Here is where things stand on Monday, January 25:
Fighting
More than 1,300 apartment buildings in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, were still without heating following Russia’s missile and drone attacks on Saturday, according to Mayor Vitalii Klitschko.
Over the past week alone, Russia launched more than 1,700 attack drones, at least 1,380 guided aerial bombs, and 69 missiles on Ukraine, mainly targeting the energy sector, critical infrastructure, and residential buildings, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian leader told reporters during a visit to Lithuania that the continuing Russian attacks make it necessary for Ukraine to acquire more air defences, even while the country negotiates a ceasefire deal with Moscow.
In Russia, the governor of the border region of Belgorod said Ukrainian forces launched a “massive” attack on its main town, damaging energy infrastructure, but causing no casualties.
Diplomacy
Zelenskyy told reporters in Lithuania that a US document on security guarantees for Ukraine is “100 percent ready”, and that Kyiv is waiting for a time and place for it to be signed.
He also indicated that trilateral talks with Russia and the US in Abu Dhabi over the weekend made some progress, saying: “[In Abu Dhabi] the 20-point [US] plan and problematic issues are being discussed. There were many problematic issues, but now, there are fewer.”
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, after meeting Zelenskyy, said that Russia is avoiding committing to a lasting and just peace in Ukraine and is not accepting a ceasefire in the war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia will never discuss anything with European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, and so Moscow will simply wait for her to leave her post.
Pope Leo said in his weekly Angelus prayer at the Vatican that ongoing Russian attacks against Ukraine were leaving civilians in the country exposed to the cold of winter, and called for an end to the conflict.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited an art studio to guide the creation of sculptures to be displayed at a memorial for the estimated 6,000 North Korean troops who died fighting overseas, according to state media KCNA. Pyongyang deployed some 14,000 soldiers to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, according to Western sources.
France has detained the Indian captain of an oil tanker suspected of belonging to Russia’s sanctions-busting “shadow fleet”, prosecutors said. Authorities said the vessel, named the Grinch, failed to fly a flag. It is now moored, under guard, near Marseille.
