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What the early February 2024 strikes showed
Summary
A retrospective on a week of strikes on Ukrainian cities, attacks on Russian targets and a major European Union funding decision.
What did the first week of February 2024 reveal about the state of the war? On 7 February 2024, 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 war fought on several fronts
The strikes on 7 February came after several days of cross-border and maritime action. On 1 February, Ukrainian unmanned surface vehicles sank the Tarantul-class missile corvette RFS Ivanovets in Donuzlav Bay, in Crimea. On the same day, a Russian drone strike near Beryslav in Kherson Oblast killed two French aid workers and injured four other people.
On 3 February, Ukrainian long-range drones attacked 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. The same day, Russian-appointed local officials reported that Ukrainian shelling had killed at least 28 civilians in Russian-occupied Lysychansk, in Luhansk Oblast, and that ten others had been rescued from rubble.
Funding for the longer term
Alongside the fighting, a financial decision was taken 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 following four years, with the first funds due to be released in March.
What the sequence shows
Taken together, the reports from 1 to 7 February 2024 show strikes and counter-strikes reaching well beyond the front line: a naval vessel in Crimea, a refinery in Volgograd Oblast, occupied Lysychansk, and cities across Ukraine, including the capital. Civilians, including foreign aid workers, were among those killed or injured.
The EU package addressed a different need. Its focus on pensions and salaries pointed to the cost of keeping the Ukrainian state running over several years, while the strikes of 7 February showed the pressure on civilians in the meantime.
