Adedokun Waliyu 
Russian forces carried out overnight drone attacks on Kyiv and the northeastern city of Sumy, Ukrainian officials said on Feb. 10.
In Ukraine’s capital, Russian drones set a non-residential building ablaze without causing deaths or injuries, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on the Telegram messaging platform.
In the city of Sumy, the administrative capital of Ukraine’s Sumy region, a woman was hospitalized after sustaining injuries, regional governor Ihor Kalchenko wrote on Telegram.
Five homes were also damaged by incoming Russian drones, Kalchenko said.
According to Ukrainian emergency services, the attack shattered windows in the area and prompted the evacuation of dozens of residents from their homes.
Emergency services posted photos online purporting to show the attack’s aftermath, including some vehicles engulfed in flames.
Ukrainian military officials said that air defenses had downed 61 out of 83 drones, while the remainder were neutralized by electronic jamming systems.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify the Ukrainian claims while Russia’s Ministry of Defence has yet to acknowledge the reported attack.
In 2022, Russia invaded and effectively annexed broad swaths of eastern and southeastern Ukraine.
Since then, it has carried out frequent aerial strikes on targets inside Ukraine, including energy facilities, claiming such sites serve a military function.
Kyiv has responded in recent weeks by attacking energy infrastructure inside Russian territory, typically using missiles and drones.
According to Ukrainian officials, Russian energy sites play a key role in fueling Moscow’s ongoing invasion, which in two weeks will enter its fourth year.
Both sides claim to use precision weapons in their respective attacks with the ostensible aim of avoiding civilian casualties.
In a related development, Apty Alaudinov, a top Russian military official who commands the Akmat special forces regiment, has said that most of the Ukrainian soldiers who had entered Russia’s western Kursk region in August 2024 had been “eliminated.”
Speaking to Russia’s TASS news agency on Feb. 10, he said that Ukrainian forces had been “largely withdrawn” from the region after sustaining “heavy losses.”
“We periodically record the appearance of other Ukrainian units and special units, including the Foreign Legion fighters,” Alaudinov said. “Periodically we meet them [and] destroy them.”
In August of last year, Kyiv launched a surprise offensive into Kursk, which shares a border with northeastern Ukraine.
In the opening days of the offensive, Ukrainian troops overran several hundred square miles of Russian territory, which Kyiv had initially hoped to use as a bargaining chip in eventual ceasefire talks.
Most of that territory, however, has since been retaken by Russian forces.
Despite fierce Russian counterattacks, Ukrainian forces continue to hold a handful of Russian settlements near the border.
Last week, Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed its forces in Kursk had beaten back a fresh Ukrainian counter-offensive near two border villages.
According to the ministry, Ukrainian forces took heavy losses in the engagement, including more than 200 troops and dozens of armored vehicles.
In a subsequent briefing, the general staff of Ukraine’s military acknowledged an uptick in fighting in Kursk, confirming that several clashes had taken place.
At the time, pro-Kyiv military bloggers reported limited Ukrainian gains in Kursk, dismissing Russian reports of heavy Ukrainian casualties.
In a Feb. 6 video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted the passage of six months since Kyiv first launched its offensive into Kursk.
The cross-border incursion, he said, had “brought the war home for Russians so that they might feel just what war is.”
According to the latest figures from Russia’s Ministry of Defence, Kyiv has lost over 58,000 troops in Kursk since it began the offensive more than six months ago.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify the ministry’s casualty figure.
Zelenskyy said on Feb. 7 that he is open to a deal granting the United States access to Ukraine’s vast rare earth and critical mineral deposits in exchange for continued military aid.
“If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal; we are only for it,” Zelenskyy told reporters in a Feb. 7 interview in Kyiv. He said Ukraine would require security guarantees from its allies in any agreement on supplying critical minerals and rare earths.
