Sumy apartment block strike and the Chasiv Yar claim
A look back at two reports from the war's front line and rear, dated 29 and 30 January 2025.
What did the news from Ukraine's regions look like on 30 January 2025? It brought reports of loss in a northern city, set against word of a front-line claim in the east.
On 30 January 2025, a Russian drone struck a multi-storey apartment building in Sumy, killing nine people and injuring 13 others. The attack was reported as one of the Russian strikes on civilians in the Russo-Ukrainian war.
A claim from the east
The day before, on 29 January 2025, reports said Russian forces had captured the city of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast, after a year of intense fighting for control of the front-line city.
The battle for Chasiv Yar had begun on 4 April 2024 with the first direct assault on the city by Russian forces. Later accounts show that the question of control stayed unsettled. By early August 2025 Russia was again claiming to have captured the city, and as of December 2025 the Institute for the Study of War reported continued fighting there.
Two fronts, one picture
Taken together, the two reports from 29 and 30 January 2025 show the war reaching both a contested front-line city in Donetsk Oblast and a residential building in Sumy. In Sumy, nine people were dead and 13 injured.
