Two people were killed and dozens ‍more wounded in a mass Russian drone attack ​across Ukraine overnight, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ‌on Sunday (January 18, 2026), as U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators ​hashed out a post-war plan in the latest round of peace talks.

Moscow has stepped up a winter campaign of strikes on the Ukrainian energy system while also waging a battlefield offensive as Kyiv faces U.S. pressure to ​secure peace in the nearly four-year-old war.

Mr. Zelenskyy ⁠said the Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi and Odesa regions were targeted in an attack that included more than ​200 drones. The ⁠military said 30 strikes had been recorded across 15 locations.

One person was killed in the second-largest city of Kharkiv, said mayor Ihor Terekhov, ‌who in recent days has reported significant ‌damage to local energy facilities as a result of Russian strikes.

It was ‍not immediately clear where the second person had died.

Major cities including the capital Kyiv have faced blackouts ‍and cuts to heating as Russia pounds a power grid already hobbled by a cold snap, leaving residents struggling amid temperatures reaching -16°C.

On Saturday (January 17, 2026), Mr. Zelenskyy said he had ordered imports of electricity and additional power equipment to be accelerated as much as possible.

Russia’s latest mass attack ⁠comes as U.S. and Ukrainian officials meet in Miami to discuss security ​guarantees and a post-war recovery package for Ukraine.

Washington has ⁠pushed Kyiv to agree to a peace framework that it will then present to Moscow, which has been cool on the diplomatic push and has demanded major ⁠Ukrainian concessions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Berlin on Wednesday (August 13, 2025) to join German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for talks with European and U.S. leaders ahead of the Trump-Putin summit later this week, the German government said.

Mr. Merz has convened a series of virtual meetings on Wednesday (August 13, 2025) in an attempt to have the voice of European and Ukraine’s leaders heard ahead of a summit that they have been sidelined from.

Mr. Zelenskyy is due to meet with European leaders first, to prepare for a virtual call with U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance about an hour later. A call between leaders involved in the “coalition of the willing” countries prepared to help police any future peace agreement will take place last.

Mr. Trump has said he wants to see whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is serious about ending the war, now in its fourth year.

Mr. Trump has disappointed allies in Europe by saying Ukraine will have to give up some Russian-held territory. He also said Russia must accept land swaps, although it was unclear what Mr. Putin might be expected to surrender.

The Europeans and Ukraine are wary that Mr. Putin, who has waged the biggest land war in Europe since 1945 and used Russia’s energy might to try to intimidate the EU, might secure favourable concessions and set the outlines of a peace deal without them.

European countries’ overarching fear is that Mr. Putin will set his sights on one of them next if he wins in Ukraine.

Mr. Zelenskyy said Tuesday (august 12, 2025) that Mr. Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from the remaining 30% of the Donetsk region that still it controls as part of a ceasefire deal, a proposal the leader categorically rejected.

Mr. Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would not give up any territory it controls, saying that would be unconstitutional and would serve only as a springboard for a future Russian invasion.

He said diplomatic discussions led by the U.S. focusing on ending the war have not addressed key Ukrainian demands, including security guarantees to prevent future Russian aggression and including Europe in negotiations.

Three weeks after Mr. Trump returned to office, his administration took the leverage of Ukraine’s NATO membership off the table — something that Mr. Putin has demanded — and signalled that the EU and Ukraine must handle security in Europe now while America focuses its attention elsewhere.

Mr. Trump has also routinely threatened and cajoled his NATO allies over defence spending, and has shown little mercy in trade talks by hiking tariffs on most EU imports to 5%, ostensibly for U.S. national security reasons.

Senior EU officials believe that Mr. Trump may be satisfied with simply securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, and is probably more interested in broader U.S. geostrategic interests and great power politics, aiming to ramp up business with Russia and rehabilitate Mr. Putin.