These are the key developments from day 1,412 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 6 Jan 2026
Here is where things stand on Tuesday, January 6:
Fighting
Russia carried out five missile strikes on Ukraine’s second-biggest city, Kharkiv, on Monday, damaging energy infrastructure and wounding one person, according to Mayor Ihor Terekhov.
“This is not just an attack on facilities. It’s an attack on heating, on water, on people’s normal lives. They are trying to break us with fear and darkness,” he said on Telegram.
Russian forces also attacked an enterprise owned by US agricultural producer Bunge BGN in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, triggering a leak of 300 metric tonnes of sunflower oil, according to Ukrainian officials.
The death toll from the latest Russian air attack on the capital, Kyiv, and its region has risen to two, Ukrainian authorities said, in what appeared to be the first reported deaths in Russian strikes on Kyiv this year. A woman was also wounded, and 25 others were evacuated.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that its forces gained control over the village of Hrabovske in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region. Moscow’s claim could not be independently verified.
A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire in an industrial zone in the town of Yelets in Russia’s Lipetsk region, Governor Igor Artamonov said on Monday. There were no casualties reported. Yelets is home to the Energiya battery plant, a major producer of batteries for Russia’s defence industry.
Politics and diplomacy
French President Emmanuel Macron is set to host a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” in Paris on Tuesday to discuss security guarantees as part of the US proposal to end Russia’s war on Ukraine. The talks will also focus on the role of the coalition, which consists of 30 countries that have pledged to strengthen support for Ukraine, in implementing the deal.
A European Commission spokesperson said that work on security guarantees for Ukraine is progressing within the framework of the coalition.
United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will represent Washington at talks on Ukraine in Paris this week, the Reuters news agency reported, citing a White House official.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will take part in the meeting, according to a spokesperson.
Turkiye’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, will stress the “strategic priority” of maintaining security in the Black Sea at a summit on Ukraine in Paris this week, a Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs source said.
Any security guarantees offered to Ukraine as part of a deal to end the war with Russia must be real, Lithuania’s foreign minister, Kestutis Budrys, said. “We can’t be bluffing… Russia wouldn’t buy our bluffs,” Budrys told a joint news conference in Vilnius with his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed Canada’s former deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, as his economic development adviser, citing her experience in attracting investment.
Freeland, who has Ukrainian ancestry and said she will step down as a member of Canada’s parliament in the coming weeks, wrote in a post on X: “Ukraine is at the forefront of today’s global fight for democracy, and I welcome this chance to contribute on an unpaid basis as an economic advisor.”
Zelenskyy has replaced Vasyl Maliuk, the head of his powerful spy agency, the SBU, pressing ahead with a reshuffle of top officials, as the war nears the four-year mark with no end in sight despite intense diplomacy. He has appointed Major-General Yevhenii Khmara as Maliuk’s interim replacement.
Zelenskyy also said that his proposed new defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, should focus on technology and innovation once parliament has confirmed him in the role, as it is expected to do.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter, Ju Ae, have inspected the construction of a memorial for North Korean troops who died fighting for Russia in Ukraine, according to state-run KCNA.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a news conference that now is not a good time for Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Budapest, as there are no bilateral issues to discuss. Trump had announced in October that he would hold talks with Putin in Budapest, but the meeting never took place.
