Arya News - These are the key developments from day 1,441 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Here is where things stand on Wednesday, February 4:
Fighting
At least two teenagers were killed, and nine other people were injured following a Russian strike targeting the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, regional Governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on the Telegram messaging app. A 24-hour air raid alert was issued in the Zaporizhia region following the attack, which damaged four high-rise apartment buildings. Three people were killed in Ukrainian shelling of the Moscow-occupied southern Ukrainian town of Nova Kakhovka, in the Kherson region, Kremlin-installed authorities said. Russia launched an overnight attack described as the “most powerful” this year on Ukraine’s battered energy facilities, officials in Kyiv said, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without heating amid glacial winter temperatures and in advance of talks to end the four-year war. The latest Russian operation against Ukraine’s energy sector was the biggest since the start of 2026, Ukraine’s leading private energy company DTEK said on Telegram.
A power plant in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv was also badly damaged in the Russian attack, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. The attack on Kharkiv also injured at least five people, according to officials.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Russia deployed 450 attack drones and more than 60 missiles during the onslaught and accused Moscow of waiting for temperatures to drop before carrying out the strikes. A power plant in Kyiv’s eastern Darnytskyi district was seriously damaged in the Russian attack, Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Telegram, prompting officials to redirect resources to restoring heating to thousands of residents in the city.
At least 1,142 high-rise apartment blocks have been left without heating in the Ukrainian capital following the Russian attacks, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of launching “a deliberate attack against energy infrastructure”, which he said involved “a record number of ballistic missiles”. Zelenskyy also said that Russia had exploited the recent brief United States-backed truce on attacks against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure to stockpile weapons, which had been used in the latest attacks. The latest Russian strikes came a day before the next scheduled trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. Part of the gigantic Motherland monument in Kyiv, an iconic Soviet-era World War II memorial featuring a woman holding a sword and a shield, was damaged during the latest Russian attack, with Ukrainian Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna describing the damage inflicted as “both symbolic and cynical”.
Ukrainian national flag flies at half-mast near the Ukrainian Motherland Monument in Kyiv, Ukraine, in June 2025 [Thomas Peter/Reuters] In remarks following the Tuesday attacks, US President Donald Trump defended Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that he “kept his word” and had stuck to a short-term deal halting strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure until Sunday. Trump’s spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, had said earlier that the US president was not surprised by the attacks. NATO chief Mark Rutte, during a visit to Kyiv on Tuesday, said that Russia’s overnight attacks did not suggest Moscow was serious about making peace.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal, centre, shows NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte (front left) a power plant damaged by Russian air attacks in an undisclosed location in the capital, Kyiv, on Tuesday [Handout: Denys_Smyhal via AFP] Military aid
Sweden and Denmark will jointly procure and supply Ukraine with air defence systems worth 2.6 billion Swedish crowns ($290m) to help it defend against Russian attacks, Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson and his Danish counterpart, Troels Lund Poulsen, announced.
Politics and diplomacy
Ukraine has agreed with Western partners that any persistent Russian violations of a future ceasefire agreement would trigger a coordinated military response from Europe and the US, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the discussions.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was preparing to resume dialogue with Putin nearly four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but he stressed that Moscow was not showing any “real willingness” to negotiate a ceasefire.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to Trump and discussed the situation in Ukraine, including the overnight Russian attacks on the country, the United Kingdom government said.
Reaching a peace deal to end Russia’s war will require tough choices, NATO’s Rutte said in an address to Ukraine’s parliament during his Kyiv visit.
Economy
The Kremlin said it had heard no statements from India about halting purchases of sanctioned Russian oil after Trump announced that New Delhi had agreed to stop such purchases as part of a trade accord with Washington. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was carefully analysing Trump’s remarks on the trade deal with India. He added that despite the recent announcement, Moscow intends “to further develop our bilateral relations with Delhi”. Russia’s economy grew by 1 percent in 2025, Putin said, marking a much slower expansion compared with the 2024 figure, as the country stutters under the burden of its war on Ukraine and international sanctions. Putin acknowledged during a government meeting that growth is “lower” than the two previous years. Sport
Russia welcomed remarks by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who said he wanted Russia’s four-year ban from international football tournaments lifted because it had “achieved nothing”, Peskov said, describing Infantino’s comments as “very good”. Ukrainian Sports Minister Matvii Bidnyi called Infantino’s comments “irresponsible” and “infantile”, noting that Russia’s invasion had killed more than 650 Ukrainian athletes and coaches. Ukrainian athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych said the International Olympic Committee’s allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals, despite their links to occupied territories or expressions of support for Moscow’s war on Ukraine, undermined the principle of neutrality. He said he intends to use the Winter Olympic Games to draw attention to the war in Ukraine.