Vladimir Putin has blasted Kyiv with huge strikes as negotiators from Ukraine, Russia, and the US prepare to meet in Abu Dhabi for a second day of talks to end Moscow‘s nearly four-year full-scale invasion.
Overnight, Putin staged a series of ferocious new strikes to cripple power and heating supplies in the Ukrainian capital amid the blistering winter cold. The Ukrainian leader said Russia had launched ‘over 370 attack drones and 21 missiles of various types’.
The crude aim of the attack, which left at least one person dead and 23 wounded, was to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to cede land to Putin by weaponising the cold and freezing his people into surrender.
Putin ‘launched one of its heaviest assaults in months – just hours after Ukrainian, Russian, and US negotiators convened in Abu Dhabi for peace talks,’ reported the Kyiv Post.
The talks are the first known instance that officials from the Trump administration have sat down with both countries as part of Washington’s push for progress to end the war in Ukraine.
The UAE’s foreign ministry said the talks are part of efforts ‘to promote dialogue and identify political solutions to the crisis.’
The White House described Friday’s first day as productive, while Zelensky said it was too early to draw conclusions.
However, Kyiv on Saturday slammed the deadly Russian strikes. ‘Peace efforts? Trilateral meeting in the UAE? Diplomacy? For Ukrainians, this was another night of Russian terror,’ Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said.
A Ukrainian rescuer works to extinguish a burning petrol truck following an air attack in Kyiv
Fire and smoke rise in the city after Russian drone and missile strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Kyiv, Ukraine January 24, 2026
President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan receives the heads of delegations participating in the UAE-hosted trilateral talks between the United States, Russia and Ukraine
‘Cynically, 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 Kremlin continues to demand Zelensky 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 £3.7billion in Russian assets frozen in the US to fund rebuilding the cities it destroyed in the Donbas.
Zelensky has dismissed it as ‘nonsense’.
The latest death and destruction hit Kyiv and the surrounding region with Russia unleashing combined hypersonic and ballistic missiles as well as drone strikes in bitter -12C cold.
Hits were made on key substations that distribute electricity from Ukraine’s functioning nuclear power stations. Some 6,000 buildings were left without heating.
Putin deliberately inflicted his latest cruelty the day after Maxim Timchenko – CEO of Ukraine’s top private energy firm – warned the situation was already ‘close to a humanitarian catastrophe’.
Russian channel War Gonzo openly boasted: ‘The capital of Ukraine was left without electricity, water, and heating after a powerful nighttime attack… the strike on energy infrastructure facilities was carried out using supersonic Zircon missiles, Iskander ballistic missiles, and [Shahed] attack drones.’
Residents were forced to huddle in tents inside their own flats or in underground metro stations amid the terror attacks on civilian infrastructure.
The famous cake and confectionery plant, Roshen, owned by Ukraine’s ex-president Petro Poroshenko, was also hit in the overnight barrage.
In the second city, Kharkiv, nearly two dozen people were injured in strikes which targeted a maternity clinic, a hospital, and a shelter for people left homeless by previous Russian attacks amid blistering -15C cold.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow yesterday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, amid talk of a peace deal being ‘nearly, nearly ready’
Rustem Umerov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, and Steve Witkoff, United States Special Envoy, attend a meeting with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates
Overnight, Putin staged a series of ferocious new strikes to cripple power and heating supplies in the Ukrainian capital amid the blistering winter cold
An illuminated street is seen during an air attack in central Kyiv on January 24, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Ukrainian service personnel use a searchlight as they search for drones in the sky over the city during Russian drone and missile strikes
‘Apartments were burning. Houses were burning,’ said Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov.
‘There are wounded. There are those who lost their homes this night. This was a deliberate strike on a peaceful city – on people who simply live, work, and raise children.
‘All services are working on the ground – rescuers, doctors, police, utility workers, volunteers. The city is holding on. The city is helping. The city is not abandoning its people.’
Other cities were also hit as Russia sought to freeze Ukraine into submission.
In Chernihiv, there was a complete blackout, local reports claimed.
The attacks came as envoys were expected to meet in the United Arab Emirates for a second day of talks on Saturday.
In a statement posted on X on Friday evening, Zelensky said that ‘a conversation has already taken place’ with the American and Russian delegations, and that his representatives were reporting to him every hour.
‘The main thing is that Russia must be ready to end this war, which it itself started.
‘Ukraine’s positions are clear. I have defined the framework for dialogue for our delegation,’ he said.
‘As for the substance of today’s discussions, it is still too early to draw conclusions.
‘We will see how the conversation develops tomorrow and what results it produces.’
Zelensky said last month that a 20-point US plan to end the war was 90 per cent ready, with Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, one of the outstanding issues.
He has offered to withdraw troops by up to 25 miles from the region to create an economic zone in Donbas, if Russia does the same.
There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent days, from Switzerland to the Kremlin, even though serious obstacles remain between the two sides.
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, receives the heads of delegations participating in the UAE-hosted trilateral talks between the United States, Russia and Ukraine
While Zelensky said in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday that a potential peace deal was ‘nearly ready,’ certain sensitive sticking points – most notably those related to territorial issues – remain unresolved.
Just hours before the three-way talks began, the Russian President discussed a Ukraine settlement with Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during marathon overnight talks.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said those talks were ‘substantive, constructive and very frank’, but reiterated that any agreement for durable peace would not be possible without resolving territorial issues.
‘Until this is achieved, Russia will continue to consistently pursue the objectives of the special military operation,’ he said.
The Kremlin insists that to reach a peace deal, Kyiv must withdraw its troops from the areas in the east that Russia illegally annexed but has not fully captured.