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What the 7 February 2024 strikes showed about Ukraine's war
Summary
A wave of Russian missile and drone strikes on 7 February 2024 came days after Ukrainian long-range attacks and an EU funding decision.
What did the war look like on 7 February 2024? On that day Russian forces launched a wave of missile and drone strikes across Ukraine, killing at least five civilians and injuring 11 others, two of them in Kyiv.
A week of strikes in both directions
The attacks on 7 February came after several days in which both sides reached beyond the front line. On 3 February, Ukrainian long-range drones hit a Lukoil oil refinery in Volgograd Oblast, causing a large fire and disrupting operations. The region's governor, Andrey Bocharov, said the attack had been repelled by air defences.
On the same day, Russian-appointed local officials said at least 28 civilians had been killed by Ukrainian shelling in Russian-occupied Lysychansk, Luhansk Oblast, and that ten others were rescued from rubble.
On 1 February, Ukrainian unmanned surface vehicles sank the Tarantul-class missile corvette RFS Ivanovets in Donuzlav Bay, in Crimea. The same day, a Russian drone strike near Beryslav in Kherson Oblast killed two French aid workers and injured four people.
Civilians and infrastructure
The 7 February strikes were reported as part of Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. The toll of at least five dead and 11 injured, with casualties in the capital, showed that the strikes reached well beyond the front line.
The pattern in these reports is of a war fought across several fronts at once: drones over Russian territory, naval drones in Crimean waters, shelling in occupied Luhansk Oblast, and missiles and drones over Ukrainian cities. Civilians were killed in several of these episodes, according to the accounts of the day.
Financial backing in the background
The strikes also followed a significant political decision. On 1 February, the European Union formally approved a €50 billion support package for Ukraine after Hungary withdrew its veto. The package was expected to help the Ukrainian government cover some costs of pensions and salaries over the next four years, with the first funds due to be released in March.
The reports do not link the 7 February strikes to that decision. Taken together, though, they describe a country under continuing air attack while its budget support was being secured for the years ahead.
