{"id":199156,"date":"2026-02-04T05:19:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T05:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-zelenskyy-ready-to-play-ball-but-russia-is-creating-chaos-says-nato-chief-sky-news\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T05:19:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T05:19:03","slug":"ukraine-war-latest-zelenskyy-ready-to-play-ball-but-russia-is-creating-chaos-says-nato-chief-sky-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-zelenskyy-ready-to-play-ball-but-russia-is-creating-chaos-says-nato-chief-sky-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war latest: Zelenskyy 'ready to play ball' but Russia is 'creating chaos', says NATO chief – Sky News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of breaking its promise to Donald Trump and striking energy infrastructure in Ukraine – and the president’s press secretary has revealed how he responded. Follow the latest.
Tuesday 3 February 2026 22:00, UK
As efforts to bring peace to Ukraine reach a crucial stage with talks in Abu Dhabi due to start tomorrow, defence analyst Professor Michael Clarke<\/a> returns to answer your questions on the war.
Send him yours in the box at the top of the page before the live Q&A at 1pm tomorrow.
Thank you for following our live coverage on Ukraine.
Ahead of tomorrow’s US-brokered trilateral talks between Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi, here are five key points from today:
Watch: Fresh Russian strikes on Kyiv overnight<\/b>
The plane carrying the Russian delegation for US-brokered trilateral talks between Kyiv and Moscow has landed in Abu Dhabi, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
As we reported at 10.40, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed in a press call that the Russian delegation will be headed by Admiral Igor Kostyukov – head of Russian intelligence. 
The US side will include Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, according to our US partner network NBC News. 
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian delegation will include national security secretary Rustem Umerov, Kyrylo Budanov, head of the president’s office, and Andrii Hnatov, chief of the general staff.
We’ve got more from Mark Rutte’s trip to Ukraine, with the NATO secretary general visiting a heating plant in Kyiv.
“This is a heating plant, heating 1,100 of these big Kyiv apartment blocks… this plant was hit last night by five Russian missiles wthout any use in terms of military aims,” he says.
“It’s only to create chaos and fear in ordinary citizens living here in Ukraine and destroying civilian infrastructure.”
Rutte says his visit to Kyiv is to “make clear” to the people that NATO “stands with Ukraine”. 
Donald Trump isn’t surprised by Russia’s latest attack on Ukraine, according to his press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
In the post just below this one, we reported Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he is waiting for a US reaction to overnight attacks.
Leavitt told reporters at the White House: “I spoke with the president about it this morning and his reaction was unfortunately unsurprised.” 
“These are two countries who have been engaged in a brutal war for several years, a war that would have never started if the president were still in office. It started because of the weakness and incompetence of President Biden,” she added.
For context<\/b>: During his election campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly claimed he could end the war in one day. 
It has been more than a full year back in office and the war shows no sign of an immediate end.
We’ve just heard more from Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian leader says Ukraine is waiting for a US reaction to Russia’s overnight attacks – which he adds caused more damage to energy infrastructure.
“It was America’s proposal to stop strikes on energy infrastructure during diplomat efforts and the cold winter period,” he says in his nightly video address.
Ukraine has been expected to make concessions, he adds, but it is also up to Russia to make concessions – mainly “to stop the aggression”.
Moreover, he adds, if the US and Europe cannot stop Russian strikes, then who would believe they have the power to prevent a new outbreak of war in the event of a peace deal?
US senator Lindsey Graham has urged Donald Trump to give Ukraine Tomahawk missiles after fresh Russian attacks. 
“Clearly the pressure we’re applying to Putin to come to the peace table and stop massive attacks against Ukraine is not working,” the Republican says in a post online.
“I would urge President Trump to start a process to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles which would be a game changer militarily. In the coming days and weeks, we must apply more pressure to Putin.
“Any negotiation that is seen as overly rewarding aggression will set in motion catastrophes all over the world. The opposite is equally true. If negotiations result in a free, strong and independent Ukraine – who had to make concessions – then the world will be far more stable.”
Graham also advocates that more is done in “going after” those who buy oil from Putin. He warns that “time is of the essence”.
Peace talks may be due to resume tomorrow, but reports suggest the violence is continuing. 
