Ukraine updates: Strikes on Kyiv resume amid deep cold

French President Emmanuel Macron says preparations are being made to resume dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to reestablish a European channel of communication independent of the United States.

"It is important that Europeans restore their own channels of discussion," Macron said during a visit to northeastern France on Tuesday. "This is being prepared and discussions are taking place at a technical level."

Macron said preparations were being made "transparently" and in consultation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European allies, but did not specify any timeframe.

He insisted that France continues to support Ukraine but said contact with the Kremlin was necessary to negotiate security guarantees after the war.

"I think it would be useful, but I don't think Russia is currently willing to conclude a peace agreement in the coming days or weeks," he said.

"We continue to support Ukraine, which is under bombardment, in the cold, with attacks on civilians and on Ukraine's energy infrastructure by the Russians, which is intolerable and does not demonstrate a genuine willingness to negotiate for peace."

Macron was one of several European leaders who made last-ditch visits to Moscow in February 2022 in an attempt to avert Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

But dialogue between the European Union and Russia has been virtually frozen since then, and the bloc has imposed economic sanctions and travel restrictions on Moscow.

In January, the Kremlin said it considered calls by some European leaders, including Macron, to resume dialogue with Russia as "positive."

Ukrainian shelling has killed three people in the Moscow-occupied southern town of Nova Kakhovka, Kremlin-installed authorities said, a day before negotiators from Kyiv and Moscow are due to meet again.

Russia's occupation authorities said the attack hit a municipal building and a fruit shop in Nova Kakhovka, a city on the Dnipro River that sits on the frontline in the southern Kherson region. Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-backed head of the Russian-controlled part of the region, said three people were killed, including an employee of the local administration.

Saldo said the town was struck by Ukrainian artillery shelling early Tuesday and released photographs showing blown-out windows and damaged cars.

Nova Kakhovka fell to Russian forces at the start of the 2022 invasion and had a prewar population of about 60,000. Russia’s full-scale offensive has now lasted almost four years, with February 24 marking the anniversary of the attack.

Talks aimed at ending the conflict are scheduled to take place from Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.

Reaching a peace deal to end Russia's war in Ukraine will require difficult decisions, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said.

Speaking through a translator during an address to Ukraine's parliament in Kyiv, Rutte said the PURL weapons purchasing program is supplying about 90% of Ukraine's air defense missiles.

Rutte also said said Russia's overnight attacks did not suggest Moscow was serious about making peace, as the United States pushes talks to stop the fighting.

"Russian attacks like those last night, do not signal seriousness about peace," Rutte told lawmakers. 
 

Ukraine's sports minister has criticized comments by FIFA President Gianni Infantino backing a return of Russian teams at youth level, calling the remarks irresponsible and detached from reality.

Infantino said the ban imposed by FIFA and UEFA after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine should "definitely" be lifted, "at least at youth level."

Speaking to Sky News, he said the ban had "not achieved anything" and had "created more frustration, and hatred," adding that allowing Russian children to play football elsewhere in Europe "would help."

Ukraine's sports minister Matvii Bidnyi said Infantino’s comments sounded "irresponsible – not to say infantile" and ignored the reality of war, where children are being killed. He said more than 650 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, including more than 100 footballers.

Bidnyi cited the case of Illia Perezhogin, a school student killed when a Russian missile hit his Mariupol school stadium while he was playing football, and former futsal player Viktoriia Kotliarova, who was killed with her mother during shelling of Kyiv on December 29, 2023.

"War is a crime, not politics. It is Russia that politicises sport and uses it to justify aggression," said Bidnyi. "I share the position of the Ukrainian Association of Football, which also warns against Russia's return to international competitions."

"As long as Russians continue killing Ukrainians and politicising sport, their flag and national symbols have no place among people who respect values such as justice, integrity, and fair play."
 

Russia has said it is prepared for a new reality with no nuclear arms control limits as the New START treaty nears expiration this week.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by state news agency TASS as saying in Beijing that the absence of a response from Washington to Russian proposals amounted to an answer.

"The lack of an answer is ‍also an answer," Ryabkov ​was ​quoted by state news agency TASS as saying in Beijing.

He said Russia was ready for the first period in decades in which the world’s two largest nuclear powers would have no limits.

Unless Moscow and Washington reach a last-minute bilateral understanding, the New START treaty, signed in 2010 by US President Barack Obama and then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, will expire on February 5.

Ryabkov also said Russia supported China's position on arms control. On Iran, he said US proposals to Tehran amounted to ultimatums.

He added that if the US were to deploy large numbers of missile defense systems to Greenland, Russia would take compensatory measures in the military sphere.

Ukraine's energy minister has accused Russia of attempting a "winter genocide" after large-scale overnight strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure following a brief pause.

Denys Shmyhal said Russia used ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones to hit civilian targets, including thermal power plants and high-rise buildings. He said the attacks were aimed at leaving civilians without heating during extreme cold, as temperatures in Kyiv were forecast to fall to minus 20 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.

