Free Republic

Russia has used a record number of ballistic missiles to target Ukraine's energy sector, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. The combined missile and drone strikes hit power plants and infrastructure in Kyiv and multiple locations causing "the most powerful blow" so far this year, according to private energy company DTEK. The strikes were launched as temperatures dropped to -20C (-4F) and left more than 1,000 tower blocks in the capital without heating once again and damaged a power plant in the eastern city of Kharkiv beyond repair. Zelensky said Russia was "choosing terror and escalation" rather than diplomacy to end...

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has arrived in Kyiv and meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "Maidan Nezalezhnosti. The People’s Memorial of National Remembrance," Zelenskyy wrote Tuesday on X. "A memorial honoring our heroes, warriors, our people who defended Ukraine against the enemy, fought, and made the ultimate sacrifice in this war. Together with @SecGenNATO Mark Rutte, we honored the memory of fallen Ukrainian defenders today. Eternal honor to our warriors. "Eternal gratitude for their sacrifice and for defending the country. It is our duty to preserve the memory of our fallen heroes." Rutte's visit comes after Russia attacked Ukraine...

U.S. and European officials are growing increasingly worried as hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. energy assistance previously pledged for Ukraine remain unreleased, even as a bone-cold winter pushes the nation's war‑damaged power grid to the brink, said several sources familiar with the matter. The funds in question were originally slated to be distributed by the U.S. Agency for ​International Development to help Ukraine import liquefied natural gas and rebuild energy infrastructure damaged by Russian strikes, said the sources, who include a U.S. official and a Ukrainian official. But after USAID was effectively shuttered in the ‌opening weeks of...

They've hung him upside down like a slab of meat. Stripped to his underwear. Arms bound tight with tape. Ankles lashed to a tree trunk in the open winter air. The second man, attached to a neighbouring tree, is at least taped upright. A man screams at them in Russian. He stuffs a fistful of snow into one of the men's mouths. Both cringe in terror, whimpering protestations and pleas. This is no medieval dungeon - it's the Russian army in Ukraine in the 21st century. The men's 'crime'? Refusing to walk, yet again, into what they call 'the meat...

"Ukraine saw a rare overnight lull in attacks on energy infrastructure after President Trump personally urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to pause strikes — but the Kremlin said Friday the brief reprieve will last only through Sunday. There were no overnight strikes on energy facilities in Ukraine after Trump called on Putin to spare them as frigid temperatures leave civilians in danger of freezing to death, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post to X. “Over the past night, there were no strikes on energy facilities,” Zelensky wrote. But that didn’t stop Moscow from continuing to hit other civilian...

After nearly a year of chaotic, stop-and-start efforts to broker a cease-fire in Ukraine, the Trump administration remains deeply involved in talks to stop the war. Unsurprisingly, the most vexing topic remains territorial concessions—in Trump-speak, “land swaps.” And until now, diplomats have not come up with anything likely to solve it. The discrepancy between the original pro-Russian 28-point plan that surfaced in November 2025 and the reworked Ukrainian-U.S.-European version speaks volumes about how far Ukraine and Russia remain from each another. The 28-point plan calls for international recognition of all currently Russian-held territory as well as marking the entirety of...

About 1.2 million Russian troops have been killed, wounded or are missing since its invasion of Ukraine almost four years ago, a rate of casualties for a major military power not seen since World War II, a new report from a prominent international think tank says. And the enormous human toll has secured relatively small territorial gains on the battlefield, with Russia increasing the amount of Ukrainian land under its control by just 12% since 2022, the report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) says. The report calls into question assumptions in many circles, including in the...

The bodies of 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been returned by Russia, Kyiv has said, in the latest exchange between the warring countries. Russia received 38 bodies in return, Moscow's chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said. Medinsky posted a photo on Telegram apparently showing the exchange, with individuals dressed in biohazard suits standing next to a line of white refrigerated trucks used to transport bodies. The last swap took place in November last year when Russia returned 1,000 bodies to Ukraine and received 30 in return. There has not been an exchange of prisoners of war since October 2025, with both sides...

Marco Rubio also criticized the military potential of the US's European NATO allies, namely its erosionWASHINGTON, January 28. /TASS/. Security guarantees to Kiev would mean the direct involvement of the United States and the West as a whole in a new conflict in Ukraine if one were to start, US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio said. "But every notion of security guarantees that's been talked about and that the Europeans have pushed is one that requires a strong commitment by the United States as a backstop, which you know, in essence, means we would be committed...

Germany currently has no capacity to deliver additional Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said, citing limits on the country’s own military readiness, according to Deutsche Welle on January 26. Pistorius said Germany has already made a “disproportionately large contribution” by transferring more than one-third of its Patriot systems to Ukraine, leaving Berlin unable to commit further units at this stage. He explained that additional deliveries are not possible because the Bundeswehr is still waiting for replacement systems and must preserve its ability to train personnel and maintain operational readiness for Patriot air defense operations....

