Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had taken control of the village of Starytsya in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, near the border town of Vovchansk. Ukraine’s military did not confirm the claim, saying fighting was continuing in the area and that no territorial losses had been acknowledged.
Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian forces carried out six attacks near Starytsya, adding that independent verification of battlefield claims was not immediately possible.
Russian drone and missile strikes overnight killed at least one person and left millions without electricity and heating during freezing winter temperatures, Ukrainian officials said.
The attacks came as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators resumed U.S.-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, 24 January.
Ukraine said hundreds of drones and missiles hit energy infrastructure in Kyiv and the eastern city of Kharkiv, injuring 31 people and causing widespread power outages.
Fires broke out in residential buildings in the capital, while a hospital and a maternity hospital were damaged in Kharkiv, officials reported.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 375 drones and 21 missiles overnight, again targeting energy facilities and cutting power and heating across large parts of Kyiv.
More than 1.2 million people in Kyiv and the northern Chernihiv region were left without electricity, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said, with temperatures falling to around minus 10 Celsius.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, accused Vladimir Putin of acting "cynically", adding that the attacks showed his "place is not at the Board of Peace, but in the dock of the special tribunal". Sybiha was not attending the talks.
Kyiv is under mounting pressure from the Trump administration to make concessions to reach a peace deal in the war triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Zelenskyy said on Friday it was too early to draw conclusions from the first day of talks and urged Moscow to demonstrate that it was ready to end the conflict. Senior representatives from Ukraine’s armed forces and military intelligence were due to join the discussions.
U.S. peace envoy Steve Witkoff struck an optimistic tone earlier this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, saying only one major sticking point remained in the negotiations. Russian officials, however, have expressed greater scepticism.
Donbas remains key obstacle
Ahead of the talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had not dropped its demand that Ukraine cede all of the eastern Donbas region, including the industrial heartlands of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Putin has insisted that Ukraine surrender the roughly 20% of Donetsk it still controls, an area of about 5,000 sq km.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected any territorial concessions involving land Russian forces have failed to seize during four years of grinding warfare. Opinion polls show little support among Ukrainians for giving up territory.
The Ukrainian president said the latest strikes showed there must be no delays in supplying Ukraine with air-defence systems agreed with U.S. President Donald Trump in Davos, adding that those commitments must be "fully implemented".
Russia argues the attacks targeted facilities producing long-range drones and energy sites linked to Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.
Moscow says it supports a diplomatic settlement but will continue military operations while negotiations fail to deliver an agreement.
Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council and head of the Ukrainian delegation, said the first day of talks focused on possible parameters for ending the war and the "further logic of the negotiation process".
Both Zelenskyy and Trump described their meeting on the sidelines of the Davos forum as positive, but provided few details.
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Kazakhstan has limited vehicle entries from Russia and neighbouring countries to one per day to tackle illegal fuel smuggling. The restrictions come amid a surge in Russians crossing the border to buy gasoline, as prices at home soar due to the Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries.
A Russian drone strike has damaged a SOCAR fuel station in southern Ukraine, as both Russia and Ukraine reported new attacks on energy infrastructure and other targets.
Ukrainian-made Flamingo missiles hit a plant producing artillery systems and components for missile launch systems in Russia's Volgograd region overnight, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has warned Ukraine not to try to draw his country into the war, saying any such move would change the conflict "instantly".
The U.S. says it has launched strikes on Iran after alleged attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Washington described the action as a response to threats against civilian shipping and a breach of the ceasefire.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the memorandum of understanding signed with Iran to end the conflict was "over", adding he did not want to engage with Tehran, calling the Iranian leadership "sick people".
NATO leaders are unveiling multi-billion-dollar arms deals in Ankara as President Donald Trump joins the summit, highlighting Europe's increased defence spending amid tensions over Russia and Iran, and following years of U.S. criticism of the alliance.
Mark Rutte, Secretary General of NATO, has described fresh U.S. strikes on Iran as "absolutely necessary," in remarks at the start of the second day of the alliance's sumit in the Turkish capital Ankara.
Start your day informed with the AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top stories for the 8th of July, covering the latest developments you need to know.
China's technology sector is producing billion-dollar startups at its fastest pace in nearly five years, with artificial intelligence and robotics driving a new wave of investment that is reshaping the country's innovation economy.
South Korea's Supreme Court has upheld former President Yoon Suk Yeol's seven-year prison sentence in a case linked to his 2024 attempt to impose martial law.
Germany has reached an agreement with the U.S. to purchase Tomahawk cruise missiles and deploy them on German territory, Chancellor Friedrich Merz told lawmakers in Berlin on Thursday.
Australia and India have finalised an agreement allowing Australian uranium exports for India's nuclear energy sector, expanding cooperation on clean energy, critical minerals and infrastructure as the two countries strengthen their strategic and economic partnership.
The death toll from Venezuela's twin earthquakes has risen to 3,811, according to figures released by National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez on Wednesday.
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