 "The targets were not military. Exclusively civilian: hundreds of thousands of families, including children, purposefully left without heat in the most severe winter frosts," the Shmyhal, a former prime minister, wrote.

A Russian overnight attack has damaged part of Kyiv's iconic Motherland Monument, Ukrainian officials say.

Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna said on social media that the strike hit a site dedicated to remembrance of World War II.

"It is both symbolic and cynical: the aggressor state strikes at a place of remembrance of the struggle against aggression in the 20th century, repeating its crimes in the 21st century," Berezhna wrote on social media.

Five people are set to appear in court for a preliminary hearing after German federal prosecutors moved against an alleged sanctions-busting network.

The suspects are accused of arranging about 16,000 shipments to Russia worth at least €30 million (roughly $35 million), despite EU embargoes.

The five were arrested during morning raids on Monday across several German states, federal prosecutors said. Investigators targeted a German-Russian shareholder and managing director of a trading company based in the northern city  of Lübeck.

Prosecutors said that since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the suspects used the company to procure goods for Russian industry and export them to Russia. Investigators believe Russian state bodies were involved and said the goods ultimately reached at least 24 listed Russian defense firms.

To conceal the trades, the group allegedly used an additional shell company in Lübeck and multiple front buyers inside and outside the EU, prosecutors said. A Russian company was also involved, with the main suspect holding a senior role, according to the statement. The aim was to circumvent EU embargo rules.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia is prioritising more attacks over peace talks, after it fired dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones at Ukraine overnight.

"Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than turning to diplomacy," Zelenskyy wrote on social media.

He added that Russian forces had attacked with "more than 70 missiles in total, as well as 450 attack drones."

Zelenskyy said at least five regions were hit, with strikes focused on the power grid as part of Russia's campaign to cut civilians off from light, heating and running water during the coldest winter in years. Officials said at least 10 people were wounded.

He urged allies to send more air defense supplies and apply "maximum pressure" on Russia to end the invasion. 

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has rejected accusations from Moscow that Berlin's support for Ukraine is driven by revanchism, saying Russia is trying to distract from its own conduct.

Russia earlier accused Germany of pursuing revenge fantasies in its Ukraine policy. The claims were set out in a Russian Foreign Ministry statement issued after Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s annual press conference.

Speaking during a meeting with New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters in the Bay of Islands on New Zealand's North Island, Wadephul said Russia was seeking to divert attention from its present-day actions.

He said Germany had no problem confronting its own past and acknowledged the decisive role of the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi rule during World War II. Wadephul said Germany recognized that victims of Nazi aggression included people from Ukraine as well as other nations of the former Soviet Union, and said this was not disputed in Germany.

At the same time, he said Berlin would not accept attempts to silence criticism of Russia's current behavior and would continue to speak out clearly about what he described as Russia’s criminal conduct.

Ukraine has secured changes from SpaceX that make it harder for Russia to use Starlink satellite connections, following an appeal from Kyiv over drones operating in freezing combat conditions.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on Telegram on Sunday that joint steps with SpaceX had delivered rapid results against Russian drones. He said the next step would introduce a system allowing only authorized terminals to operate inside Ukraine, adding that "unverified terminals will be deactivated."

The move followed reports that Russian drones were using Starlink connections, prompting Ukraine's Defense Ministry to contact SpaceX, owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk. Ukrainian officials said Russia had obtained equipment for the Starlink network through third countries and integrated it into combat drones, reducing their vulnerability to Ukrainian air defenses.

Fedorov has said Starlink systems have been critical to Ukraine's resilience since the start of the war, as the country has been defending itself against a full-scale Russian invasion with Western support for nearly four years.

Russia has resumed strikes on Kyiv, Ukrainian officials have said, as a week-long truce announced by US President Donald Trump has given way to renewed attacks in freezing conditions.

Trump said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to halt strikes on Kyiv and "various towns" during cold weather. Ukraine said Moscow had continued its attacks.

Kyiv was struck "in the bitter cold with another massive strike" overnight, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city's military administration, said on Telegram. He urged residents to stay in shelters and later said two people were wounded.

Kyiv Mayor ⁠Vitali ‍Klitschko ⁠said on Tuesday ‌that ‌1,170 ⁠residential buildings in ‍the ​capital were left ​without heating after the strikes resumed.

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," he wrote.

Authorities cut heating to more than 800 homes to prevent the wider network from freezing, Synegubov said, urging residents to use round-the-clock "invincibility points" if they needed to warm up. Such points provide heat, water, electricity, mobile communication, and other services to residents during wartime blackout.

Hello and here is our latest coverage of Russia's war in Ukraine, as Moscow resumes its strikes on the capital, Kyiv.

Ukrainian officials say Russian attacks resumed after the short truce announced by Donald Trump.

Kyiv was hit overnight "in the bitter cold," the city's military chief Tymur Tkachenko said.

Follow along for the latest updates.