Wars 2022 02/24 Monitoring Russian and Ukraine War.

[Saif]

Ukraine talks set for next week as cold sweeps country

US-backed trilateral talks involving Ukraine and Russia will take place next week in Abu Dhabi, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, as Ukrainians faced uncertainty over the fate of an energy ceasefire with Russia amid plunging temperatures. Kyiv is under US pressure to secure peace in th

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Ukraine talks set for next week as cold sweeps country

REUTERS
Published :
Feb 01, 2026 18:22
Updated :
Feb 01, 2026 18:22

People line up at a bus stop during sub-zero temperatures, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine January 31, 2026. Photo : REUTERS/Thomas Peter TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

US-backed trilateral talks involving Ukraine and Russia will take place next week in Abu Dhabi, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, as Ukrainians faced uncertainty over the fate of an energy ceasefire with Russia amid plunging temperatures.

Kyiv is under US pressure to secure peace in the nearly four-year war while grappling with a Russian campaign of air strikes that has ravaged its energy system during one of the coldest winters in years.

The first round of negotiations took place in late January, but led to no new movement on the vital question of territory, with Moscow still demanding Kyiv cede more land in its war-torn east, which it refuses to do.

Zelenskiy said the new talks would take place on February 4 and 5, and that Ukraine - struggling to stop grinding Russian advances on the battlefield - was ready for a "substantive discussion".

"Ukraine is ready for a substantive discussion, and we are interested in ensuring that the outcome brings us closer to a real and dignified end to the war," Zelenskiy wrote on X.

WORKERS RACE TO RESTORE POWER

In the capital Kyiv, 1,000 apartment buildings remained without heating on Sunday, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko, as a new wave of bitter cold swept across much of the country.

Temperatures in the city on Sunday hovered around -15 degrees Celsius, as workers raced to restore heating to hundreds out of the nearly 3,500 high-rises affected by a widespread grid malfunction on Saturday.

Officials did not directly link it to war damage, but the resulting blackouts - which spread to neighbouring Moldova - underlined the vulnerability of Ukraine's energy system after months of Russian attacks.

The Kremlin said two days ago it had agreed to halt strikes on energy infrastructure until Sunday at the request of US President Donald Trump, and Kyiv said it would reciprocate.

Ukraine said the suspension was supposed to last until the following Friday.

TWO PEOPLE KILLED OVERNIGHT

The countries have not reported major strikes on their energy systems in recent days, though Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Russia was attempting "to destroy logistics and connectivity between cities and communities" through ongoing air attacks.

In southeastern Ukraine, two people were killed overnight in a drone strike on a residential building in the city of Dnipro, and six people were wounded in an attack on a maternity hospital in Zaporizhzhia, regional officials said.

Temperatures are expected to drop even further on Monday to well below minus 20 degrees Celsius in Kyiv.

Ukrainian private energy firm DTEK said on Sunday it had restored power to 300,000 households in the southern coastal region of Odesa, which had been hit hard by the malfunction.

Grid operator Ukrenergo said late on Saturday that planned outages would be in force throughout the entire country.

Anatoliy Veresenko, a 65-year-old veteran who was out for a run at a Kyiv park, said he was warily anticipating new attacks and did not place much hope in the peace process.

"Talks are talks. We hope for peace, but we still need to fight and secure victory."​

 

[Saif]

Russia strike in east Ukraine kills man, son

A Russian attack in the early hours of Monday killed a father and son from a family that had fled eastern Ukraine but later returned to their frontline hometown...

www.newagebd.net

Russia strike in east Ukraine kills man, son
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 03 February, 2026, 01:12

A Russian attack in the early hours of Monday killed a father and son from a family that had fled eastern Ukraine but later returned to their frontline hometown.

The airstrike just after midnight hit the industrial town of Oleksievo-Druzhkivka in the wider Donetsk region, a key prize in the war launched by Russia nearly four years ago.

‘A 44-year-old man and his 23-year-old son were killed in the attack,’ police said in a statement, adding that the mother, 42, and two other children were wounded.

Oleksievo-Druzhkivka had a pre-war population of around 7,000 people and lies some 15 kilometres from the front line.

Police said the family had last November fled the Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia, but they returned one month later.

Police released images showing smoke rising from what appeared to be the charred remains of the family’s home, surrounded by piles of debris.

Local authorities, which have urged residents to flee frontline areas, sporadically report on evacuees returning and then being killed.

The regional governor Vadym Filashkin, expressed condolences on social media and said: ‘I am also outraged, because the parents consciously made the decision to leave a region far from the front and bring their children back under enemy bombs.’

