Moscow ended the brief “energy truce” on Sunday, February 1, having killed 12 coal mine workers with a swarm of drones and having launched a total of 90 long-range attack devices that same day.
On January 29, US President Donald Trump said he had personally asked his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, not to bomb Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities for a week. The next day, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded that the truce would only last until February 1.
Overnight on January 31, Russian strikes resumed in the regions of Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk and Cherkasy, worsening the power outages that the Ukrainian population has had to endure since the start of this unusually harsh winter.
However, the attack that killed 12 miners in Ternivka on Sunday, in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, was unprecedented: The target, a bus traveling more than 70 kilometers from the nearest Russian positions, was struck by long-range Shahed-type drones. These are heavy drones mass-produced by Russia that carry explosive charges of up to 90 kg, and until very recently, as they were preprogrammed before launch, could only hit fixed targets. The ability to strike moving vehicles had previously been limited to smaller FPV (first-person view, or loitering munition) or Lancet drones carrying small explosives, with a range of up to 40 kilometers.
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