These are the key developments from day 1,431 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Here is where things stand on Sunday, January 25:
Fighting
- Russian forces launched another major attack on Ukraine overnight on Saturday, killing at least one person and wounding four in the capital, Kyiv, and leaving 1.2 million properties without power nationwide, according to officials.
- Kyiv’s military administration reported strikes in at least four districts in the capital and said a medical facility was among the buildings damaged. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said Russia targeted the capital and four regions in the country’s north and east.
- Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the worst-affected in the capital was the northeastern suburb of Troyeshchyna, where 600 buildings were without power, water and heat.
- Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia unleashed 375 drones and 21 missiles, including two of its rarely deployed Tsirkon ballistic missiles.
- At least 30 people, including a child, were also wounded during the same attack in the country’s second-largest city of Kharkiv. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said 25 drones had hit several districts in the city. Among those struck was a dormitory for displaced people and two medical facilities, including a maternity hospital, Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
- Ukrainian Minister of Energy Denys Shmyhal wrote on Telegram late on Saturday that more than 800,000 Kyiv households were still without power, as were a further 400,000 in the Chernihiv region, north of the capital.
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Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said more than 3,200 buildings in Kyiv remained without heating in the late evening, down from 6,000 in the morning. Night-time temperatures were hovering around -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha denounced the attack as “barbaric” in a statement posted on X. He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of acting “cynically” for launching the attack amid United States-led trilateral talks on the war in the United Arab Emirates.
- In Russia, Ukrainian forces launched a “massive” attack on the border region of Belgorod on Saturday, damaging energy infrastructure, but causing no casualties. Regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov described the incident as “the most massive shelling of the town of Belgorod”.
- Gladkov said the attack damaged “energy sites” and that fragments of a downed drone triggered a fire in a courtyard of a building. Reports from the area also said the shelling and sounds of explosions had gone on for some time.
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The Russian Ministry of Defence said its forces had completed the takeover of the village of Starytsya in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, close to the border with Russia.
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The General Staff of Ukraine’s military said Russian forces had launched six attacks on an area including Starytsya. But it made no acknowledgement that the village had been captured by Russian forces.
Diplomacy
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Ukraine and Russia ended their second day of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi without a peace deal, with more talks expected next weekend, amid the massive Russian strikes across Ukraine.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X following the meeting that “the central focus” of the discussions was “the possible parameters for ending the war”, but he did not say if the negotiators were close to a deal.
- More discussions are expected next Sunday in Abu Dhabi, according to a US official who spoke to reporters immediately after the talks. The official, who requested anonymity, said negotiators “saw a lot of respect” during the discussions, “because they were really looking to find solutions”.
- The US official also voiced hopes for further talks, possibly in Moscow or Kyiv, beyond next week’s discussions in Abu Dhabi, adding that the next step would be a possible bilateral discussion between Putin and Zelenskyy, or a trilateral meeting that includes US President Donald Trump.
- An unnamed UAE government spokesperson told the Reuters news agency that there was face-to-face engagement between Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi – rare in the almost four-year-old war triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion – and said negotiators tackled “outstanding elements” of Trump’s peace framework.
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The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also hinted at the prospects of additional talks with Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul after negotiations in Abu Dhabi, adding that Moscow remains open to a continuation of dialogue, the Russian state RIA news agency reported.