Russian forces and their proxies have controlled parts of the Donetsk region since 2014, when separatists rose up in the wake of nationwide pro-democracy rallies.

February 24 will mark four years of Russia’s full-scale offensive against Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia has confirmed that a new round of talks with Ukraine and the United States in Abu Dhabi on ending the four-year-war will start Wednesday, after they were postponed from this weekend.

Moscow blamed a scheduling issue for the delay, a day after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky also said the negotiations would take place in the UAE capital on Wednesday and Thursday.

‘They were indeed originally planned for this past Sunday. But additional coordination of the schedules of the three parties was needed,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters

‘Now, on Wednesday-Thursday, the second round will indeed take place. It will be held in Abu Dhabi. We can confirm that,’ he added.

The talks will take place less than two weeks before the fourth anniversary of Moscow launching its full-scale offensive against Ukraine.

They are expected to focus on the crucial issue of territory, with neither side so far showing any sign of a breakthrough.

Washington is pushing for an end to the war between the neighbours, which has killed tens of thousands, forced millions to flee their homes and destroyed much of eastern and southern Ukraine.​

 

[Saif]

Russia fires 450 drones and 70 missiles at Ukraine, a day before US-brokered talks

Russia fired around 450 long-range drones and 70 missiles of various types at Ukraine in a major attack overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday. The barrage came as NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte visited Kyiv in a show of support and a day before Russia and Ukraine were

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Russia fires 450 drones and 70 missiles at Ukraine, a day before US-brokered talks

REUTERS
Published :
Feb 03, 2026 17:47
Updated :
Feb 03, 2026 17:57

People take shelter in a metro station, being used as a bomb shelter, during a Russian drones attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. Photo : AP/Alex Babenko

Russia fired around 450 long-range drones and 70 missiles of various types at Ukraine in a major attack overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday.

The barrage came as NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte visited Kyiv in a show of support and a day before Russia and Ukraine were due to attend US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on ending the all-out war, which Russia launched nearly four years ago.

The bombardment of at least five regions of Ukraine specifically took aim at the power grid, Zelenskyy said, as part of Moscow’s ongoing campaign to deny civilians light, heating and running water amid the coldest winter in years. At least 10 people were wounded, officials said.

“Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said. Temperatures in Kyiv fell to minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) during the night and stood at minus 16 C (minus 3 F) on Tuesday.

He urged allies to send more air defense supplies and bring “maximum pressure” to bear on Russia to end its full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022.

Officials have described recent talks between Moscow and Kyiv delegations as constructive. But after a year of efforts, the Trump administration is still searching for a breakthrough on key issues such as who keeps the Ukrainian land that Russia’s army has occupied, and a comprehensive settlement appears distant. The Abu Dhabi talks were scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

NATO show of support

Rutte addressed the Ukrainian parliament during his visit and said that countries in the military alliance "are ready to provide support quickly and consistently” as peace efforts drag on.

Since last summer, NATO members have provided 75% of all missiles supplied to the front, and 90% of those used for Ukraine's air defense, he said.

European countries, fearing Moscow's ambitions, see their own future security as being on the line in Ukraine.

“Be assured that NATO stands with Ukraine and is ready to do so for years to come," Rutte said. “Your security is our security. Your peace is our peace. And it must be lasting.”

Power grid attacks

A Kremlin official said last week that Russia had agreed to halt strikes on Kyiv for a week until Feb. 1 because of the frigid temperatures, following a personal request from US President Donald Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, the bitter cold is continuing and so are Russia’s aerial attacks.

Russia has tried to wear down Ukrainians’ appetite for the fight by creating hardship for the civilian population living in dark, freezing homes.

It has tried to wreck Ukraine’s electricity network, targeting substations, transformers, turbines and generators at power plants. Ukraine’s largest private power company, DTEK, said that the overnight attack hit its thermal power plants in the ninth major assault since October.

In Kyiv, officials said that five people were wounded in the strikes that damaged and set fire to residential buildings, a kindergarten and a gas station in various parts of the capital, according to the State Emergency Service.

By early morning, 1,170 apartment buildings in the capital were without heating, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. That set back desperate repair operations that had restored power to all but 80 apartment buildings, he said.

Russia also struck Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, where injuries were reported, and the southern Odesa region.

The attack also damaged the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, at the foot of the Motherland Monument in Kyiv, Ukrainian Culture Minister Tetiana Berezhna said.

“It is symbolic and cynical at the same time: the aggressor state strikes a place of memory about the fight against aggression in the 20th century, repeating crimes in the 21st,” Berezhna said.​