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RUSSIAN STRIKES ON Ukraine overnight have killed at least one person and injured 27.
It comes as officials from both countries prepare to meet in Abu Dhabi or a second day of US-brokered talks aimed at ending the near four-year conflict.
One person was killed and four others were wounded in Russian drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, according to Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko.
In Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, drone attacks wounded 19 people, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
Overnight, Russia carried out a massive attack on our regions, launching over 370 attack drones and 21 missiles of various types. Kyiv and the region, as well as the Sumy, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv regions, were targeted. In Kharkiv, a maternity hospital, a dormitory housing… pic.twitter.com/K0TQNNvu4T
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 24, 2026
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched over 370 drones and 21 missiles in the “massive” attack, adding that a maternity hospital, a dormitory housing displaced persons, a medical college and residential buildings were damaged in Kharkiv.
“As of now, dozens of people have been reported injured, including a child,” he said. “All necessary services are now working at the sites of the Russian strikes, eliminating all consequences.”
Zelenskyy said every Russian strike on Ukraine’s 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.”
Thousands of people in Kyiv went without heating in sub-zero temperatures due to Russian strikes.
The EU has accused Moscow of “deliberately depriving civilians of heat”.
Fires broke out in several buildings hit by drone debris while heat and water services in parts of the capital were interrupted, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
The strikes left 88,000 families temporarily without power in Kyiv, according to DTEK, Ukraine’s largest energy provider.
Meanwhile, the head of the northern Chernigiv region, Vyacheslav Chaus, said “hundreds of thousands” were without electricity after Russian strikes on a critical energy facility in the Nizhyn district.
Zelenskyy last week declared a “state of emergency” in the energy sector, battered by relentless Russian strikes on heat and electricity supplies.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga accused Russia of undermining any ceasefire talks.
“Peace efforts? Trilateral meeting in the UAE? Diplomacy? For Ukrainians, this was another night of Russian terror,” he said.
He said Russia’s President Vladimir Putin “ordered a brutal massive missile strike against Ukraine right while delegations are meeting in Abu Dhabi to advance the America-led peace process. His missiles hit not only our people, but also the negotiation table.”
The first known direct contact between Ukrainian and Russian officials on the proposal began on Friday.
Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov said the discussions focused “on the parameters for ending Russia’s war and the further logic of the negotiation process”.
An initial US draft drew heavy criticism in Kyiv and western Europe for hewing too closely to Moscow’s demands, while Russia rejected later versions for proposing European peacekeepers in Ukraine.
Both sides say the fate of territory in the eastern Donbas region is the main outstanding issue in the search for a settlement to a war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and devastated parts of Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump met Zelenskyy at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday and US envoy Steve Witkoff later held talks with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
While diplomacy to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II has gained pace, Moscow and Kyiv appear deadlocked over the issue of territory.
Hours after Putin met Witkoff – and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – in Moscow, the Kremlin said its demand that Kyiv withdraw from the eastern Donbas region still stood.
“Russia’s position is well known on the fact that Ukraine, Ukrainian armed forces, have to leave the territory of the Donbas,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“This is a very important condition,” he added.
Kyiv has rejected such terms. “The Donbas is a key issue,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Friday, ahead of the talks.
Zelenskyy said he and Trump had agreed on post-war security guarantees in Davos.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are last known to have met face-to-face in Istanbul last summer, in talks that ended only in deals to exchange captured soldiers.
The Abu Dhabi meeting is the first time they have faced each other to talk about the Trump administration’s plan.
Putin has repeatedly said Moscow intends to get full control of eastern Ukraine by force if talks fail.
Trump has in the past pressured Ukraine to agree to terms that Kyiv sees as capitulation.
“I believe they’re at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done,” he said on Wednesday.
“If they don’t, they’re stupid – that goes for both of them.”
With reporting from AFP 2026
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