A Russian drone strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro hit a bus carrying mineworkers and killed at least a dozen people, Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday (February 1, 2026), hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the next round of peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations will take place on Wednesday (February 4, 2026) and Thursday (February 5, 2026).

The strike injured several more people and sparked a fire that was subsequently put out, according to the emergency services.

DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said it owned the bus and accused Russia of carrying out “a large-scale terrorist attack on DTEK mines in the Dnipropetrovsk region,” whose capital is Dnipro.

“The epicentre of one of the attacks was a company bus transporting miners from the enterprise after a shift in the Dnipropetrovsk region,” the company said in a Telegram post.

The strike came days after U.S. President Donald Trump said the Kremlin had agreed to temporarily halt the targeting of the Ukrainian capital and other cities, as the region suffers under freezing temperatures that have brought widespread hardship to Ukrainians.

Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal on Sunday (February 1, 2026) called the strike in Dnipro “a cynical and targeted attack on energy sector workers,” and said it occured near the Ternivska mine east of the city.

Hours earlier, Ukraine’s emergency services reported that Russian attack drones injured six people at a maternity hospital in Zaporizhzhia, southern Ukraine, on Sunday (February 1, 2026) morning.

Drones strike Ukrainian maternity hospital

Earlier on Sunday (February 1, 2026), Russian attack drones struck a maternity hospital in southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian emergency service reported.

In a Telegram post, it said the strike wounded three women in the hospital in Zaporizhzhia, and also sparked a fire in the gynecology reception area that was later extinguished. Regional administration head Ivan Fedorov later said the number of injured had risen to six.

The next round of peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations will take place on Wednesday (February 4, 2026) and Thursday (February 5, 2026), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Sunday (February 1, 2026).

Envoys from Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. had been expected to meet that day in Abu Dhabi to continue negotiations aimed at ending Moscow’s all-out invasion of its neighbour.

“We have just had a report from our negotiating team. The dates for the next trilateral meetings have been set: Feb. 4 and 5 in Abu Dhabi. Ukraine is ready for substantive talks, and we are interested in an outcome that will bring us closer to a real and dignified end to the war,” Mr. Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post.

There was no immediate comment from U.S. or Russian officials.

On Saturday (January 31, 2026) afternoon, top Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev said he had held a “constructive meeting with the U.S. peacemaking delegation” in Florida.

Officials have so far revealed few details of the talks in Abu Dhabi, which are part of a yearlong effort by the Trump administration to steer the sides toward a peace deal and end almost four years of all-out war.

While Ukrainian and Russian officials have agreed in principle with Washington’s calls for a compromise, Moscow and Kyiv differ deeply over what an agreement should look like.

A central issue is whether Russia should keep or withdraw from areas of Ukraine its forces have occupied, especially Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland called the Donbas, and whether it should get land there that it hasn’t yet captured.

Drones strike a Ukrainian maternity hospital

Elsewhere, Russian attack drones struck a maternity hospital in southern Ukraine on Sunday (February 1, 2026) morning, the Ukrainian emergency service reported. In a Telegram post, it said the strike wounded three women in the hospital in the city of Zaporizhzhia, and also sparked a fire in the gynaecology reception area that was later extinguished.

Days earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump said Mr. Putin had agreed to temporarily halt the targeting of the Ukrainian capital and other cities, as the region suffers under freezing temperatures that have brought widespread hardship to Ukrainians.

The Kremlin confirmed on Friday (January 30, 2026) it agreed to hold off striking Kyiv until Sunday (February 1, 2026), but refused to reveal any details, making it difficult for an independent assessment of whether the conciliatory step had indeed taken place.

In the past week, Russia has struck energy assets in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa and in Kharkiv in the northeast. It also hit the Kyiv region on Wednesday, killing two people and injuring four.

Overnight into Sunday (February 1, 2026), Russia launched 90 attack drones, with 14 striking nine locations, Ukraine’s air force said in a Telegram post. A woman and a man were killed in an overnight drone strike in Dnipro, a city in eastern Ukraine, according to local administration head Oleksandr Hanzha.

Russian shelling also hit central Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine, soon after 7 a.m. local time, seriously wounding a 59-year-old woman, according to a Facebook post by the municipal military administration. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday (January 25, 2026) that a U.S. security guarantees document for Ukraine is “100% ready” after two days of talks involving representatives from Ukraine, the U.S., and Russia.

