About 4,000 buildings in Kyiv lacked heat Wednesday and nearly 60% of the Ukrainian capital was without power, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, after days of Russian bombardment of Ukraine’s power grid and as U.S. President Donald Trump prepared to carry talks with the Ukrainian leader.
Trump’s delegates also were expected in Moscow later this week for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
With temperatures falling as little as minus 20 C (minus 4 F) in Kyiv, Ukraine is seeing one among the coldest winters in years, deepening the hardship of Ukrainians almost 4 years after Russia launched a full-scale invasion.
A yearlong push by the Trump administration to stop the fighting hasn’t yielded any breakthrough, despite the American president issuing a series of deadlines, though efforts were set to proceed.
Trump said on the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that he would meet Thursday with Zelenskyy.
“I need to stop it,” Trump said of the fighting. “It’s a horrible war.”
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he plans to debate peace proposals with Putin in addition to hold talks with a Ukrainian delegation.
“We want a peace,” Witkoff said at Davos.
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Putin confirmed late on Wednesday that Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected in Moscow on Thursday for talks. The Russian leader said that Moscow and Washington, amongst other things, are discussing the potential for using Russian assets frozen within the U.S. for rebuilding “territories damaged by the hostilities” after a peace agreement is reached.
But with a dispute over Greenland’s future largely eclipsing other transatlantic issues at Davos, discussions about Ukraine’s defense looked prone to be sidelined.
Zelenskyy said last week his envoys would attempt to finalize with U.S. officials documents for a proposed peace settlement that relate to postwar security guarantees and economic recovery.
He added that the U.S. and Ukraine could sign the documents in Davos this week, but on Tuesday he said he wouldn’t be traveling to Switzerland and would deal with restoring power in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers is allocating 2.56 billion hryvnias (almost $60 million) from a reserve fund to buy generators, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said Wednesday.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Wednesday urged the 32-nation alliance’s military chiefs to press their national governments to produce desperately needed air defense systems to Ukraine, helping it fend off Russia’s aerial attacks.
“Please use your influence to assist your political masters to do much more,” Rutte said in a video message to top brass as they met at NATO’s Brussels headquarters.
“Look deep into your stockpiles to see what more you possibly can give to Ukraine, particularly air defense interceptors. The time really is now,” he said.
Russia launched 97 drones and a ballistic missile at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said.
Within the central Dnipropetrovsk region, attacks killed a 77-year-old man and a 72-year-old woman, based on Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 75 Ukrainian drones over several regions.
The international airports of Krasnodar, Sochi, Gelendzhik and Saratov briefly suspended flights overnight due to the drones.
In Adygea, greater than 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the Ukrainian border, a Ukrainian drone caused a hearth at an apartment constructing that injured 11 people, including two children, based on Gov. Murat Kumpilov.
© 2026 The Canadian Press