These are important developments since day 1,434 of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Published January 28, 2026
Here’s what happened on Wednesday, January 28th.
finding
At least four people were killed in a Russian drone attack on a passenger train in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a telegram. President Zelenskiy added that four people were still missing and two others were injured in the attack. Three people were killed and 25 others injured in a Russian attack on a building in Ukraine’s Odessa region, Regional Military Governor Serhiy Raisak announced on the messaging app Telegram. One person was killed in a Russian airstrike on a kindergarten that Ukrainians were using as a community center to charge their phones and stay warm during power outages, Kostyantiniivka military governor Serhiy Khorbunov announced on Facebook. A man and a woman were killed in a Russian drone attack while trying to evacuate the village of Hrabovske in Ukraine’s Sumy region, the Ukrainian military said. According to a Russian Ministry of Defense report carried by the state-run TASS news agency, Russian forces shot down 105 Ukrainian drones in 24 hours. According to TASS, the Russian Ministry of Defense also claimed that Russian forces had captured the settlement of Novoyablivka in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya region and Kupiansk Vzlovy in Kharkov region. However, Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Counter-Disinformation under Ukraine’s State Security and Defense Council, denied that Russia had occupied Kupiansk Buzlovyy as a “lie”. Meanwhile, public intelligence maps of troop movements by the Deep State volunteer group in Ukraine do not show the presence of Russian troops in the Novoyabrivka region.
energy crisis
Ukraine’s Energy Minister Denis Shmyhal said 710,000 people remain without electricity in the Ukrainian capital Kiev as the country continues to face an energy crisis following a Russian attack on power infrastructure during the winter cold. The European Union has provided 447 generators to be used in Kiev, Kropnytsky city and front-line areas, of which 76 were received on Tuesday, Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform reported. According to TASS, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Rodion Miloshnik said last week that around 1.3 million residents of Russia and Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory experienced power outages due to the Ukrainian attack. Ukraine’s state oil and gas company Naftogaz said on Tuesday that a Russian attack had targeted one of its facilities in the country’s west. Russian military commander-in-chief Valery Gerasimov said on Tuesday that Russian troops had captured 17 settlements in Ukraine so far this month, controlling more than 500 square kilometers of territory, according to Reuters. However, the DeepState map casts doubt on this claim.
politics and diplomacy
In comments to reporters as he left the White House on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said very good things were happening in negotiations to end Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, without giving details. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev said the Russian offensive and the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Ukraine’s currently occupied Donbas region are the path to peace. “Withdrawing from Donbas is a path to peace for Ukraine,” Dmitriev said on the X program. An oil tanker under EU sanctions for transporting Russian crude oil is being escorted by a Spanish rescue ship to Morocco’s Tangier Med port, Spain’s Merchant Marine news agency reported. Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo told reporters in Beijing that China and President Xi Jinping have an opportunity to influence President Vladimir Putin to end Russia’s war in Ukraine by reducing cooperation with Russia. According to state media, China’s Eastern Military Defense Minister told the Russian side that Beijing is ready to strengthen strategic cooperation with Moscow and jointly improve its ability to respond to risks and challenges. “China is ready to sincerely implement the important agreements reached by the two leaders and work with Russia to strengthen strategic cooperation, enrich the content of cooperation and improve exchange mechanisms,” Dong said in a video call with Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency. News website Dennik N quoted Slovak Prime Minister Roberto Fico as saying on Tuesday that Slovakia plans to file a lawsuit challenging the EU’s decision to ban Russian gas imports, adopted by a qualified majority.