Speaking to journalists in Vilnius during a visit to Lithuania, Mr. Zelenskyy said Ukraine is waiting for its partners to set a signing date, after which the document would go to the U.S. Congress and Ukrainian parliament for ratification.

Mr. Zelenskyy also emphasized Ukraine’s push for European Union membership by 2027, calling it an “economic security guarantee.”

The Ukrainian leader described the talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, as likely the first trilateral format in “quite a long while” that included not only diplomats but military representatives from all three sides. The talks, which began on Friday (January 23) and continued on Saturday (January 24), were the latest aiming to end Russia’s nearly four-year full-scale invasion.

Mr. Zelenskyy acknowledged fundamental differences between Ukrainian and Russian positions, reaffirming territorial issues as a major sticking point.

“Our position regarding our territory — Ukraine’s territorial integrity — must be respected,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed a Ukraine settlement with U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during marathon talks late on Thursday (January 22). The Kremlin insisted that to reach a peace deal, Kyiv must withdraw its troops from the areas in the east that Russia illegally annexed but has not fully captured.

Mr. Zelenskyy said the U.S. is trying to find a compromise, but that “all sides must be ready for compromise.” Negotiators will return to the UAE on Feb. 1 for the next round of talks, according to a U.S. official. The recent talks covered a broad range of military and economic matters and included the possibility of a ceasefire before a deal, the official said. There was not yet an agreement on a final framework for oversight and operation of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is occupied by Russia and is the largest in Europe.

Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Ukraine overnight into Saturday, after US and Ukrainian officials said they’ll meet on Saturday (December 6, 2025) for a third day of talks aimed at ending the nearly 4-year-old war.

Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in the wide-reaching attack, which triggered air raid alerts across the country and came as Ukraine marked Armed Forces Day, the country’s air force said Saturday morning.

Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralised 585 drones and 30 missiles, the air force said, adding that 29 locations were struck.

At least eight people were wounded in the attacks, Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said.

Among these, at least three people were wounded in the Kyiv region, according to local officials. Drone sightings were reported as far west as Ukraine’s Lviv region.

Russia carried out a “massive missile-drone attack” on power stations and other energy infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions, Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo, wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that energy facilities were the main targets of the attacks, also noting that a drone strike had “burned down” the train station in the city of Fastiv, located in the Kyiv region.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defences had shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight into Saturday.

Russian Telegram news channel Astra said Ukraine struck Russia’s Ryazan Oil Refinery, sharing footage appearing to show a fire breaking out and plumes of smoke rising above the refinery. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video.

Ukraine did not immediately comment on the alleged attack. Ryazan regional Gov. Pavel Malkov said a residential building had been damaged in a drone attack and that drone debris had fallen on the grounds of an “industrial facility,” but did not mention the refinery.

Months of Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries have aimed to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue the war. Meanwhile, Kyiv and its western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponising” the cold.

The latest round of attacks came as U.S. President Donald Trump’s advisers and Ukrainian officials said they’ll meet for a third day of talks on Saturday, after making progress on finding agreement on a security framework for postwar Ukraine.

Following Friday’s talks, the two sides also offered the sober assessment that any “real progress toward any agreement” ultimately will depend “on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace.” The statement from U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov came after they met for a second day in Florida on Friday. They offered only broad brushstrokes about the progress they say has been made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a US-mediated proposal to end nearly four years of war.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday (September 7, 2025) that individual European leaders would visit the United States on Monday (September 8, 2025) or Tuesday (September 9, 2025) to discuss how to resolve the Russian-Ukraine war.

Speaking to reporters after returning from the U.S. Open in New York City, Mr. Trump also said he would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin soon.

“Certain European leaders are coming over to our country on Monday (September 8, 2025) or Tuesday (September 9, 2025) individually,” Mr. Trump said. It was not clear to whom Mr. Trump was referring, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for further details.

Mr. Trump added that he was “not happy” about the status of the Russia-Ukraine war, after reporters asked about a massive Russian air assault overnight on Sunday (September 7, 2025) that Ukrainian officials said had set the main government building in Kyiv on fire. But he again expressed confidence that the war would soon be settled. “The Russia-Ukraine situation, we’re going to get it done,” Mr. Trump said.