable, but true: we are again being threatened by German Leopard tanks carrying crosses."
Scholz also confirmed the existence of a consensus with Zelensky on the use of weapons that the West provides to Ukraine. According to the chancellor, the parties agreed that these weapons would not be used for attacks on the territory of the Russian Federation.