Ukraine: Zelenskyy declares energy emergency in cold snap

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte spoke to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ⁠to discuss the latest Russian attacks on Ukraine, which have led to widespread power outages in the country. 

"Spoke with @ZelenskyyUa about the energy situation ‍in Ukraine, with Russia's ​attacks ​causing terrible human suffering, as well as on the ongoing efforts to bring an end to ‍the war," Rutte wrote on social media.

"We're ​committed to ensuring that Ukraine continues to ⁠get the ​crucial support needed to defend ‌today ‌and ultimately secure a lasting peace." 

Russia has intensified a campaign on Ukraine's energy infrastructure amid freezing temperatures, having leftKyiv in the midst of its worst electricity outage of the war.

The deployment of Western forces to Ukraine as part of a potential peace deal is an "unacceptable" proposition for Russia, and foreign troops deployed to Ukraine would be legitimate targets for the Russian military, Russia's foreign ministry said.

"Well aware of the unacceptability of such a ‍scenario for Russia, the British are using it as another tool ​to undermine the peace process," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters.

"Any foreign troops in ⁠Ukraine ​will be considered as legitimate targets for the ‌Russian ‌armed forces. The British component will be no exception," she said.

TheUK and France have agreed to deploy troops to Ukraine if it strikes a peace deal with Russia. 

France says it now provides most of Ukraine’s battlefield intelligence, largely replacing the United States.

"Where Ukraine was extremely dependent on American intelligence capacity, huge majority (of it) a year ago, in (the
space of) a year, two-thirds is today provided by France," President Emmanuel Macron said.

 

Washington suspended intelligence sharing in March 2025 to pressure Ukraine into peace talks with Russia.

Since then, a coalition of 35 nations has taken over weapons and financial support after the US stopped direct funding.

Kyiv’s former spy chief warned last month that US data, including satellite imagery and missile alerts, remains critical.

Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency declined to comment.

 

Kharkiv's Mayor Ihor Terekhov said that a Russian attack had destroyed a large energy infrastructure object, without specifying what or where. 

"The enemy has destroyed a large object of critical energy infrastructure," Terekhov said. "The headquarters for overcoming the consequences of emergencies is working 24/7, emergency services and specialized specialists are on site." 

The border city of Kharkiv in the northeast had come in for explicit praise earlier from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as an example of a city that had taken effective preparations to mitigate the effects of power outages and the cold weather. That was before Terekhov's comments on Thursday, however. 

A Russian ballistic missile struck port infrastructure in the southern Ukrainian city of Chornomorsk, Deputy Prime Minister for Reconstruction Oleksiy Kuleba said on Thursday. 

Kuleba said on Telegram that one person had been wounded in the strike on a pier, "where a civilian vessel under the flag of Malta was located." 

The injured person was a crew member who was receiving medical attention, he said. 

Kuleba said that the ship was preparing to transport container cargo. He said the strike had damaged three containers and caused an oil leak. 

"Russia is deliberately attacking facilities that ensure export, logistics and food security," he alleged, calling the attack "another act of Russian terror." 

Russia on Thursday expelled a British diplomat, saying the individual was an undeclared spy, while London dubbed the allegation "malicious and baseless." 

Russia's FSB security service said the diplomat was working undercover for British intelligence, and that he had been given two two weeks to leave Russia. The diplomat's name was published and Russian media carried pictures of him. 

The Foreign Ministry in Moscow summoned Britain's charge d'affaires, Danae Dholakia, to issue a formal protest. 

"A warning was also issued that if London escalates the situation, the Russian side will give a 'mirror' response," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. 

The UK's Foreign Office said such "malicious and baseless accusations" against its staff were nothing new. 

"Their targeting of British diplomats comes out of desperation and actioons like this undermine the basic conditions required for diplomatic missions to operate," it said. "We are carefully considering our options in response." 

During the war in Ukraine, Russia and the West have repeatedly accused each other of ramping up espionage activity to levels not seen since the Cold War, sending various embassy and consulate staff home. 

Amid less frosty ties to the US since Donald Trump's return to the White House, Britain has increasingly inherited the unofficial status as Russia's main international antagonist in domestic propaganda.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva visited Kyiv on Thursday, holding talks with the head of the National Bank of Ukraine and visiting landmarks like the Wall of Remembrance of the Fallen photo memorial in the capital. 

