Archive February 1, 2026

Here is where things stand on Sunday, February 1:

Fighting

• Russian attacks on Ukraine killed one person and wounded seven others in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the country’s emergency service. High-rise buildings, homes, shops and cafes were also damaged.
• Another person was wounded by shelling in the Zaporizhia region, the service said, with a blast also destroying three residential buildings and 12 homes.
• In the Donetsk region, at least two people were killed, and five more were wounded, in 13 separate Russian attacks across multiple districts, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin.
• A total of 172 people, including 35 children, were evacuated from the front line, Filashkin said.
• Russian strikes hit state railway infrastructure in the Zaporizhia and Dnipro regions, a tactic Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said was intended to “cut our cities off from one another”.
• In total, 303 combat clashes took place throughout Saturday, Ukraine’s General Staff wrote on Telegram, tallying 38 air strikes, 119 guided bombs, 2,510 kamikaze drones and 2,437 attacks on settlements and troops.
• The Russian Ministry of Defence said on Saturday that its troops captured ⁠the villages ​of Petrivka, ‍in Ukraine’s southeastern ‍Zaporizhzhia region, and ⁠Toretske, in the eastern ​Donetsk ‌region. Al Jazeera could not verify the claim.
• Russia’s TASS state news agency also claimed that Russian forces had taken control of at least 24 Ukrainian settlements since the start of the year, the majority of which were in the Zaporizhia region.
• Two people were wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on a car in Russia’s Belgorod region, TASS reported.

Energy

• Parts of Ukraine, including at least 3,500 buildings in Kyiv, faced a blackout throughout Saturday after a failure on interconnection lines with Moldova, officials reported.
• The Kyiv metro closed down, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people, along with the capital’s water and electricity supplies, Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
• Although the capital’s water supplies had returned by around 10:30pm local time (20:30 GMT), energy workers were continuing to restore heat to roughly 2,600 houses, Klitschko said.
• Ukraine is investigating the stoppage, but “as of now, there is no confirmation of external interference or a cyberattack”, the president said. “Most indications point to weather: ice buildup on the lines and automatic shutdowns.”
• At the request of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, SpaceX has temporarily restricted operations of its Starlink systems in Ukraine to prevent Russian drone attacks, Serhii Beskrestnov, technology adviser to the defence minister, announced on Facebook.
• “I apologise once again to those who have been temporarily affected by the measures taken, but for the security of the country, these are now very important and necessary actions,” Beskrestnov wrote.

Politics and diplomacy

• United States special envoy Steve Witkoff said that he had “productive and constructive meetings” with Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Florida.
• “We are encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine,” Witkoff said, adding that he was “grateful” for US President Donald Trump’s “critical leadership in seeking a durable and lasting peace”.
• US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and White House senior adviser Josh Gruenbaum also attended the talks.
• In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is “in regular contact with the US side” and is “waiting for them to provide specifics on further meetings”, expected to take place next week.
• “Ukraine is ready to work in all effective formats,” he added. “What matters is the results, and that meetings happen.”
• Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha spoke with Deputy Prime Minister of Liechtenstein Sabine Monauni, discussing “developments in the peace negotiations and urgent needs of Ukraine’s energy system”, Sybiha wrote on X.
• “We also paid special attention to further sanctions pressure on Russia and joint international efforts to hold it to account,” Sybiha said.

‍United States President Donald Trump has ordered the ‍Department of Homeland ⁠Security (DHS) to avoid getting involved ​in protests in Democrat-run cities unless they ask for federal help.

The announcement on Saturday followed weeks of protests sparked by a large deployment of Border Patrol and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents ​to the city of Minneapolis, and the killing of two US citizens by federal agents there.

Trump, a Republican, said on his Truth Social platform that he has instructed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem that “under no circumstances are we going to participate” in Democrat-run cities with regard to protests “unless, and until, they ask us for help”.

But ICE and Border Patrol will act aggressively to protect federal buildings, he wrote.

“There will be no spitting in the faces of our Officers, there will be no punching or kicking the headlights of our cars, and there will be no rock or brick throwing at our vehicles, or at our Patriot Warriors. If there is, those people will suffer an equal, or more, consequence,” he said.

“We will not allow our Courthouses, Federal Buildings, or anything else under our protection, to be damaged in any way, shape, or form,” he added.

There was no immediate comment from the DHS or the office of Minnesota Mayor Jacob Frey.

Trump launched the immigration crackdowns last year, targeting Democrat-led states and cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, saying the militarised operations were necessary to remove criminals from the US.

The crackdown in Minneapolis, the biggest city in the state of Minnesota, is the largest federal immigration enforcement operation ever carried out, according to federal officials, with some 3,000 agents deployed. The operation began in November, with officials tying it in part to allegations of fraud involving residents of Somali origin.

The surge has pitted city and state officials against the federal government, prompted daily clashes between activists and immigration officers, and led to the killings of Alex Pretti on January 14 and Renee Good on January 7 by federal agents, who said they were reacting to threats. Bystander videos and witness accounts contradict those claims, however.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Minneapolis and other US cities on Friday to demand the withdrawal of federal immigration agents from Minnesota.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and others also challenged the immigration enforcement surge in the state, arguing that DHS is violating constitutional protections.

But a federal judge has said she will not halt enforcement operations as the lawsuit proceeds. Department of Justice lawyers have called the lawsuit “legally frivolous”.

Al Jazeera’s Manuel Rapalo, reporting from Minnesota, said Trump’s latest announcement signals a softer tone from the White House on the immigration crackdown.

He noted that it followed the Trump administration’s decision to replace the senior Border Patrol commander, Greg Bovino, who had been leading the crackdown in Minneapolis, with border tsar Tom Homan.

The top official said on Thursday that federal agents would focus on targeted operations in Minneapolis, shifting away from broad street sweeps that have drawn outrage, and that he would reduce the number of agents deployed to the city if he received “cooperation” from state and local leaders.

“All of this signals more cooperation between local authorities and federal officials, which has created a little bit of a sense of optimism here in the city that tensions may be beginning to calm down,” said Rapalo.