These are the major developments since the 1,429th day of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published on January 23, 2026
Here’s what happened on Friday, January 23:
fights
- 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, Vyacheslav Zadorenko, head of the regional military administration, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
- Russian forces launched a drone attack on an elite residential building in Dnipro, Ukraine, injuring at least seven people, the city’s mayor, Boris Filatov, said.
- A Russian glide bomb attack in Komyshuvakha, Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, has killed one person and wounded four, Governor Ivan Fedorov said.
- A Russian attack on the town of Kryvyi Rih in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region injured 12 people, including four children, Oleksandr Hanza, head of the regional military administration, said.
- Russia’s Defense Ministry said the Russian military shot down 31 Ukrainian drones overnight and early Thursday morning, according to a report by Russia’s TASS state news agency.
Approval
- French Navy Oil tanker intercepted In the Mediterranean what officials say is Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet,” a design Avoid international restrictions.
- 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 with allied countries.
energy crisis
- Ukraine’s energy system on Thursday endured its toughest day since a widespread blackout on the network in November 2022, and the situation remains “extremely difficult,” the country’s Energy Minister Denis Schmiehl said.
- Conditions were most difficult in and around the capital Kiev and the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Schmyhl said, with overnight temperatures dropping to -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 2,600 apartment buildings were still without heat two days after the latest Russian overnight attacks, while heating had been restored to 600 buildings.
Politics and Diplomacy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian negotiators were heading to the United Arab Emirates for talks with Russian and United States negotiating teams.
“Our team is now on its way to the Emirates for meetings with both the American and Russian sides,” Zelensky wrote in a telegram after a day of talks at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. “We’ll wait to see how that goes and decide on next steps.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin began meeting late Thursday with US ambassadors Steve Wittkoff, Jared Kushner and Josh Gruenbaum to discuss a plan to end the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.
US President Donald Trump reiterated that both Russian President Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky want to reach an agreement to end the nearly four-year-old war after meeting with Zelensky on the sidelines of the WEF in Davos.
In an interview with Channel 4 News on Thursday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was concerned about Putin being on Trump’s proposed “peace board”. “He’s waging war on a European country. They’re bombing Ukraine,” Starmer said.
Relations between the US and the European Union have suffered a “big blow” in the past week, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Callas said Thursday ahead of an emergency meeting of the bloc’s leaders.
“The differences between allies like Europe and America are benefiting our adversaries who are watching and enjoying the scene,” Callas told reporters.
- Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova told reporters that the two Russian soldiers whose bodies were returned as part of a prisoner exchange deal with Ukraine when they were captured in May 2025 were alive and unharmed. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the report.
military aid
- Norway’s Defense Minister Tore O Sandvik said his country has quickly delivered air defense missiles to Ukraine at a crucial stage. NASAMS system May continue to protect Ukrainian civilians from lethal airstrikes “in cooperation with the United States and others.”