Victory Chronicles-DAY 1435

Ukrainian forces struck a Russian oil depot and a drone command center on Jan. 27 and overnight into Jan. 28, targeting facilities Kyiv said had supported Moscow’s offensive operations, according to Ukraine’s General Staff. 

The military said strikes hit Russian personnel and an unmanned aerial vehicle command site near Velyka Novosilka in the occupied part of the Donetsk region, along with troop concentrations nearby.

Inside Russia, Ukrainian forces struck the Khokholskaya oil depot in the Voronezh region, where petroleum products caught fire. Damage assessments were ongoing. The General Staff also reported hits on an ammunition depot near Nyzhnia Duvanka in the occupied part of the easternmost Luhansk region, a troop concentration near Huliaipole in the occupied part of  Zaporizhzhia region and a battalion command post near Berezove in the occupied portion of Dnipropetrovsk region. Another strike hit a Russian troop cluster in Russia’s Belgorod region.

Separately, the military said a recent strike on the Tamanneftegaz oil terminal in Russia’s Krasnodar region caused a confirmed fire that encompassed about 6,200 square meters (approximately 66,700 square feet) and damaged three storage tanks. Ukrainian officials said the operations aimed to degrade Russia’s ability to fuel and coordinate attacks.

CSIS says Russia has suffered twice Ukraine’s losses since 2022. Russia has likely suffered about 1.2 million casualties since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, roughly twice the losses sustained by Ukrainian forces, according to a new assessment by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

The think tank said the scale of Russian losses was unprecedented for a major power since World War II. CSIS estimated Russian battlefield fatalities at about 325,000 since February 2022, with roughly 415,000 casualties recorded in 2025 alone, or nearly 35,000 a month. Despite these losses, Russian forces advanced in 2024 and 2025 at a pace of just 15 to 70 meters (about 49 to 230 feet) per day in key offensives, among the slowest rates seen in modern warfare.

Ukrainian forces were estimated to have suffered 500,000 to 600,000 casualties, including 100,000 to 140,000 fatalities. 

Rescuers recover five bodies after Russian drone strike on train in Kharkiv region. Rescue workers recovered the bodies of five civilians after a Russian drone attack struck a passenger train with 291 passengers on board in the Barvinkove community in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, authorities said on Jan. 28. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said additional body fragments were found at the scene, and the final number of victims would be confirmed after genetic testing.

The strike occurred on Jan. 27, when a Russian drone hit the train, setting fire to an electric locomotive and a passenger car. Two passengers, a 29-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman, were injured and hospitalized, officials said.

Ukraine’s SBU says long-range drones hit five airfields, causing $1 billion in losses. Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said its Alpha special operations unit used long-range drones over the past year to strike five Russian military airfields deep behind the front lines, destroying aircraft and fuel and ammunition stockpiles worth more than $1 billion. The SBU said the strikes left Russia unable to return at least 15 aircraft to service.

According to the SBU, confirmed damage included 11 fighter jets and bombers – Su-30SM, Su-34, Su-27, Su-24 and MiG-31 models – along with three helicopters, including Mi-28, Mi-26 and Mi-8 types, and one An-26 transport plane. Fires also destroyed ammunition and fuel depots at the targeted airfields.

The agency said the operations showed that distance no longer provided safety for Russian forces and were aimed at reducing Moscow’s ability to conduct air strikes against Ukraine by degrading aviation assets far from the battlefield.

Key Takeaways

1. The U.S.  is reportedly pushing Ukraine to cede the remainder of Donetsk Oblast to Russia in exchange for U.S. security guarantees. ISW continues to assess that Ukrainian concessions of territory that Russia is unlikely to seize quickly or easily militarily would be a strategic mistake.
2. The Russian military command continues to present demonstrable lies and exaggerations about Russian battlefield gains in order to push Ukraine and the West to concede to the demands that Russia remains unable to achieve militarily.
3. The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has been lying about the scale of Russian advances for months, provoking repeated criticisms from even pro-war Russian milbloggers.
4. The Russian military command has been boasting about the seizure of small, rural villages and presenting these seizures as alleged evidence of the prowess of the Russian military to further the false narrative that Russian victory in Ukraine is inevitable.
5. Russian officials continue to indicate that Russia’s demands go beyond control of territory in eastern Ukraine, despite the Kremlin’s efforts to claim to Western audiences that Donbas is the main issue in ongoing peace talks.
6. Russia will not be satisfied with a peace settlement that does not meet all of its demands and is instead using informational tools to push for Ukraine’s pre-emptive capitulation.
7. Russian forces conducted a Shahed suicide drone strike against a civilian passenger train in Kharkiv Oblast on Jan. 27, killing at least five people.
8. Russian forces continue to commit war crimes on the battlefield, including in areas where Russian forces have recently intensified offensive operations.
9. Russian forces recently advanced near Slovyansk, in the Kostyantynivka-Druzhkivka tactical area, and near Pokrovsk.

• NBA team owner sells drone control equipment to Russia
• Elon Musk insults Polish foreign minister after call to deny Starlink to Russians
• Ukraine and US working through details of post-war recovery deal
• Trump hangs photo of himself with Putin in White House
• European leader spoke of shock at Trump’s state of mind after Mar-a-Lago meeting
• Russia oil backs up at sea after India refiners step away