20 February 2024

February 2024 in brief

Kharkiv local authorities said a drone strike on a petrol station started a fire that killed seven people, including three children, and the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission put verified civilian deaths since February 2022 at 10,582, with 19,875 injured. ^[1][2][3] President Zelensky replaced commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi with Oleksandr Syrskyi, who days later said Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from Avdiivka to avoid encirclement as Russia claimed control of the town; Zelensky blamed a shortage of weapons and stalled US aid. ^[1][2] At sea, Ukraine's military intelligence said it sank the corvette Ivanovets and the landing ship Tsezar Kunikov off Crimea, losses Russia did not acknowledge in the sources opened. ^[1][2] Opposition politician Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic prison colony; US President Joe Biden said Putin was responsible, the Kremlin rejected the accusation, and the UN called for a full and transparent investigation. ^[1] EU leaders agreed a 50 billion euro Ukraine Facility after Hungary dropped its objection, and the US imposed sanctions on more than 500 targets to mark two years of the full-scale invasion. ^[1][2] Zelensky said about 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been officially recorded as killed, Russia's defence minister claimed Ukraine had lost 444,000 soldiers, and a Mediazona and Meduza estimate put Russian military dead at 75,000 or more. ^[3] French President Emmanuel Macron said sending troops to Ukraine could not be ruled out, and Putin warned in his address to parliament that Western support for Kyiv risked a nuclear conflict.

Written from the records it cites; every figure appears in a cited record.