Russia and the United States prepared to host him as president of Ukraine First tripartite meeting Nearly half of Ukraine is without electricity and heat in sub-zero temperatures, following Russian drone strikes targeting energy infrastructure this weekend to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The strike appears designed to break Ukraine’s resistance at the negotiating table on territorial concessions to Russia — an issue Ukraine and the United States said remained unresolved at the end of talks between Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump this week in Davos, Switzerland.
After the discussion on Thursday. Zelensky Security guarantees have been agreed and the next step is a tripartite meeting starting today in Abu Dhabi and including Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said the negotiations had so far resolved only one issue, without specifying what it was. But Zelensky told reporters in Davos that it was a regional issue.
The question of territory
Russia wants Ukraine to give up the one-fifth of the eastern Donetsk region not already occupied. A poll this week by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) found that 54 percent of Ukrainians agreed with Zelensky in refusing to do so, while another 39 percent reluctantly supported concessions in exchange for much stronger security guarantees.
Russia has tried to present its eventual victory as inevitable, touting the capture of minor settlements as a strategic success, claiming to have conquered cities not under its control, and exaggerating its square footage.
Last week, Russian commander-in-chief Valery Gerasimov claimed that his forces had captured 300 square km (116 square miles) of Ukraine this year. According to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, estimates based on geolocated footage are closer to 74sq km (29sq miles).
Without any significant successes on the battlefield, the energy crisis now appears to be Moscow’s desperate bid to win territory it may not win for long.
On January 21, 12 days after the destruction of Russia, almost 60 percent of Kyiv remained without electricity. Strike on 9th and 13th JanuaryAnd again on Tuesday this week, its power infrastructure suffered major damage.
“As of this morning, about 4,000 buildings in Kyiv are still without heat and almost 60 percent of the capital is without electricity,” Zelensky wrote on social media.
Zelensky said that mirrored the situation across the country, where only 60 percent of electricity needs were being met.
The child welfare agency, UNICEF, said the energy crisis is exposing Ukrainian children to the risks of hypothermia and pneumonia.
“Practically around the clock, and just including those doing the repairs, almost 58,000 people are working on the power grid and generation facilities as well as the heating network,” said Zelensky At the Sunday evening address.
“If the Russians are serious about ending the war, they will focus on diplomacy – not on missile strikes, blackouts and attempts to damage our nuclear power plants,” he said.
Adaptation to Russian weapons
On Tuesday, January 20, Russia cut off all power to the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency director. Raphael Grossisaid
Nuclear power plants require electrical connections to keep reactor cooling systems operating even when power is not being generated, the IAEA says. On the same day, Russia launched 339 attack drones and 34 missiles at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Ukraine intercepted 27 missiles and 315 drones, but Zelensky said, “the air force’s performance against the Shahid is unsatisfactory”, referring to Iranian-designed, propeller-powered drones produced by Russia.
Zelensky had already announced major changes on Monday. “There will be a new approach to the use of air defense by the Air Force, especially with regard to mobile fire groups, interceptor drones and other means of short-range air defense. This system will be transformed,” he said in an evening video address.
Russia has also attacked Kiev with Shahed drones equipped with jet engines, making them faster and harder to intercept, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
Ukraine is adapting. Its air force posted a video on January 15 showing a Sting drone successfully intercepting a jet-powered Shahed. The Sting was developed by Wild Hornets, a Ukrainian charity that raised money for air defense, and was designed to kill Shahed.
Zelensky wants to increase innovation to counter Russian adaptations to his defense. As part of these efforts, he appointed Mykhailo Fedorov as defense minister on January 2 to oversee accelerated drone production, and on Tuesday announced Colonel Pavlo Yelizarov as deputy chief of the Air Force.
“With the participation of Pavlo Yelizarov, taking into account his experience and innovative approach, the system of “small air defense” will be improved,” wrote the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Sirsky.
Zelensky has warned Ukrainians to expect the worst. He said it again on Sunday. “Russia has prepared a strike – a major strike – and is waiting for the moment to carry it out,” he said.
Syrskii Ukrainian news outlet Ib.ua said Russia plans to increase Shahed production from 404 to 1,000 per day.
While Zelensky traveled to Switzerland to meet with Trump this week, the situation in Ukraine was dire.
“Today was the most difficult day for the power system in Ukraine since the blackout of November 2022,” Energy Minister Denis Schmihl wrote Thursday. “The situation is extremely difficult. Crews are obliged to resort to an emergency shutdown.”
Fiasco follows fracas
The Trump-Zelensky meeting took place on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, where European leaders were originally expected to back the announcement of an $800 billion reconstruction plan for Ukraine.
Trump’s launch derailed it Peace Council and his bid to buy Greenland from Denmark. The failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize last year was also on his mind.
“Since your country has decided not to award me the Nobel Peace Prize for stopping 8 wars PLUS, I no longer feel obligated to think about peace, although it will always prevail, but can now think about what is good and right for the United States of America,” Trump wrote Sunday to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stort, “GreenCountle of the Controller” and added.
This prompted eight Baltic and North Sea states to send military reinforcements to the island, which is self-governing but part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
On Wednesday, Trump said in a 71-minute speech in Davos that he would not fight with NATO allies over Greenland, but the diplomatic damage had been done. “Nobody is in the mood for a big show right now around a deal with Trump,” an official told the Financial Times.
At Davos, European officials remained largely deferential to the US, but there were statements that indicated a different mood beneath the surface.
European diplomats said Brussels was considering giving Ukraine primary EU membership in 2027 as part of security guarantees. Full membership will come later.
The idea runs counter to the EU’s usual merit-based accession process, but diplomats said Ukraine’s security should take priority over that process. “We have to recognize that we are in a very different reality than when the (accession) rules were first drawn up,” an EU official said.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb said Europe could “unequivocally” defend itself without the United States in security talks. He added that Russia had not won its war, having lost millions of lives and “at most” 1 percent of Ukraine’s territory in the last 1,000 days.
On January 15, Macron reminded the French military that a 35-nation coalition, including the US, is now providing all military and financial aid to Ukraine, after Washington adopted neutrality in the war under Trump.
“Whereas Ukraine was highly dependent on American intelligence capabilities, a year ago the vast majority (of it) has been provided in the space of a year, two-thirds today by France,” Macron said.
In Brussels, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen The need to distance Europe from US foreign and defense policy was even more evident.
“The change in the international order is not only seismic but permanent,” she told the European Parliament on Wednesday, adding that it was “imperative for Europe … to speed up its quest for independence … Europe needs its own strength … above all a real ability to defend itself.”