These are the key developments from day 1,429 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Published On 23 Jan 202623 Jan 2026Click here to share on social mediashare2ShareHere is where things stand on Friday, January 23:Fighting
Two volunteers delivering bread were killed in a Russian drone attack on their car in the border community of Derhachi in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, the head of the regional military administration, Vyacheslav Zadorenko, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian forces launched a drone attack on a high-rise residential building in Ukraine’s Dnipro, injuring at least seven people, the city’s Mayor Borys Filatov said.
One person was killed, and four were wounded in Russian glide bomb attacks on Komyshuvakha, in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, Governor Ivan Fedorov said.
A Russian attack on Kryvyi Rih city, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, injured 12 people, including four children, head of the regional military administration, Oleksandr Hanzha, said.
Russian forces shot down 31 Ukrainian drones overnight and into the early hours of Thursday, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said, according to a report by Russia’s TASS state news agency.
Sanctions
The French navy intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea that officials said belongs to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet”, designed to evade international sanctions.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the oil tanker was “coming from Russia, subject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a false flag”. He added that the operation was “carried out in strict compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea” and together with allies.
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Ukraine’s energy system on Thursday endured its most difficult day since a widespread blackout hit the network in November 2022, and the situation remains “extremely difficult”, the country’s Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
Conditions were most difficult in the capital Kyiv and the surrounding region and in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Shmyhal said, as nighttime temperatures fell to -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit).
Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 2,600 apartment buildings were still without heat two days after the latest overnight Russian attacks, while 600 buildings have had their heating restored.
Politics and diplomacy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian negotiators are on their way to the United Arab Emirates for talks with Russian and United States negotiating teams.
“Our team is now heading to the Emirates for meetings with both the American and Russian sides,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram after a day of talks at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. “We are waiting to see how it goes and will decide on the next steps.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin began a meeting with US envoys Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Josh Gruenbaum late on Thursday to discuss a plan to end the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.
US President Don …