Two dead in Russian drone strikes in Ukraine
With Russian Drone attacks on Ukraine According to authorities, two people were killed. The target of the attacks was the city of Kryvyi Rih, the regional military administration said on Wednesday. The victims were a 77-year-old man and a 72-year-old woman. Kryvyi Rih, the birthplace of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, is around 80 kilometers from the front. The Russian army has carried out regular air strikes on the city since the invasion began in February 2022.
In the Russian Caucasus republic of Adygeya, authorities reported eleven people injured in a Ukrainian drone attack. Local authorities said two children were among the injured. Adygea borders the city of Krasnodar. The region around the Black and Azov Seas is repeatedly the target of Ukrainian drone attacks.
Russia has been firing since it began its offensive almost four years ago Drones almost every day and rockets at Ukraine. In response, Ukraine regularly attacks Russian territory, particularly targeting energy infrastructure facilities. (afp)
Electricity and heating are cut off after the attack on Kyiv
After a Russian air strike, electricity, heating and water supplies were cut off in parts of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Residents sought shelter in emergency tents in temperatures below freezing, it was said. Entire blocks of flats are without electricity. There was initially no Russian statement on the attack. (rtr)
“Dispute over Greenland must not distract from Ukraine”
According to its Secretary General Mark Rutte, NATO should not let the tensions surrounding Greenland distract from the need to defend Ukraine. “Ukraine should be the top priority, it is crucial for the security of Europe and the USA,” said Rutte in a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “I’m really worried that we’re losing sight of the target and that in the meantime the Ukrainians don’t have enough interceptors to defend themselves.” (rtr)
Eight injured after drone attack in southern Russia
According to official figures, eight people were injured in Ukrainian drone attacks on the south of Russia. In the Republic of Adygea, a residential building was hit, Governor Murat Kumpilow said on Telegram. Seven of the injured, including a child, are being treated in hospital. In the neighboring Krasnodar region, another residential building was damaged and the residents were brought to safety, according to Governor Venjamin Kondratiev. There is currently no Ukrainian statement available. (rtr)
Fire in Russian oil refinery
A fire broke out at the Afipsky oil refinery in the southern Russian Krasnodar Oblast following a Ukrainian drone attack. The fire has now been extinguished, the local authorities said. No one was injured and there was no damage. The refinery has been the target of repeated Ukrainian attacks on the Russian energy infrastructure in recent months. The Afipsky plant, which is primarily focused on exports, processed around 7.2 million tons of crude oil in 2024. Ukrainian drones also hit other cities in southern Russia. According to local authorities, a total of eleven people were injured. (rtr)
Several injured after house fire in Russia
According to authorities, at least eight people were injured in a high-rise building fire following suspected explosions in the Russian republic of Adygeya, east of the Black Sea. Republic leader Murat Kumpilov spoke of a drone attack and a fire that broke out in the settlement of Novaya Adygeya. Seven people were taken to hospital, 15 cars were burned out and 25 others were damaged. There are no deaths.
Numerous videos circulated on social media showing a damaged multi-story apartment building and burning cars. Several news channels on Telegram channels reported that eyewitnesses heard explosions. Given the extent of the destruction, independent military analyst Jan Matveyev ruled out a drone strike as the cause. There was speculation online that it could have been a misguided Russian anti-aircraft missile. (dpa)
Kremlin: Putin meets US envoy Witkoff on Thursday
According to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning a meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday. The meeting is “on the president’s calendar for tomorrow,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian news agency Tass on Wednesday, without mentioning the location of the planned meeting. Witkoff had previously told the Bloomberg news agency that he wanted to travel to Moscow with US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Witkoff and Kushner are entrusted by US President Donald Trump with negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict. Putin last received the two US envoys in Moscow at the beginning of December.
Intensive diplomatic efforts to end the war have been underway for months. On the table is a revised version of the 28-point plan originally presented by the USA, which was criticized by Kyiv and its European allies as being very Russia-friendly. The Kremlin has so far rejected any adjustments. (afp)
Arrest of suspected supporters of pro-Russian militias
A Russian and a German have been arrested in Brandenburg who are said to have supported pro-Russian separatists from the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics in eastern Ukraine for years. Among other things, they are said to have been involved in the transport of drones to the Donbass region, as the federal prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe announced on Wednesday. They held “prominent positions” in the association that organized this.
Since 2014, the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass have been controlled by pro-Russian separatists. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow declared the regions annexed.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office classifies the two so-called People’s Republics as foreign terrorist organizations. From 2014 onwards, they claimed control over the Ukrainian administrative districts of Donetsk and Luhansk with the aim of separating them from Ukraine. They engaged in intense clashes with the Ukrainian armed forces and repeatedly used violence against the civilian population. At the end of 2022 they were integrated into the command structures of the Russian armed forces.
As early as May 2025, objects in Brandenburg and Berlin were searched, including the apartment of another accused, as the Federal Prosecutor’s Office stated. On Wednesday, two men were arrested by the Federal Criminal Police Office in the Dahme-Spreewald and Märkisch-Oderland districts.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office gave their names as Suren A. and Falko H., and their apartments were also searched. According to the authorities, the association for which the two accused have worked since 2016 organized the transport of supplies and medical products, but also drones, to the pro-Russian militia members in Donbass.
A. is said to have directed club funds of more than 14,000 euros there and financed freight transport. H. is said to have traveled to the region several times for talks with the separatists. There he accepted delivery orders and helped distribute goods.
The two men are accused of supporting foreign terrorist organizations in several cases. They should be brought before the investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice on Thursday, who will decide on pre-trial detention. (afp)
Ukraine is experiencing the harshest winter since the start of the war
The Russian military has launched targeted attacks on energy infrastructure the hardest winter of the people in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv since the beginning of the war. At temperatures as low as minus 18 degrees Celsius, the three million residents were exposed to massive and long-lasting power and water supply outages. To cope with everyday life, they collected snow as a substitute for water, slept in coats and hats, and set up tents in their homes. For the first time since the Russian invasion almost four years ago, the government declared a state of emergency due to the energy crisis.
“If there is no electricity, there is no heating. That means the apartment cools down,” said military chaplain Anton Rybikov in a conversation in January. One of his sons contracted pneumonia after the temperature in the apartment fell to nine degrees Celsius during a power outage that lasted more than 19 hours following a Russian air strike. “It’s very difficult emotionally. There’s constant worry,” said the 39-year-old father. “This winter is the hardest.” He is considering sending his sons away from Kyiv if the power outages worsen.
Russia has increased its attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure over the winter months, focusing on the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro. According to British military intelligence, Russia used 55,000 unmanned aerial systems against Ukraine last year, a fivefold increase compared to the previous year. The government in Kyiv then demanded more anti-aircraft systems from the West. After a serious Russian attack in January, more than a million households in the capital were without power, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. (rtr)