War in Ukraine: fires in three companies, five civilians killed, guarantees on “rare earths”… the latest on the situation

Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Tuesday, February 4, 2025, discover the latest news about this conflict

Russian attack on companies

The Ukrainian army announced Tuesday that it had shot down 37 of the 65 drones launched by Russia on the night of Monday to Tuesday, during an attack that damaged businesses, a railway depot and homes across the country. Russia attacked a depot in the Dnipro region and caused significant damage, the Ukrainian national railway company Ukrzaliznytsia said.

The attack also caused fires at three businesses in the central Cherkasy region, regional governor Ihor Tabourets said on the Telegram messaging app. In the northeastern Sumy region, an attack damaged residential buildings, regional authorities said. Ukrenergo, the national power grid operator, reported power outages in eight regions on Tuesday, citing damage from missile and drone attacks. It did not say when the attacks took place.

Russia has repeatedly bombed Ukraine’s energy infrastructure over the past year, damaging the distribution system and knocking out nearly half of Ukraine’s generating capacity. Russia denies targeting civilians, but thousands have been killed and wounded since the war began.

Russian missile strike

Five civilians were killed Tuesday when a Russian ballistic missile struck the center of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Izium, regional authorities said. At least 38 people were also injured. The city hall in the Kharkiv Oblast was partially destroyed, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said. A 15-year-old girl was among the injured and three people had to undergo surgery, he added in a message on Telegram.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced on the social network X an “intolerable brutality”. According to Oleh Syniehoubov, there are no military installations in the targeted area. The missile directly hit an administrative building, damaged another and residential buildings. Izium, occupied for several months by Russia at the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost three years ago, has suffered considerable destruction. After the city was retaken in September 2022 by Ukrainian forces, the authorities in Kyiv announced that they had discovered mass graves there and denounced Russian war crimes, accusations rejected by Moscow. The Ukrainian army also announced on Tuesday that it had shot down 37 drones out of 65 launched by Russia during the night.

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Russia attacked a depot in the Dnipro region and caused significant damage, according to the Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia. The attack also caused fires at three companies in the central Cherkasy region, regional governor Ihor Tabourets said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Ukrainian presidency announced that twelve Ukrainian children forcibly abducted by Russia had been repatriated as part of an initiative launched by the head of state. The Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, said she had no information on this case. However, she stressed that family reunification was sometimes done in cooperation with Ukraine, involving international mediators and without the intervention of government agencies.

Since the beginning of the war, Moscow and Kyiv have carried out several child exchanges to reunite them with their families. Kyiv has so far recovered 388 children, according to figures from the Ukrainian Ministry of Reintegration. According to Ukraine, which considers this a war crime, more than 19,500 Ukrainian children have been forcibly taken to Russia or to Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia since the beginning of the conflict. Moscow maintains that it wanted to protect the children. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Maria Lvova-Belova and Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing them of forcibly transferring children, a decision that the Kremlin considered “unacceptable”.

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Guarantees

Donald Trump assured Monday that he wanted to negotiate a “deal” with Ukraine so that it would offer a “guarantee” on its “rare earths” , those metals widely used in electronics, in exchange for American aid. His Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky had already proposed last October to reach an agreement with Ukraine's partners on the exploitation of certain strategic metals.

“Do you want Ukraine to give its rare earths to the United States? “ asked a reporter. “Yes”, Donald Trump replied, “I want assurances on rare earths.” In a peace plan unveiled last October, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had, without specifically mentioning rare earths, proposed a “special agreement” with his country's partners, allowing for a “joint protection” and a “joint exploitation of strategic resources” of his country.