Zelensky says Ukraine ‘doing everything they can’ to restore energy
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Telegram post that repairing the country’s energy system remains challenging, “but we are doing everything we can to restore everything as quickly as possible”.
He said two people were killed in overnight attacks across the country that struck Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi and Odesa.
More than 1,300 attack drones, 1,050 guided aerial bombs and 29 missiles of various types were used by Russia to strike Ukraine this week, he added.
“If Russia deliberately delays the diplomatic process, the world’s response should be decisive: more help for Ukraine and more pressure on the aggressor,” Mr Zelensky said.
He spoke the day after a Ukrainian delegation arrived in the US for talks on a US-led diplomatic push to end the war.
Arpan Rai19 January 2026 08:00
Kyiv will improve electricity transmission from western Ukraine to east
Ukraine, whose power system is under constant Russian attacks, will implement projects to improve electricity transmission from western part of the country to its power-hungry east, energy minister Denys Shmyhal said this morning.
The three operational Ukrainian nuclear power plants, which currently provide Ukraine with most of its electricity, are located in the west of the country, while eastern Ukraine previously relied on thermal power plants that have been almost completely destroyed.
Arpan Rai19 January 2026 07:52
Russia planning big boost in drone production, says Ukraine’s top military commander
Russia is showing no signs of interest in talks leading to a peace deal and is instead focusing on boosting arms production, including a target of 1,000 drones a day, Ukraine’s top military commander has said.
“On the contrary, we see an increase in intensity of military actions, an increase in the number of offensive enemy groupings, an increase in production of strike weapons, missiles and drones,” General Oleksandr Syrskyi told the online media outlet lb.ua in an interview.
“At the moment, the enemy produces daily 404 ‘Shaheds’ (Iranian-designed drones) of different kinds. And the plans are to increase that. The enemy plans to boost production significantly, up to 1,000 drones a day,” he said.
Russian soldiers prepare a drone to launch for an action in an undisclosed location in Ukraine (AP)
Arpan Rai19 January 2026 07:32
In photos: Ukrainians endure frigid winter after Russian strikes knocked out power
People warm up outside their multistory buildings during a power outage caused by Russia’s regular air attacks on the country’s energy sector that leave residents without power, heating and water in Kyiv (AP)
People cook on grills and warm up outside their multistory buildings during a power outage caused by Russia’s regular air attacks on the country’s energy sector that leave residents without power, heating and water in Kyiv (AP)
Local residents gather around a bonfire during an outdoor party to keep warm as many apartments remain without heating in Kyiv (AFP via Getty Images)
Children play inside an ice igloo built by local residents in the courtyard of a residential building in Lviv (AFP via Getty Images)
Arpan Rai19 January 2026 06:58
Ukraine continuing peace proposal talks with US in Davos
Talks with US officials on a resolution of the nearly four-year-old war with Russia will continue at the World Economic Forum opening this week in the Swiss resort of Davos, Ukraine’s top negotiator Rustem Umerov said.
In a message on Telegram, Umerov said two days of talks in Florida with a US team including envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, president Donald Trump’s son-in-law, had focused on security guarantees and a post-war recovery plan for Ukraine.
He gave no indication whether any agreements had been achieved at the meeting.
“We agreed to continue work at the team level during the next phase of consultations in Davos,” Umerov said.
The two sides, in the latest of a series of meetings intended to work out the details of an agreement, had “discussed in depth” the two issues, “focusing on practical mechanisms and carrying out and implementing them,” Mr Umerov said.
He said his delegation had reported on Russian strikes last week which badly damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and left hundreds of apartment buildings with no heating or electricity.
Thia photograph shows a sign displayed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the eve of the WEF annual meeting in Davos (AFP via Getty Images)
Arpan Rai19 January 2026 06:34
Trump says he will get ‘Russian threat’ away from Greenland
US president Donald Trump has claimed Denmark has not been able to do anything to get the “Russian threat” away from Greenland, and said, “Now it is time, and it will be done!!!”
“NATO has been telling Denmark, for 20 years, that “you have to get Russian threat away from Greenland,” he said.
“Unfortunately, Denmark has been unable to do anything about it,” Trump wrote in a post on the social media website TruthSocial.
Trump has repeatedly insisted he will settle for nothing less than ownership of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Leaders of both Denmark and Greenland have insisted the island is not for sale and does not want to be part of the United States.
Arpan Rai19 January 2026 06:10
US invasion of Greenland ‘would make Putin happiest man on earth’, says Spanish PM
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said a US invasion of Greenland “would make Putin the happiest man on earth”.
Sanchez said any military action by the US against Denmark’s vast Arctic island would damage Nato and “legitimise” the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
“If we focus on Greenland, I have to say that a US invasion of that territory would make Vladimir Putin the happiest man in the world. Why? Because it would legitimise his attempted invasion of Ukraine,” he told La Vanguardia.
“If the United States were to use force, it would be the death knell for Nato. Putin would be doubly happy,” he said.
President Donald Trump on Saturday appeared to change tack over Greenland by vowing to implement a wave of increasing tariffs on European allies until the United States is allowed to buy Greenland.
Arpan Rai19 January 2026 05:39
Drone strikes cut power to over 200,000 homes in Russian-occupied Ukraine
More than 200,000 households in the Russian-held part of Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region had no electricity on Sunday, according to the Kremlin-installed local governor.
In a Telegram post, Yevgeny Balitsky said nearly 400 settlements have had their supply cut, due to damage to power networks from Ukrainian drone strikes.
Russia has hammered Ukraine’s power grid, especially in winter, throughout the almost four-year war. It aims to weaken Ukrainians’ will to resist in a strategy that Kyiv officials call “weaponising winter.”
Meanwhile, Moscow has kept up its hammering of Ukraine’s energy grid in overnight attacks that killed at least two people, according to Ukrainian officials.
Arpan Rai19 January 2026 05:17
Watch: ‘Diplomacy not a priority for Russia’, says Zelensky’Diplomacy not a priority for Russia’, says Zelensky as Trump envoys to hold talks in Davos
Arpan Rai19 January 2026 04:53
Former Archbishop of Canterbury: Putin is a heretic – he has no holy mission in Ukraine
During a speech to mark Orthodox Christmas earlier this month, Putin called his soldiers “warriors” who were acting “as if at the Lord’s behest” and “defending the fatherland”.
Mr Williams, who served as the Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012, condemned the use of religion to justify the invasion as “disturbing” and said that Putin’s revanchism directly contradicts the message preached by Jesus Christ.
“I’d certainly say we’re talking about heresy,” he told The Independent. “We’re talking about something which undermines a really fundamental aspect of religious belief, of Christian belief, which assumes that we have to defend God by violence.”
Arpan Rai19 January 2026 04:42