Here is the situation on Wednesday, February 5:

Fighting

• Five people, including a teenager, were killed and at least 55 injured by a Russian strike in Izyum city in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
• Two people were killed by Russian shelling in southern Ukraine. Prosecutors in the Dnipropetrovsk region said one person was killed in Dnipro and another in Kherson city.
• Six people, including five children, were injured by a Ukrainian drone attack on a school bus in the Vasylivka district of the Russian-controlled part of Zaporizhia region. Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova also accused international aid organisations of wanting to cover up the case.
• Kyiv’s military said it shot down 37 of 65 Russian drones launched at Ukraine overnight. The attack resulted in damage to businesses, a railway depot and houses.

• Ukraine’s military also claimed responsibility for killing a “substantial” number of Russian soldiers in a strike on a Russian military command post in Kursk. “The facility sustained significant damage,” the military’s statement detailed.
• Ukraine’s national police chief Ivan Vyhivskyi said on Wednesday Russia’s spy agencies were responsible for a spate of explosions at military draft offices.
• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi warned of possible nuclear accidents in Ukraine due to a direct attack on a plant or from power supply disruptions.

Humanitarian efforts

• Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday exchanged 150 prisoners of war on each side after mediation by the United Arab Emirates, both Kyiv and Moscow confirmed.
• Kyiv’s Coordination Centre for the Treatment of Prisoners of War reported a record surge in queries to the “I want to find” hotline from relatives of those serving Moscow’s army. The centre said it received 8,548 requests last month.

Politics and diplomacy

• United States President Donald Trump said the Russia-Ukraine war “would’ve never happened” if he were in power. Trump added that the US is dealing “very successfully” with Russia and Ukraine.
• A Russian spokesperson said Trump’s offer to Ukraine suggesting Kyiv should supply rare earths in exchange for aid demonstrated that the US is no longer willing to provide free aid to Kyiv.
• Germany’s top general, Carsten Breuer, warned that Russia could test NATO’s defence readiness and attack a European country in the next four years. “It’s extremely serious,” he said, adding that as a military man, “when the analysts say four to seven years, then I assume four years”.

• Peskov described the European Union’s efforts to increase defence spending as destructive to the economic situation of Europe and something that would “affect every European”.
• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters that his team was in contact with Washington’s top Ukraine official Keith Kellogg and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz to work on dates for a US delegation to visit Kyiv. He also said Ukraine was open to investments by US companies to supply rare earths to the US in exchange for aid.
• Zelenskyy also demanded nuclear weapons as an alternative to Ukraine’s admission as a member nation of NATO.
• He said the number of Ukrainians killed in the war so far was 45,100, with the number of injured at 390,000. As per his estimates, 350,000 Russians were killed during the period while between 600,000 and 700,000 were injured, as well as there were “many” missing in action.
• Zelenskyy said he would be willing to sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin if it was the only way to “bring peace to Ukraine and not lose people”. However, he said Europe would need to be present at the table.
• The EU said in a statement that it has laid down legal foundations for a special tribunal, which when operational, would have the power to hold Russian political and military leaders accountable.