Russian forces attack Kharkiv, striking the city center.

Russian occupation forces launched an attack on Kharkiv and Kharkiv Oblast on Sunday, 5 February. Two Russian missiles hit the Kyiv district in the centre of Kharkiv city. No casualties or fatalities have been reported so far.

Albany, NY, to help rebuild Bucha.

The city of Albany, the capital of the US state of New York, has offered to partner with Ukraine’s Bucha to support its rebuilding efforts.

"We plan to visit Albany in New York, Bucha’s future partner city. Albany’s Mayor’s Office proposed an initiative to partner with our city."

"Our main goal here is to tell the people in the US what is happening in Ukraine, to establish direct contacts with politicians and foundations supporting our rebuilding efforts" reported Anatolii Fedoruk, Bucha Mayor.

He explained that it was "important to rebuild what has been destroyed, but even more important to modernise and become stronger than we were on 24 February" [2022, when the full-scale Russian invasion began – ed.].

Bucha Mayor said that he and his team have meetings with Washington high-level officials, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID) leadership, congressmen, government officials, party leaders, journalists, and businessmen.

Russia intends to deport children from occupied Luhansk Oblast to Karelia, Russia.

The Ukrainian Center for National Resistance (CNR) has reported that Russia intends to deport children from the temporarily occupied Luhansk Oblast to the Republic of Karelia in Russia’s northwest.

A meeting was held this week between Elissan Shandalovich, Chairman of the Assembly of the Republic of Karelia, and Denis Miroshnichenko, Head of the so-called "People’s Council" of the temporarily occupied territory in Luhansk Oblast.

One of the key issues they discussed was sending children from the temporarily Russian-occupied Luhansk Oblast to "beautiful" resorts in Karelia, Russian Federation, for "rest" and "rehabilitation".

The situation in Bakhmut getting more challenging for Ukrainian forces – British intelligence.

As British Defence Intelligence reports, Russian forces have made the situation more difficult for the defenders of Bakhmut over the past week.

The M03 and the H32 – the two main roads into the city for Ukrainian defenders – are likely now both threatened by direct fire following the Russian advances. Earlier in the week, Wagner paramilitary forces highly likely seized a subordinate route which links Bakhmut to the town of Siversk. While multiple alternative cross-country supply routes remain available to Ukrainian forces, Bakhmut is increasingly isolated.

Russians hit the Nikopol district with tubed artillery, damaging power transmission line.

During the day, the army of the Russian Federation attacked settlements in the Nikopol district using tubed artillery. Power transmission lines were damaged in the attacks; there were no casualties.