Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, its second-largest city of Kharkiv and other centres early on Tuesday, officials said, triggering fires and dealing new blows to energy infrastructure. The strikes injured four people, officials in the two largest cities said. In Kyiv, as nighttime temperatures dipped close to -20C (-4F), witnesses reported loud explosions after midnight, saying missiles and drones were being deployed. The strikes caused damage in five districts, hitting three apartment blocks and a building housing a kindergarten, the city’s military administration chief, Tymur Tkachenko, said on Telegram. Flames consumed an apartment on the upper floors of a Kyiv block in videos posted on social media.
Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said the attacks targeted energy infrastructure and called for tough decisions to keep heating systems from freezing. “The goal is obvious: to cause maximum destruction and leave the city without heat in severe cold,” he said on Telegram. Public broadcaster Suspilne also said Russian strikes had knocked out power in two towns in the Kharkiv region, Izium and Balakliia, and struck two apartment buildings in the northern city of Sumy.
Donald Trump said earlier that his administration may have some good news soon on its push to end the war in Ukraine. “I think we’re doing very well with Ukraine and Russia. For the first time, I’m saying that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “I think we’re going to, maybe, have some good news.”
The Russian attacks came on the eve of the next planned three-sided negotiations on ending the war and coincided with talk of a ceasefire on strikes on energy infrastructure adopted by both Russia and Ukraine at Trump’s request. Russia said the ceasefire ended on Sunday, while Ukraine said it was to continue for a week from 30 January. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Russia had largely observed the truce and not carried out any targeted missile or drone strikes on energy infrastructure in the past 24 hours, but that steady Russian shelling had hit energy facilities near the front line.
Ukraine has agreed with western partners that any persistent Russian violations of a future ceasefire agreement would trigger a co-ordinated military response from Europe and the US, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing people briefed on the discussions. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Zelenskyy said it was “realistic to achieve a dignified and lasting peace”, ahead of the Ukrainian talks with Russian and US officials due to take place over two days from Wednesday in Abu Dhabi. “Ukraine is ready for real steps,” the Ukrainian president said. A White House official said Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff would attend the talks. Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian delegation would also hold bilateral meetings with US officials during the two days.
Russia has repeated that it would regard the deployment of any foreign military forces or infrastructure in Ukraine as unacceptable foreign intervention and treat those forces as legitimate targets, the Russian foreign ministry said on Monday, citing foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. Moscow has repeatedly said it will not tolerate such troops’ presence there.
The EU’s decision last week to ban Russian gas imports was “100% legally sound”, the bloc’s energy commissioner said, adding it would prevent Russia from weaponising energy. “We’ve said we will no longer help indirectly finance [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s war in Ukraine by buying gas there,” Dan Jorgensen told reporters in Lisbon on Monday after meeting with Portugal’s energy minister. “That also means it’s no longer possible for Russia to blackmail EU member states to weaponise energy against us.”
Germany has detained five people suspected of operating a network that exported goods to Russian defence companies, contravening EU sanctions imposed over the war, German federal prosecutors said on Monday. The federal prosecutors’ office estimated the group had allegedly arranged 16,000 shipments, worth a combined €30m ($36m) since February 2022, and that Russian state agencies were suspected of directing the procurement activities. The Russian embassy in Berlin did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the accusations.