"Ukraine is Gamifying the Elimination of Russians with Drones" Jake Broe** I am a United States Air Force veteran who served as a Nuclear and Missile Operations Officer. Jan 27, 2026 8:00 p.m. EST Length 32:18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KknUmByywT0 "Ukraine has struck a Russian oil refinery for the first time in 4 weeks. Ukraine's new Defense Minister has announced a competition between drone units that allows them to earn "e-points" for every successful strike on the Russians. Trump is pressuring Ukraine to surrender the Donbas to Russia in exchange for US security guarantees."

Russia launched a mass aerial attack on Ukraine overnight Jan. 24, killing at least one person and injuring others, while causing widespread damage to energy infrastructure. In Kyiv, one person was killed and four others injured during the attack. Explosions were first heard at 1:20 a.m. local time, according to Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground, who reported blasts throughout the night, including the interception of a ballistic missile. The Ukrainian Air Force tallied 396 aerial weapons, including 21 missiles and 375 drones. Hypersonic "Tsirkon" missiles, ballistic Iskander missiles, and Kh-22/Kh-32 cruise missiles were used. The attacks continued Russia’s targeting...

Ukraine is on the brink of "a humanitarian catastrophe" after months of Russian airstrikes on the energy system, and any future peace agreement must include a halt to attacks on energy infrastructure, Maksym Tymchenko, CEO of DTEK, the largest private energy company in Ukraine, has said. Tymchenko said Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion nearly four years ago, has conducted a campaign of "energy terror" since October 2025, striking power plants and overloading air defence systems. The authorities report that Kyiv and the surrounding regions have been hardest hit, and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has urged residents to temporarily leave...

The United States, Russia and Ukraine rarely agree on anything. But as their delegations meet in Abu Dhabi for their first trilateral meeting since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the three parties seem to have come to the same conclusion: Only one issue remains to be resolved. That issue is territory, namely the eastern Ukrainian region known as the Donbas. And based on their comments coming into the meeting, it is unlikely to be resolved. It’s all about the eastern part of our country, it’s all about the land,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said, pointing to Russia’s long-standing...

"In a big setback to Donald Trump's Ukraine peace efforts, Russia has hardened its stance on Donbas ahead of the tripartite talks in the United Arab Emirates. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov reiterated Moscow's demand that Ukraine withdraw from the Donbas region. The Russian official's remark comes amid Trump saying that both Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky had agreed to a deal."

Collecting snow for water at home; sleeping in gloves, coats and hats; heating bricks on gas stoves for warmth; erecting tents indoors - Kyiv residents are doing everything they can to survive the coldest, darkest winter of the war. "When there is no electricity, there is no heating: it means the apartment freezes," said ​Anton Rybikov, father of three-year-old David and two-year-old Matvii, speaking to Reuters in their home, where he and his wife Marina have stocked up on backup batteries and sleeping bags. The 39-year-old military ‌chaplain said one of his sons recently contracted pneumonia after temperatures in the...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday he was worried US President Donald Trump's push to take Greenland could be diverting attention from Russia's invasion, now approaching its four-year mark. "I'm worried about any loss of focus during a full-scale war," Zelensky told reporters. He added, however, that the dispute surrounding the autonomous Danish island and Ukraine should not be seen as "interchangeable".

Russia launched a barrage of ⁠drone strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure overnight on Monday, cutting off power in five regions across the country amid freezing temperatures and high demand, Ukrainian officials said. The Ukrainian air force said that Russian troops had launched 145 drones. Air defense units shot ‍down 126 of them, it said. "As of this morning, consumers in ‍Sumy, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv regions are without power," the energy ministry said in a statement. "Emergency repair work is underway ⁠if the security situation allows." In the southern Odesa region, energy and gas infrastructure was damaged, the regional...

Two people were ⁠killed and dozens more wounded in a mass Russian drone attack across Ukraine overnight, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday, as U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators hashed out a post-war plan in the latest round of ‍peace talks. Moscow has stepped up a winter campaign ‍of strikes on the Ukrainian energy system while also waging a battlefield offensive as Kyiv faces U.S. ⁠pressure to secure peace in the nearly four-year-old war. Zelenskyy said the Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi and Odesa regions were ​targeted in an attack that included more than 200 drones. The military said 30 strikes...

Ukraine is enduring one of the harshest winters in its modern history as relentless Russian strikes cripple the country’s energy infrastructure, leaving millions without reliable heat or electricity. With nighttime temperatures in Kyiv dropping below -20C, rolling blackouts and heating outages have become a daily reality—even in the capital. Speaking to News in Depth on TVP World, Marta Shokalo, editor-in-chief of BBC News Ukraine, described conditions as unprecedented. “We never, ever had winters like this,” she said, noting that many families are leaving Kyiv temporarily as apartments struggle to stay above freezing. While some Ukrainians have relocated to western cities...