These are important developments since day 1,433 of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Published January 27, 2026
Here’s what happened on Tuesday, January 27th.
finding
The Russian military launched a drone and missile attack on Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, injuring at least two people, Mayor Ihor Terekhov announced. It added that an apartment building, school and kindergarten were also damaged in the attack.
Russian drones also struck a high-rise apartment building in Ukraine’s Kryvyiy Rih, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown southeast of Kharkiv. The city’s military administrator, Oleksandr Vikrul, said the attack caused a fire, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture said in a statement that Russian drone and missile attacks on the country’s capital damaged parts of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Ukraine’s most famous religious site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In Russia, one person was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Belgorod border region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced on the messaging app Telegram. The Ukrainian military said it attacked the Slavyansk Eko refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight. The military said in a statement that some major oil processing facilities were damaged. There were no initial reports of casualties.
One person was injured and two businesses were set on fire after debris fell from a destroyed drone in the Russian city of Slavyansk-on-Kuban, also in Krasnodar, the regional emergency center said.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced that its air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 40 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 34 in the Krasnodar region.
military aid
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Ukraine’s interception rate of Russian missiles and drones has decreased because Kiev has fewer weapons to protect it from attack. Rutte called on allies to dig into stockpiles to defend Ukraine.
humanitarian aid
In just five days, Czechs have raised more than $6 million in a grassroots fundraiser to buy generators, heaters and batteries to send to Ukraine, according to the online fundraising group Dalek Pro Putin (“Gifts for Putin”). Hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine are freezing in sub-zero temperatures after a Russian attack on a power plant.
ceasefire negotiations
President Zelenskiy said in his regular evening address that talks between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators are scheduled to resume on February 1. He called on Ukraine’s allies not to reduce pressure on Russia ahead of the expected talks.
In a separate post about X, Zelensky said that military issues were the main topic of discussion during trilateral talks with the United States and Russia over the weekend in Abu Dhabi, but political issues were also discussed. He added that preparations are underway for a new tripartite meeting.
Trilateral talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Abu Dhabi, mediated by the United States, were held in a “constructive spirit” but there was still “important work ahead,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow. Despite these differences, the meeting should be viewed positively, he added.
The Kremlin also said the territorial issue remained a fundamental factor for Russia in reaching an agreement to end the fighting, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported. The Russian government insists that to end the war, Russia needs to occupy the entire Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
German Federal Foreign Minister Johann Vardepur criticized Russia’s “stubborn insistence on important territorial issues” after talks in Abu Dhabi.
politics
European Union countries have approved a ban on Russian gas imports by the end of 2027, a move nearly four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and severing ties with its former biggest energy supplier. Ukraine’s energy minister, Denis Shmyhal, welcomed the ban, saying in a statement that Russia’s energy independence “is, above all, about a safe and strong Europe.” Germany’s Wadeplu said Russia is testing the resilience of European countries with hybrid tactics such as damaging undersea cables, jamming GPS signals and sending shadow fleets to break sanctions as the deadly war in Ukraine continues.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Budapest would summon Ukraine’s ambassador over Orbán’s claims that Kiev was trying to interfere in Hungary’s parliamentary elections scheduled for April 12. Orbán has stepped up his anti-Ukrainian rhetoric in recent weeks, trying to link opposition leader Piotr Magyar to Brussels and Ukraine.