Ukrainian authorities says two people died after “the enemy insidiously struck” Zaporizhzhia, in southeast Ukraine. 
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service says the attack took place at 4pm (UK time).
“As a result of the strike, four cars caught fire,” the service adds.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze with crews still working at the scene.
Sweden and Denmark will jointly procure and supply Ukraine with air defence systems worth 2.6bn Swedish krona (\u00a3213m) to help fend off Russian attacks, the countries’ defence ministers said today.
Pal Johnson, Sweden’s defence minister, said his country will pay 2.1bn krona (\u00a3172m) to buy Swedish-made Tridon air defence systems, while Denmark will contribute about 500m krona (\u00a341m). 
“This means that Ukraine can develop an air defence battalion if they so wish,” Johnson said in a joint news conference.
“The purchase doesn’t just support Ukraine on the battlefield with more material, but also strengthens our production capacity in Sweden.”
Five people have been injured after a Russian drone hit a residential building in the Saltivskyi district in the city of Kharkiv today.
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine rescued three more people with 65 firefighters working at the scene to extinguish the blaze at the five-storey building.
By Ivor Bennett<\/a>, Moscow correspondent <\/b>
The Russian president’s name appears more than 1000 times in the latest files.
His inclusion doesn’t imply any wrongdoing, and there’s no evidence the two ever met, but boy, it sounds like Jeffrey Epstein wanted to.
The emails appear to reveal repeated attempts by the convicted sex offender to court the Kremlin leader.
And there’s even an audio file, in which Epstein can be heard coaching someone on how to approach Vladimir Putin.
“I would send a note to Putin, saying ‘I’m going to leave government on March 14th. I’m going to be in Scandinavia, or I plan to be in western, northern Europe. We should have dinner’. That’s it, no more. It has to be very short,” he says in the recording.
The first substantive mention of Putin in the latest files, unearthed by Sky’s Data and Forensics team, is from September 2011.
An unnamed contact refers to a meeting Epstein said he’d arranged with Putin later that month, while Putin was Russia’s prime minister. There’s no evidence it took place and there are no other details. 
From 2013 onwards, by which time Putin had returned to the presidency, the emails show Epstein made several bids to meet him through the former Norwegian PM Thorbjorn Jagland.
In May that year, Epstein emailed Jagland saying: “I know you are going to meet putin [sic] on the 20th, He is desperate to engage western investment in his country…I have his solution.”
He adds: “I recoginize [sic] that there are human rights issues that are at the forefront of your trip howver [sic], if it is helpful to you, I would be happy to meet with him sometime in june [sic] and explain the solution to his top prioirty [sic], I think this would be good for your goals.”
But it appears it never happened. After pestering Jagland to follow up within Putin’s team, Epstein complains that he’s heard nothing back.
In January 2014, Jagland told Epstein he was going to meet Putin in Sochi. “Why don’t you come?” he asks. We don’t know what happened next.
But in July that year, Epstein still sounds desperate to meet the Russian president. In an email, a contact tells him: “I wasn’t able to convince Reid to change his schedule to go meet Putin with you.”
“Bad idea now after plane crash”, Epstein replies – a reference to Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over eastern Ukraine three days prior, killing all 298 people on board.
But it seems it didn’t put Epstein off for long.
A year later, in July 2015, he tells Jagland: “I still would like to meet putin [sic] and talk economy, i would really appreciate your assistance.”
There are more attempts in 2016, 2017 and finally in June 2018 – just one line in an email to Jagland once again: “Would love to meet with putin [sic]”.
It’s certainly no smoking gun – it appears to be more a case of unrequited love.
When asked about files, the Kremlin said on Tuesday that it did not receive any offers from Epstein about a meeting with Vladimir Putin.
Still, it’s interesting to see how the Russian media is covering this story because, well, they’re not.
There’s very little mention of it at all, and where there is, the focus is elsewhere – on Bill Clinton, Peter Mandelson and the Crown Princess of Norway.
So even though there’s no evidence or implication that he ever actually met with Epstein, Vladimir Putin’s appearance in the files is still not something Moscow wants to highlight.
Be the first to get Breaking News<\/span>
Install the Sky News app for free<\/p>\n

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