Central bank chief Andriy Pyshnyy greeted Georgieva in front of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in the city center, where burnt-out Russian tanks were ⁠displayed.

Georgieva said online that she had an "excellent discussion" with Pyshnyy "on the IMF's support for Ukraine, and on how monetary policy is helping preserve macroeconomic stability during these challenging times." 

IMF officials said that Georgieva would also meet with President Zelenskyy, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and other officials and business leaders during the one-day visit, her first since 2023. 

Georgieva, who has close family ties to Ukraine, said she was in the capital "to witness firsthand the resilience of a people who have endured four years of an unjust war," adding that their "courage inspires the world."

The war, soon to enter a fifth year, has hit the Ukrainian economy hard, further impacting a country that had already required multiple emergency loans from the IMF in the years prior to Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. The country is slated to spend the bulk of state revenues — 2.8 trillion hryvnias or around 27.2% of GDP — to fund defense efforts in 2026.

Ukraine and the IMF reached a preliminary agreement on an $8.2 ‍billion, four-year lending program in November, contingent on passage of a budget for 2026 and shoring up donor financing assurances, among other factors. ​It is expected to come up for consideration in the coming weeks, after Georgieva's visit.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his video address that there was an emergency in the country's energy sector "caused by the Russian airstrikes and the harsh winter weather," and that he had spent Wednesday discussing the means to tackle it with newly-appointed Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal. 

Ukraine has been setting up emergency tent shelters with heating, hot beverages and power points to charge devices like mobile phones. 

Zelenskyy said the situation was "especially difficult" in several cities — including Kyiv, Odesa and Dnipro — while others like Kharkiv had taken more timely measures to mitigate the fallout. 

He said that declaring a state of emergency would make greater flexibility and reduced bureaucracy possible legally. Regional leaders had been instructed to redouble efforts to connect backup energy sources to the grid and to import power from abroad, he said.

Incoming Energy Minister Shymhal has been a key ally to Zelenskyy throughout his presidency, previously serving for around five years as prime minister before moving to the Defense Ministry, and now the Energy Ministry. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that he agreed with President Trump's comments when asked by reporters on Thursday. 

"I agree, that is indeed the case," he said. "President Putin and the Russian side remain open [to talks]. The Russian position is well known. It is well known to the American negotiators, to President Trump, and to the leadership of the Kyiv regime." 

Peskov said that the situation was "deteriorating day by day for the Kyiv regime," and that Ukraine's "corridor for decision-making" in the negotiating process was "narrowing." 

Russia has been pushing not just to keep the territory its military currently occupies, around 20% of Ukraine's internationally recognized land mass, but also for Ukraine to withdraw its troops from some contested regions which it still controls. Ukraine has suggested it might accept halting the fighting along the current front lines, in exchange for Western security guarantees guarding against any potential future Russian incursions. 

US President Donald Trump told the Reuters agency that it was his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, not Russia's Vladimir Putin, who was holding up a potential peace deal. 

"I think he's ready to make a deal," Trump said of the Russian president. "I think Ukraine is less ready to make a deal."

Asked why US-led negotiations were yet to resolve a conflict that the property mogul used to boast he would halt within "a day," Trump responded: "Zelenskyy." 

These claims stand in contrast to the position of European allies, who have consistently questioned Putin's willingness to engage in serious negoatiations about a just peace. 

Zelenskyy has publicly ruled out territorial concessions to Russia on multiple occasions during the conflict, with Russian forces currently occupying large parts of the east of the country, as well as the Crimean Peninsula that it annexed in 2014.

Hello and welcome to our updates on news from or connected to Russia's invasion of Ukraine on January 15, 2026.

Freezing temperatures persist in much of the country after the wave of cold weather that swept east across Europe. 

At lunch time on Thursday in the capital Kyiv, temperatures in the shade were -12 degrees Celsius (10.4 Fahrenheit). Russia's longstanding tactic of targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure with its aerial attacks becomes doubly effective when the winter weather's most inclement.

Newly appointed Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal, a longstanding prime minister and then defense minister prior to this during Zelenskyy's tenure as president, took over the key portfolio on Wednesday.