Here are the key developments in the Russia-Ukraine war latest News on the 1,068th day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. European leaders are holding their breath to see what President Trump will do for Ukraine as President Putin has suggested he would be open to talks with US president.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said allies should work towards determining a format for potential peace talks with Russia, reiterating that only talks involving Kyiv could bring about a sustainable peace.
Russia-Ukraine war latest News
In the meantime, politically NATO allies are continuing to build diplomatic pressure on Russia, globally, which does not seem to have the impact they had hoped for.
Poland’s president has said that gas flows from Russia to Western Europe should never be restored, even if Russia and Ukraine reach a peace deal.
For all Kyiv’s misgivings about negotiating while Russian forces continue their inexorable advance in the east, it’s clear that President Zelensky is anxious to position himself as the sort of man Trump can do business with.
Exit polls showed Belarusian President Lukashenko, whose administration is a close ally of Russia, was on track to extend his time in power with 87.6 percent of the votes in the country’s presidential election.
Here is the situation on Monday, January 27 2025: day 1,068 of Russia-Ukraine war latest News
On the ground – Fighting
It is 1068 days of war since this conflict started and to mark the day Russia’s Ministry of Defence reported Moscow’s Defence Ministry as saying its troops captured the settlements of Zelene and Velyka Novosilka in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian soldiers have deserted
Reports are still incoming regarding desertion in the Ukrainian army. Several dozen Ukrainian soldiers have deserted while training in France, a French army official told the AFP news agency. The troops are now subject to a disciplinary regime “imposed by the Ukrainian command”.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, for a third time in less than a year, replaced the commander of the Khortytsia operational strategic group responsible for defending Pokrovsk, which now risks falling into Russia’s hands. He named Major-General Mykhailo Drapatyi the new commander of ground forces.
A barrage of more than 100 Russian drones sparked a fire at an industrial facility in western Ukraine and damaged residential buildings in other regions, Ukrainian officials said. The strikes resulted in two fires at an industrial facility in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region.
Kyiv’s regional military administrator Vadym Filashkin said Russian artillery fire on eastern Ukraine killed at least one woman in the city of Pokrovsk and injured four people in the neighbouring Kostiantynivka town. According to Ukrainian military analyst Andriy Ryzhchenko, Pokrovsk is an economic target for Russia.
The Ukrainian army said Moscow’s units launched 38 attacks with artillery support at various points against the Ukrainian lines of defence.
Ukraine said its armed forces, together with the country’s defence intelligence, repeatedly struck Russia’s Ryazan Oil Refining Company for a second time just two days after its initial overnight attack on the facility. Kyiv said the oil refinery is one of the four largest in the Russian Federation.
Political deals after day 1,068 days of war
French President Emmanuel Macron has called on Ukraine to have “realistic” expectations regarding territory as its fight against the Russian invasion heads towards a fourth year, saying he saw no “quick and easy solution” to the conflict.
Zelensky has urged the world to unite against evil, in comments marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death.
Zelensky, in a news conference with Moldovan President Maia Sandu, said Kyiv was willing to supply coal to Transnistria at low prices or even for free if the separatist enclave would supply Ukraine with electricity in return. He also offered to send a team of specialists to help expand the enclave’s power plant electricity output.
Moldovan authorities have summoned a Russian diplomat amid concern that the situation in Transnistria is worsening. The breakaway region risks a complete electricity blackout after Russia cut gas supplies.
Hungary was expected to lift its block on the EU prolonging its sanctions on Russia, after weeks of stalling from Prime Minister Viktor Orban, diplomats said.
US President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Ukraine envoy, retired Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, has postponed a fact-finding trip to Kyiv.
The patriarch of Russia’s Orthodox Church, celebrating Christmas alongside Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, said that the Western world despises Russia and its “alternative path of civilised development”.