Here are the latest updates as of Tuesday, January 27:
Fighting
Russian forces launched drone and missile attacks on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, injuring at least two people, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
The attacks also damaged apartment buildings, a school, and a kindergarten, and left 80% of the city and surrounding areas without power, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
Russian drones also struck a high-rise apartment building in the city of Kryvyi Rih, southeast of Kharkiv and the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The attack sparked a fire, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, the city’s military administrator, Oleksandr Vilkul, said.
Russian drone and missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, have partially damaged the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, Ukraine’s most famous religious landmark and a UNESCO World Heritage site, Ukraine’s Culture Ministry said in a statement.
A Ukrainian drone attack on the border region of Russia’s Belgorod region killed one person, the region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukrainian forces said they struck the Slavyansk Eko oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight. Key processing facilities at the refinery were partially hit, the military said in a statement. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
One person was injured and two businesses caught fire in the city of Slavyansk-on-Kuban in Russia’s Krasnodar region following the downing of a drone. The regional emergency center said the fires were started by debris falling from the destroyed drone.
Russia’s air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 40 Ukrainian drones overnight, with 34 downed over the Krasnodar region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Military Aid
Ukraine’s probability of intercepting Russian missiles and drones has decreased as the weapons Kyiv uses to defend against incoming attacks dwindle, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said. Rutte urged allies to draw from their weapons stockpiles to help defend Ukraine.
Humanitarian Aid
A Czech online fundraiser called “Darek pro Putina” (A Gift for Putin) has raised over $6 million in just five days to buy generators, heaters, and batteries for Ukraine, following Russian strikes on the country’s power plants that have left hundreds of thousands without heat in sub-zero temperatures.
Ceasefire Talks
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators are expected to resume talks on February 1, Zelenskyy said in his regular nightly address, urging Ukraine’s allies not to ease pressure on Moscow before the talks are held.
The weekend’s trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi between Ukraine, the US, and Russia focused mainly on military issues, but political issues were also discussed, Zelenskyy said in a separate post on X. He added that new trilateral talks are being prepared.
US-brokered talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Abu Dhabi took place in a “good atmosphere,” but there is still “a lot of work to be done,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow. He added that despite the disagreements, the talks should be viewed positively.
The Kremlin also said that territorial issues remain fundamental to any agreement to end the conflict for Russia, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. Moscow has insisted that Russia must take over the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine for the war to end.
Following the Abu Dhabi talks, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office minister, Anna Lührmann, accused Russia of being “uncompromising on key territorial issues.”
Politics
European Union countries have approved a ban on imports of Russian natural gas by the end of 2027, aiming to sever ties with the former top energy supplier nearly four years after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko welcomed the ban, saying in a statement that moving away from Russian energy “is primarily about a safe and strong Europe.”
Russia is testing European countries’ responses to hybrid tactics, such as damaging undersea cables, jamming GPS signals, and deploying a shadow fleet to evade sanctions, while its deadly war in Ukraine continues, Germany’s Anna Lührmann said.
Hungary will summon Ukraine’s ambassador over what Prime Minister Viktor Orban called Kyiv’s attempt to interfere in Hungary’s parliamentary elections scheduled for April 12. Orban has intensified his anti-Ukraine rhetoric in recent weeks and has sought to link opposition leader Peter Magyar with Brussels and Ukraine.