Here are the latest updates as of Sunday, February 8:
Fighting
Russian forces attacked Ukraine on Saturday evening, launching more than 400 drones and about 40 missiles targeting the country’s power grid, power generation facilities, and distribution substations, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Two thermal power plants in western Ukraine were hit, and power transmission lines were also targeted, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said.
As a result of the attack, more than 1,000 apartment buildings in the capital, Kyiv, remain without heating in freezing weather, Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian president criticized Moscow for striking energy infrastructure, saying Russia must be stopped from using the cold winter weather to pressure Kyiv. “Russia can choose real diplomacy every day, but it chooses new attacks instead,” he said.
Poland suspended operations at airports in Lublin and Rzeszow, near the border with Ukraine, on Saturday following the Russian attack. Polish authorities later said the country’s airspace was not violated and reopened both airports.
Power generation at Ukrainian nuclear plants decreased due to renewed military activity affecting substations and causing some power line outages, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on X.
Kyiv struck an oil depot in Russia’s Saratov region and a missile fuel component manufacturing plant in Russia’s western Tver region, Ukrainian military and security officials said.
Ukrainian forces also attacked Russia’s Bryansk region using long-range Neptune missiles and HIMARS rocket systems, according to the region’s governor. The official said the attack injured two people and cut power to seven municipalities.
A separate Ukrainian missile attack on the border region of Belgorod left several water supply facilities without power, and experts are “investigating the extent of the outages,” Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
Russian forces have taken the village of Chuhunivka in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, Russia’s Defense Ministry said, according to RIA Novosti.
Peace Talks
The US has given Moscow and Kyiv a June deadline to agree to a deal to end the war, following two days of talks between the US and Russia in Abu Dhabi this week, Zelenskyy said.
Washington has proposed holding talks in Miami in a week’s time, a proposal that Kyiv has agreed to, Zelenskyy said.
As a de-escalation measure during the talks, the US has asked Russia and Ukraine to agree to a new ceasefire covering strikes on energy infrastructure, Zelenskyy also said. Kyiv is ready to halt strikes on Russian oil facilities and other energy infrastructure, but Moscow has not agreed, he added.
The Ukrainian leader said he learned from Ukrainian intelligence that a Russian envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, proposed in the talks that the US and Russia agree to cooperate on deals worth up to $12 trillion. Zelenskyy stressed that any such agreement between Moscow and Washington must not violate the Ukrainian constitution.
Ukraine and Russia remain far apart on territorial issues, Zelenskyy added. He said the US proposed a free economic zone in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, most of which is occupied by Russia, but neither Ukraine nor Russia was interested.
Earlier, the Ukrainian leader met with his negotiating team in Kyiv and said Ukraine “needs concrete results” to secure “effective security guarantees” for the country.
A third round of talks aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine should be held “as soon as possible,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow. But he said no specific date had been set yet.
Politics & Security
Ukraine supports calls for a ceasefire during the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said, after Italy and Pope Leo III urged world leaders to use the Games to promote peace.
Two suspects in the alleged assassination attempt on a senior Russian military intelligence officer, General Vladimir Alekseyev, “will be interrogated soon,” Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported, citing a source close to the investigation. Alekseyev, a deputy head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, was shot in his apartment building in Moscow on Friday and hospitalized. He underwent successful surgery and regained consciousness on Saturday but remains under medical supervision, according to Kommersant.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov blamed Ukraine for the assassination attempt, alleging, without providing evidence, that it was aimed at derailing peace talks.
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order lifting a 25% punitive tariff on all Indian imports previously imposed over India’s purchase of Russian oil, the White House said. The move follows the announcement of a trade deal between the two countries that would cut US tariffs on Indian goods from 50% to 18% in exchange for India halting its purchases of Russian oil and reducing trade barriers.