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RUSSIA RESUMED STRIKES on Kyiv overnight, Ukrainian officials said, as a brief truce announced by US President Donald Trump gave way to renewed attacks in freezing conditions.
Speaking on Thursday, Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to stop striking Kyiv and “various towns” during cold weather.
The Kremlin said the truce would last until Sunday but did not link it to the subzero temperatures. Ukraine said Moscow had kept up its strikes anyway.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched more than 70 missiles and 450 drones. “Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than turning to diplomacy,” he wrote on X.
Russia hit Kyiv “in the bitter cold with another massive strike” overnight, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city’s military administration, said this morning on Telegram.
The emergency services said in a later post that three people in Kyiv had been wounded.
Recovery efforts following the Russian strike across our regions are ongoing. Once again, there was a targeted attack specifically on energy facilities – the Russians used a significant number of ballistic missiles in combination with other missiles, more than 70 missiles in… pic.twitter.com/EymOingPiY
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 3, 2026
In the eastern city of Kharkiv, two people were wounded by Russian shelling, regional military chief Oleg Synegubov said.
The hours-long attack targeted energy infrastructure and aimed to “cause maximum destruction… and leave the city without heat during severe frost”, Synegubov wrote on Telegram.
“Kyiv. As a result of the strikes, more than 1,100 homes were left without heating,” Restoration Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on social media, adding that Russia had attacked “homes, heat, and basic living conditions for civilians” across the country.
Overnight temperatures plunged to -17 degrees in Kyiv and sank as low as minus -23 degrees in Kharkiv.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will hit the four-year mark on 24 February.
Washington has sought to craft a peace settlement between both sides, but the first round of trilateral talks held in Abu Dhabi last weekend failed to yield a breakthrough.
A second round is due to begin tomorrow in the Emirati capital.
Zelenskyy said yesterday that recent “de-escalation” with Russia was helping build trust in negotiations, apparently referring to a break in attacks on energy facilities.
But territory remains a sticking point, and the warring sides have not yet shown willingness for compromise.
Russia wants full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which Kyiv has ruled out, saying such a move would only embolden Moscow.
After failing in its aim of a lightning offensive to capture Kyiv and topple Ukraine’s leadership in a matter of days in 2022, Russia has been bogged down in the face of Ukrainian defences and is now mounting a grinding advance that has come at huge human cost.
Moscow’s troops accelerated their advance in Ukraine throughout January, capturing almost twice as much land as in the previous month, according to an AFP analysis.
Russia seized 481 square kilometres in January, analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War, which works with the Critical Threats Project, showed.
The January gains were up from 244 square kilometres in December 2025 and one of the largest advances during a winter month since Russia invaded four years ago.
With reporting from © AFP 2026
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