Russia has launched a “massive attack” on Ukraine’s two largest cities and cut power to 1.2 million buildings nationwide. Kyiv’s foreign minister has condemned Vladimir Putin’s “cynical” violence while peace talks with Moscow and Washington are ongoing. Follow the latest below.
Saturday 24 January 2026 13:19, UK
Ukraine-Russia talks have ended today, sources tell Reuters.
Envoys from both nations were meeting with US mediators in Abu Dhabi.
Moscow is trying to push Trump to abandon the negotiation process with Ukraine and Europe, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Repeated vague Kremlin references to “the formula” allegedly agreed between the US and Russia in Alaska are an attempt to fill the void of publicly available terms with conditions that benefit Russia.
This includes taking all of the Donbas from Ukraine as part of any peace deal.
“The Kremlin has been using the ambiguity around the summit to try to conceal the way Russia — not Ukraine — has been impeding the negotiations process by maintaining its original war demands,” the ISW says.
“Russia is likely attempting to convince Trump to walk away from US efforts to work with Ukraine and Europe by offering the ambiguous ‘Alaska formula’ as a way to end the war.”
Russia targeted energy facilities in its “massive” overnight attacks, says Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
They also damaged a maternity hospital, a dormitory housing displaced people, a medical college, and residential buildings.
He called for allies to meet their obligations to Ukraine.
“Every such Russian strike on our energy infrastructure proves that there must be no delays in supplying air defences.
“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 defence.”
Last night’s strikes were timed and designed to try and convince the White House that Moscow is unstoppable, says military analyst Professor Michael Clarke.
Russia is trying to frame victory in the Donbas as inevitable, claiming it is up to Ukraine whether they lose it now or lose it later at a larger cost to human life.
Ukraine is pushing back, arguing Russia cannot take its fortress cities that have proved such an obstacle to Moscow’s armed forces over the last four years.
“The Ukrainian public, for all of the suffering, for all of the freezing…. seem to be resolved that they are not going to make territorial concessions, so I don’t know where these talks are going to go,” Clarke says.
“We don’t need to be pessimistic yet,” he says, but there’s very little information to go on after the first day of negotiations.
“We don’t really know if they’re meeting in the same room.”
“My guess is that the Americans may be going from room to room to talk about things.”
Footage shows firefighters scrambling to tackle flames ignited by Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s largest two cities.
Moscow launched some 21 missiles and 375 drones at Kyiv and Kharkiv, according to Ukraine’s airforce.
At least 1.2 million buildings were left without power across the country.
Security and defence editor Deborah Haynes was in Kyiv overnight as explosions caused by Russian missiles and drones rang out across the city.
Civilians have been without electricity for days now, with thousands more added to their number last night.
“There’s a real sense of outrage and weariness that Russia is still attacking this country right in the middle of these peace talks,” says Haynes.
Watch her full report from the capital…
Ukraine-Russia talks have resumed in Abu Dhabi, UAE, a source has told Reuters news agency.
The focus of yesterday’s negotiations was buffer zones and control mechanisms.
Being a closed-door meeting, it is not yet known what today will bring.
Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett says the fact the talks are still going is a good sign, but that a breakthrough isn’t expected…
We learned very little from the first day of talks, says correspondent Sally Lockwood, reporting from the UAE.
The White House issued “rather bland and very limited” remarks following the meeting between Ukrainian, Russian and US officials in Abu Dhabi.
“It’s not clear at all, to be honest, what might come from this summit,” she says.
It’s an “awful scenario” for Ukrainians, suffering attacks on energy infrastructure night after night in freezing temperatures as the second day of trilateral negotiations get under way.
“What’s being discussed here in the UAE this weekend has a very real impact on people’s lives in Ukraine, and at the moment it’s very hard to see what progress will be made.”
Watch her full report below…
A second day of peace talks to end the war in Ukraine is expected to start later today in the United Arab Emirates.
It’s the first time Ukrainian and Russian envoys and US mediators have met since in nearly four years of war.
Despite Washington claiming they have been “productive” thus far, there was no sign of compromise this morning, as Russian airstrikes pounded Ukraine.
“The most important thing is that Russia should be ready to end this war, which it started,” Zelenskyy said yesterday.
“We’ll see how the conversation goes tomorrow and what the outcome will be.”
The Kremlin continues to demand Zelenskyy give up the land Russian soldiers have occupied by force, namely the Donbas, while Ukraine – and its citizens – show little appetite to concede.
Yet Kyiv is under mounting US pressure to reach a peace deal to end a war started by Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Russia has even floated the idea of using the bulk of nearly
$5bn in Russian assets frozen in the US to fund rebuilding the cities it destroyed in the Donbas.
Zelenskyy has dismissed it as “nonsense”.
At least 1.2 million buildings are without power after Russia’s latest attack on Ukraine, according to Kyiv’s deputy prime minister.
More than 800,000 of them live in the capital. Pictures show firefighters putting out blazes in the snow.
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