Name: Ukraine condemns 'brutal' Russian strikes ahead of second day of peace talks | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-01-24T16:57:44.000Z
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Adverbs of manner

The Ukrainian foreign minister has strongly criticized Russian airstrikes on the country overnight, which killed at least one person and injured 15 others.

Officials said the country was under air raid alert and warned of drones and ballistic missiles.

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In the capital, Kyiv, the city's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said that nearly 6,000 buildings were left without heating.

Ukraine's foreign minister said the missiles had hit not only the Ukrainian people, but

While talks between Russia, the United States and Ukraine are resuming in Abu Dhabi.

They're the first three way talk since Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago.

Now one of the key issues is the question of territory.

Before the full scale invasion began in 2022, Russia had annexed just Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine.

But since then, Russia has taken much more of the country.

The future of Ukraine's Donbas region remains the key sticking point in these talks.

Our Eastern Europe correspondent, Sarah Rainsford reports from Kyiv.

The delegates are senior, but the starting positions haven't changed.

And they don't bode well for any breakthrough to peace because Russia is still demanding Kyiv surrender the rest of the eastern Donbas land Ukraine's troops have been defending for years.

It is still too early to draw conclusions.

We will see how the conversation goes tomorrow and what the results will be.

But it needs not only Ukraine to want to end this war, it needs Russia to show a similar desire.

Instead, Russia is doing destroying power plants across Ukraine that should supply homes, hospitals and schools round the clock repairs can't keep up.

There's talk of a humanitarian catastrophe here.

The attacks on the power supply in Ukraine have been so extensive that when night falls now, there are really big areas of Kyiv just like this one, where the lights don't come on anymore.

There's no heat either in people's homes.

And that's why so few Ukrainians really believe Vladimir Putin can want peace when he's doing things like this.

So families now huddle in heated tents in the yards of their flats.

Lydia hasn't had electricity for five days.

But I asked her about doing a deal with Vladimir Putin and she tells me Ukrainians curse in their hearts.

not peace at any cost, even if they're being frozen in their own homes as punishment.

Our correspondent Abdul Jalil Abdul Razolov is in Kyiv for more on this.

The expectations here in Ukraine about this meeting in Abu Dhabi is quite low because few people believe that it would produce serious results because the main issue, the issue of territory, is still remaining.

And it appears to be that the positions of both Russia and Ukraine on this issue is irreconcilable.

Russia wants the part of eastern Ukraine, the area called Donbass, to be given to it.

And Ukraine says that they've been defending that land for years and they cannot give it up without any fight.

And this is the red line that they will not cross.

And even though President Zelensky says that this is the last mile in the negotiations, and

earlier Donald Trump mentioned that 95% of the deal has been agreed, one diplomat told me that unless everything is agreed, nothing is agreed.

So unless the issue of territory is resolved, there is no deal, and

And that's why a lot of people here in Ukraine think that Russia needs to show that they want to end the war.

And this meeting is exactly about that for them.

However, when Russia launches aerial attacks almost every day for them, it sends a signal that Russia has no intentions of doing that.

And overnight, they launched more than 20 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and

about 375 drones targeting different areas across Ukraine.

And at least one person was killed in Kiev.

And now many areas in Kiev are now have no running water, they have nose heating.

And there is an emergency power crisis introduced across the country because the energy grid is already operating at its limits, because all these attacks, they target the energy facilities in Kiev and other parts of Ukraine.

And as you say, we've been here before when it comes to talks, trying to find a resolution.

What concessions do you think Ukraine and Russia may make this time?

Well, it is hard to say because as I said, the position of Kiev and Moscow on this issue and the issue of territory has proven to be irreconcilable.

Moscow insists that there is no deal unless that area is given to them, that they want that part of Donetsk and Lugansk regions to be given to Russia.

There is no agreement for them, and they repeatedly stated that.

And President Zelensky and the Ukrainian officials insist that any territorial swaps, any agreements on the territory can be done only if there is a referendum, and

the people of Ukraine agree on those terms.

But in order to have a referendum, in order to have any elections here, there must be a ceasefire.

And this is something Russia is not willing to do as well.

They're saying that there will be ceasefire only once there is a peace deal.

And Ukraine says in order to have a peace deal, there must be a referendum.

So we go back to the square one again, that both position, both sides remain at their positions, and

it appears that at this stage at least, there's unlikely to be any serious progress.