More than 600 buildings in Kyiv remain without heat as another round of cold is approaching. Ukraine takes out a Russian aircraft, strikes a costly radar system, drone command posts and an ammunition depot. Russia is not serious about peace talks, the EU foreign policy head says.
More than 600 buildings in Kyiv remain without heat as another round of cold approaching
As of Thursday morning, 613 apartment buildings in Kyiv were still without heating, Kyiv State City Administration said in a post to Telegram. Heating was restored to 124 buildings on Wednesday. The buildings affected in the latest Russian attack had heating disrupted and subsequently restored after earlier airstrikes on January 9 and January 20.
“Municipal services and energy teams work around the clock. They restore heat supply to homes that were affected by major Russian attacks on critical infrastructure of the capital,” the Kyiv State City Administration added.
In the first days of February, temperatures are expected to drop to between minus -20 and -27 degrees Celsius across Ukraine with temperatures in some parts of the country projected to reach minus -30 degrees Celsius, the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center said Thursday.
Extremely cold weather is to hit almost all of the country, except the western Zakarpattya region and the southern areas. Severe frost (up to -30 degrees Celsius) could be observed in the regions of Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava and Kharkiv. The state weather authority has declared the highest, red alert level.
The temperatures will start to rise on February 4-5, with warm air masses moving in from the west and south-west.
Weather conditions may disrupt the operation of energy companies, utilities and transportation, the meteorologists warned.
On Thursday, the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center warned that Kyiv and the surrounding region will be covered with fog with visibility being limited to 200-500 meters. Residents were advised to be cautious of slick roads.
Meteorologist Natalka Didenko on Wednesday warned that after a brief warm-up an anticyclone will bring cold and very cold weather into most of Ukraine.
Ukraine takes out Russian aircraft, strikes costly radar system, drone command posts, ammunition depot
The Ukrainian military took out a Russian aircraft, according to the daily update on Russia’s losses released by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Thursday. Russia has lost 435 aircraft since the invasion, it said.
Ukraine’s defense forces struck a Russian 1L119 Nebo-SVU radar near temporarily occupied Lymarivka in Luhansk region, Ukraine’s General Staff said Thursday in a separate statement. The radar’s value is estimated at around USD 100 million, it added.
Ukrainian strikes also hit Russian drone command posts near occupied villages of Solodke, Rivnopillya and Novohryhorivka in Zaporizhzhia region, and near Pidstepne in Kherson region, the message reads.
The Ukrainian military struck an ammunition depot near temporarily occupied Vasylivka in Zaporizhzhia region. “The targets were hit. Enemy losses are being clarified,” the General Staff said.
Russia not serious about peace talks, EU foreign policy head says
European Union foreign policy head Kaja Kallas said Russia is not serious about peace talks as the delegation it sent to Abu Dhabi consisted of military and intelligence officials.
“We see the talks also in Abu Dhabi, but on the Russian side, there are only military personnel present who do not have a mandate to agree on anything, which means that they are definitely not serious about peace,” Kallas said ahead of a meeting of the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council on Thursday.
“It is the opposite,” she said. “They are bombing Ukrainians, trying to bomb and freeze them to surrender, and that is why we are also discussing the energy support that we can give them, because it is a very hard winter and Ukrainians are really suffering. There is a humanitarian catastrophe coming there.”
Russia is “pretending to have” negotiations, she added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Monday that a next round of trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. could begin in Abu Dhabi on February 1. Russia continues to insist that Ukraine must surrender entire Donetsk region.