Here are the latest updates as of Friday, February 6:
Fighting
Ukrainian forces shelled the Russian city of Belgorod overnight, causing “serious destruction,” according to the region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
“The enemy shelled the civilian city of Belgorod. Everyone knows we have no military targets there. There is a lot of destruction. I went out to check,” Gladkov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, overnight injured two people, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
The attacks damaged residential buildings in one district, and in another, debris from a downed drone fell on the roof of an office building, sparking a fire, Klitschko said. Debris also fell near a shopping center, damaging a kindergarten.
Russia launched two ballistic missiles and 183 drones at Ukraine on Thursday evening, with Ukrainian air defense forces shooting down 156 of the drones, Ukraine’s Air Force said.
Russia’s air defense forces shot down 95 Ukrainian drones overnight over several Russian regions, as well as over the Azov Sea and Russia’s annexed Crimean peninsula, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Russia launched a “massive” drone attack on railway infrastructure in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said. Railway energy infrastructure was also targeted in the attack, Kuleba added.
Kuleba described the attack as “another act of terrorism” against Ukraine’s logistics and said “the enemy is trying to stop railway traffic.”
Ukrainian forces carried out a series of “successful” strikes on a Russian intermediate-range ballistic missile launch site in January, the Ukrainian military said. The airstrikes targeted a hangar-type structure used for pre-launch preparations of intermediate and intercontinental ballistic missiles, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Telegram, without specifying the date of the strike.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his Thursday evening address, praised the “good results” from Ukraine’s SBU security service, specifically mentioning strikes by domestically produced long-range “Flamingo” missiles on a Russian “Oreshnik” hypersonic missile test site near the Caspian Sea.
Starlink internet terminals used by Russian forces in Ukraine have been deactivated, Kyiv’s defense minister said.
Russian military bloggers reported on Thursday that Starlink internet terminals had been turned off by the network’s owner, Elon Musk, following a request from Kyiv, causing widespread outages along the Ukrainian front line.
At least nine bloggers with close ties to the Russian military said connectivity had been severed, adding that this could hamper Moscow’s ability to wage its drone war and impede coordination between units. Moscow has no domestically produced alternative to the satellite internet terminals.
Ukraine is currently registering civilian and military Starlink users into a database, allowing approved devices to operate within the country, while unregistered terminals are being disabled.
Peace Talks
Ukraine and Russia agreed to hold further consultations in the coming weeks after two days of trilateral talks with the US in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, a communique from Ukraine’s chief negotiator said. The communique thanked the UAE for organizing the talks and thanked US President Donald Trump for his “leadership in pushing for an end to the war.”
US, Ukrainian, and Russian delegations have agreed to exchange 314 prisoners of war, with the swap completed on Thursday, Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said. It was the first prisoner exchange in five months.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged 157 prisoners of war each, Russia’s Defense Ministry said. In addition, three civilians from the Kursk region were returned to Russia.
Some of the released prisoners of war had been held for nearly four years, President Zelenskyy said. He also said the next round of talks would be held soon, likely in the US.
“The talks were constructive and focused on creating conditions for achieving a lasting peace,” Witkoff posted on the social media platform X.
Military Aid
Poland is preparing a new aid package for Ukraine worth 200 million zlotys ($55.9 million), mainly consisting of armored equipment, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said during a visit to Kyiv on Thursday.
Tusk also said Poland is ready to provide MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, but Zelenskyy told him Kyiv may need other air defense equipment more, and he would discuss the matter with Polish officials and report back to the Ukrainian president.
Following talks with Tusk, Zelenskyy renewed his request for air defense missiles from Poland and said Kyiv is willing to exchange its drones, in which Poland has become a global leader, for missiles from allies or Polish Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets.
Slovak prosecutors on Thursday terminated an investigation initiated by the government of Prime Minister Robert Fico, which alleged that the country’s previous government committed a crime by donating fighter jets and air defense systems to Ukraine.
The dozen Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets, as well as S-300 and KUB air defense systems donated to Ukraine, were obsolete, not fully operational, and lacked missiles and pilots, said Bratislava regional prosecutor Rastislav Remeta. He said donating the equipment was not a crime, contrary to allegations made by Fico and his aides.
Sanctions
Further US sanctions against Russia will depend on negotiations aimed at ending the nearly four-year war in Ukraine, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
Bessent said he would consider new sanctions on Russia’s “shadow fleet” — a step Trump has not taken since returning to the White House in January 2025. “I will consider it. We’ll see how the peace talks go,” Bessent said.
Energy
Planned power outages may intensify in the coming days as Russian forces could launch new airstrikes to further cripple electricity and heating networks, Ukraine’s energy minister warned the population.
More than 200 emergency workers are repairing heating systems in apartment buildings in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, following a series of massive Russian attacks in January, the energy minister said.
A Ukrainian power plant damaged in a Russian airstrike may take two months to repair, Mayor Klitschko said. The plant, called Darnytsia, provides heating for more than 1,100 apartment buildings in Kyiv. It was damaged in a heavy Russian bombardment on Tuesday.
The Swedish government said it would provide 1 billion Swedish kronor ($111.1 million) in aid to Ukraine’s energy system.
Politics & Diplomacy
A senior Russian nuclear official said Russia is ready for international cooperation on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant project, including with the US. But the plant must belong to Russia, said Alexey Likhachev, head of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom. Russian forces took control of the plant in southern Ukraine shortly after the start of the war in 2022.
Russia expelled a German diplomat in response to what it called Germany’s unprovoked expulsion of a Russian diplomat last month, accusing Berlin of succumbing to “spy mania.”
Trump on Thursday said he would fully back right-wing ally Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the upcoming Hungarian election.
“Viktor Orban is a true friend, a fighter and a winner,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, adding that he gives his “complete support for re-election.” Orban quickly responded to Trump, posting on Facebook: “Thank you, Mr. President!”
Regional Security
Trump rejected a voluntary extension of limits on strategic nuclear weapons deployment proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, after the 15-year New START treaty limiting such deployments expired on Thursday.
Russia remains open to dialogue with the US if Washington responds constructively to President Putin’s proposal, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
At the Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain (REAIM) summit in A Coruña, Spain, on Thursday, only about one-third of attending countries agreed to a statement on how to regulate the deployment of AI technology in warfare, with both c and the US failing to sign. Only 35 of the 85 participating countries reportedly signed the pledge committing to 20 principles on AI.