A Ukrainian firefighter battles a blaze after Russian strikes, January 24, 2026

EA-War and Politics 24 VideoCast: Putin’s Last Chance to Conquer Ukraine?

Friday’s Coverage: Ukraine-Russia-US to Meet in Abu Dhabi

UPDATE 0841 GMT:

The toll has risen to one murdered and 31 injured — four in Kyiv and 27 in Kharkiv — after Russia’s overnight strikes.

Ukrainian officials say 80% of the country faces emergency power cuts.

Russia fired at least 396 aerial weapons, including 250 attack drones, Iskander ballistic missiles, and Kh-22/Kh-32 cruise missiles.

Kyiv was the focal point of the attacks, and there were strikes on Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Zaporizhzhia.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha posted, “This barbaric attack once again proves that Putin’s place is not at the board of peace, but at the dock of the special tribunal.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Amid talks with Ukrainian and US delegations in Abu Dhabi, Russia has launched massive missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s largest cities Kyiv and Kharkiv.

At least one civilian was murdered in Kyiv. Another 15 were injured, four in the capital and 11 in Kharkiv in the northeast.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv at 1:20 a.m. Blasts continued for the next hour, including the interception of a ballistic missile. A fire was set in a building in the Holosiivskyi district, and damage was reported in the Desnyanski, Dniprovskyi, and Solomyaski districts. A medical facility was among the sites struck.

Heating and water supplies have again been disrupted in parts of the city east of the Dnipro River. Emergency crews are still struggling to restore services, amid nighttime temperatures around -10C (4F), after mass strikes on January 9 and January 20.

A medical facility was among the buildings damaged.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky summarized:

Every such Russian strike on our energy infrastructure proves that there must be no delays in supplying air defenses. No blind eye can be turned to these strikes; they must be met with a strong response. We are counting on the reaction and assistance of all our partners. Every missile for Patriot, NASAMS, and all other systems helps protect critical infrastructure and enables people to endure the winter cold. We must ensure full implementation of everything agreed with President Trump in Davos regarding air defense.

Ukraine’s grid operators said the energy situation has “significantly” worsened. The CEO of the top private energy firm, Maxim Timchenko, said the situation was “close to a humanitarian catastrophe”.

The European Commission announced the despatch of 447 emergency generators. The European Union’s Commissioner for Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib said:

Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are deliberately depriving civilians of heat, light and basic services in the middle of harsh winter.

They are designed to break Ukrainian spirit. They will fail.

Russia Demands Ukraine Surrender Territory As Talks Begin

Just before the trilateral discussions began in the UAE — and just after Vladimir Putin hosted Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin — Putin’s senior foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov said:

We, as Vladimir Putin emphasized, are sincerely interested in resolving the Ukrainian crisis through political and diplomatic means. But until that happens, Russia will continue to consistently pursue the goals set for the special military operation on the battlefield, where the Russian armed forces hold the strategic initiative.

Those “goals” include the demand that Ukraine surrender the rest of the Donetsk region in the east, and that the rest of the country is kept permanently weak with no effective security guarantees or assistance.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions:

Russia’s position is well known on the fact that Ukraine, the Ukrainian armed forces, have to leave the territory of the Donbas. They must be withdrawn from there. This is a very important condition.

No details were given of the first day’s discussions in Abu Dhabi. A “White House official” simply said that they were “productive”.

In his nightly address to the nation, President Zelensky said:

By now, our team should already have at least some answers from Russia. The key is that Russia must be ready to end the war it started. Ukraine’s positions are clear. I have defined the framework for dialogue for our delegation.

As for the substance of today’s discussions, it is still too early to draw conclusions. We will see how the conversation develops tomorrow and what results it produces.

It is necessary that not only Ukraine has the desire to end the war and achieve full security, but that a similar desire somehow emerges in Russia as well.