Live blog: Ukraine's Zelenskyy visits front line in Zaporizhzhia

Sunday, February 4, 2024

1512 GMT — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited troops at southern frontline village Robotyne, which Kiev retook from Russian forces last summer but is again under heavy attack.

"Zaporizhzhia region. Robotyne. The location of the 65th Mechanised Brigade. I spoke with the defenders, thanked them and presented state awards," Zelenskyy said on social media. "It is an honour to be here today."

During his visit, Zelenskyy also appointed Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov as Zaporizhzhia's new governor, according to a decree released by the Ukrainian presidency.

Fedorov, 35, was abducted in March 2022 by Russian soldiers as they entered his city after refusing to cooperate with Moscow. He was held in captivity before being swapped for a group of young Russian soldiers that same month.

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1624 GMT — G7 eyes Russian assets as collateral to fund Ukraine

The Group of Seven and the European Union have been discussing a plan to use more than $250 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets as collateral to help fund the reconstruction of Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

0725 GMT — Russia says death toll reaches 28 in Ukraine's bakery shelling

The death toll from a strike on a bakery in the occupied eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk has climbed to 28 people, including a child, Russian rescuers have said.

Moscow-backed forces on Saturday said Kiev had targeted a bakery that is popular on weekends, almost two years into Russia's full-scale offensive against its neighbour.

The front in eastern Ukraine has barely moved in months but battles continue to be bloody, with intensified attacks on both sides this winter.

"Search operations continue on the site of the collapsed bakery... 28 people, including a child, have died," the Russian emergency situations ministry posted on Telegram.

0503 GMT — Russia claims massive Ukraine loss in southern Donetsk direction

Ukraine has lost up to 95 servicemen in the South Donetsk direction over the past 24 hours, according to Alexander Gordeyev, the head of the press centre of the Eastern Group of Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, TASS news agency has reported.

Gordeyev said that the Ukrainian forces attempted to strengthen their forward positions and rotate soldiers in the areas of Staromaryevka and Rovnoe Pole, but were unsuccessful.

Russia-backed forces destroyed a radar station, a quadcopter, a Fury UAV, and more than 95 servicemen.

Russian forces also struck strongholds and concentrations of manpower of the 58th Motorized Infantry Brigade, the 72nd Mechanized Brigade, and the 128th Territorial Defense Brigade in the areas of Urozhainy, Ugledar, Vodyanoye, and Staromaryevka. A temporary deployment point and a UAV control point were also destroyed.

2124 GMT — Scores killed in Ukrainian shelling on Luhansk: Russia

Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry has reported that at least 20 people were killed in an attack on a bakery in the Luhansk region of Ukraine.

It said a two-story bakery collapsed as a result of shelling by the Ukrainian army that caused civilian injuries.

The Luhansk region is under Russian control. Russia's emergencies ministry said its workers had retrieved the bodies of 20 people from the rubble following a Ukrainian attack on a building housing a bakery in the city of Lysychansk in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk.

The ministry shared video of emergency workers lifting two bloodied people onto stretchers and carrying them in the darkness out of the ruins of a building.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said dozens of civilians were in the bakery during the attack.

For our live updates from Saturday, February 3 click here.