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Here is where things stand on Saturday, January 17 :

Fighting

• Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian city of Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region, killing two women and injuring six people, the head of the regional administration, Oleksandr Hanzha, wrote on Facebook.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that Russian forces seized five settlements in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region in the past week, including Zakotnoye and Zhovtnevoye in the past 24 hours, Russia’s TASS state news agency reports.
• Russia’s Defence Ministry acknowledged its forces attacked Ukrainian energy infrastructure and military facilities seven times over the past week, including one operation described as a major strike against its neighbour.
• A Ukrainian drone strike killed a man in Russian-occupied Kherson, Moscow’s appointed official in the region, Volodymyr Saldo, said, according to TASS.
• Ukrainian attacks left 68,000 households without electricity in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, TASS also reported, citing local Russian-appointed official, Yevhen Balitsky.
• Russia and Ukraine on Friday agreed to a localised ceasefire to allow repairs on the last remaining backup power line at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
• Work on the power line, which was damaged and disconnected as a result of military activity on January 2, should start “in the coming days”, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said in a statement.
• ‍Russian Security Council deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev said that 422,704 people had signed ⁠contracts with the Russian ​Armed Forces last year, state ‍news agencies reported. The number of sign-ups is lower than in 2024, ‍when about 450,000 ⁠people signed contracts to join the Russian army.

Ukraine energy crisis

• Children across Ukraine risk hypothermia in freezing temperatures as emergency stocks of power generators run low following Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, international aid agencies said on Friday.
• Almost the entire Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which is currently occupied by Russian forces, was left without electricity following an explosion, Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of Occupation, said on the Telegram messaging app.
• Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that 67 apartment buildings remain without heat in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, more than a week after a Russian attack left 6,000 apartments without heating, as temperatures continue to fall to -17 degrees Celsius (1.4 Fahrenheit) overnight.
• Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said that “severe weather conditions and frost” are continuing to complicate efforts to restore heat and electricity following Russian attacks, in an update shared on Facebook.
• Svyrydenko said that 17 electrical substations are now being powered by generators, as repair work continues and that 1,300 tents have been deployed in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where many households still remain without heating.
• Curfew restrictions have been relaxed in places where the energy emergency is ongoing, so that people can access shelters with heating where needed, the prime minister said.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, responding to Svyrydenko’s updates, said that tens of thousands of people are working to restore electricity and heat across the country.
• Zelenskyy also said that he spoke with British Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy and thanked him for the United Kingdom’s decision to provide an “energy support package” for Ukraine.
• The UK announced on Friday that it would provide 20 million British pounds ($26.7m) “of new support … for vital energy infrastructure repairs in Ukraine as Russia’s barbaric attacks on innocent civilians intensify”.

Peace talks

• A Ukrainian delegation is en route to the United States for talks with Washington on security guarantees and a post-war recovery package, Zelenskyy said on Friday, expressing hope the documents could be signed on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos next week.
• During the talks, ⁠Kyiv’s team also hopes to get clarity from the US on the Russian stance towards US-backed diplomatic efforts to end the nearly ​four-year war, Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kyiv alongside visiting Czech President Petr Pavel.
• The European Commission is considering ways to allow Ukraine’s quick accession to the European Union as part of a peace deal with Russia, but without giving Kyiv full membership rights, which would only be “earned” after transition periods, EU officials told the Reuters news agency.

Military aid

• President Zelenskyy said on Friday that allied supplies of air defence systems and missiles were insufficient and warned Russia was preparing new massive strikes. He said it was crucial that allied countries heed Ukraine’s requests for additional supplies.
• The ‌Czech Republic is set to provide Ukraine with combat ‍planes shortly ‍that can shoot down incoming drones, President Pavel told Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Friday. Pavel did not give specifics, but two years ago ⁠said Czech-made subsonic L-159 fighter jets could be transferred to ​Ukraine.

Regional security

• Five men have been charged in Poland with taking part in a Russian-run sabotage plot to send explosive parcels to the UK, the US, Canada and other destinations, and will face life sentences if convicted, prosecutors said ⁠on Friday.
• The four Ukrainian citizens and one Russian were charged “with acting … on behalf of the intelligence ​services of the Russian Federation”, the Polish National Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
• Lithuanian prosecutors charged six foreign nationals accused of planning an arson attack in 2024 on a company producing military equipment for Ukraine, in a plot believed to have been ordered by Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU.
• Those charged include nationals of Spain, Colombia, Cuba, Russia and Belarus, as well as a dual Spanish-Colombian citizen. The company manufactures mobile radio-frequency analysis stations for the Ukrainian armed forces.

Politics and diplomacy

• The Kremlin said Friday it considered calls by some European states to resume dialogue with Russia as “positive”, after French and Italian leaders called for re-engagement with Moscow on Ukraine.
• Dialogue between the EU and Russia has been virtually frozen since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive on Ukraine in 2022, with the bloc imposing huge sanctions and travel restrictions on Russia.
• A court in Kyiv released former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on bail on Friday pending a trial to determine whether she paid members of Ukraine’s parliament to sway their voting. The 65-year-old stalwart of Ukrainian politics, who has denied the charges and said the case is politically motivated, served as prime minister twice after 2005.

Bobi Wine‘s political party says the Ugandan opposition presidential candidate has been “forcibly” removed from his home and taken to an “unknown destination” in an army helicopter.

The National Unity Platform made the announcement in a social media post on Friday, a day after Ugandans cast their ballots in a tense election that took place amid an internet blackout.

There was no immediate comment from the Ugandan authorities.

Wine, the country’s top opposition figure, had challenged longtime President Yoweri Museveni in an election campaign that the United Nations said was marred by “widespread repression and intimidation”.

Reporting from the Ugandan capital, Kampala, early on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi said the internet shutdown has made getting information about Wine’s whereabouts difficult.

Soi said a National Unity Platform official reached by Al Jazeera could only confirm that “men who appeared to be military and other security agents jumped over the fence” of Wine’s home.

But the official could not say whether Wine was at home or had been taken away.

Soi added that Al Jazeera has been unable to reach the Ugandan military or the police to confirm what happened.

She noted that shortly after Thursday’s vote, Wine had alleged in a social media post that “massive ballot stuffing” was reported across the country.

He had also called on the Ugandan people to “rise to the occasion and reject the criminal regime”.

Wine’s remarks came as Museveni’s government has been accused of leading a years-long crackdown on opposition politicians and their supporters.

The 81-year-old president is seeking to extend his nearly four decades in power, saying ahead of this week’s election that he expected to secure 80 percent support.

Museveni was comfortably leading as votes were counted on Friday, with the Electoral Commission saying he had secured 73.7 percent support to Wine’s 22.7 percent, with close to 81 percent of votes counted.

Final results were due around 4pm local time in Kampala (13:00 GMT) on Saturday.

After a campaign marred by clashes at opposition rallies and the arrests of opposition supporters, voting passed peacefully on Thursday.

But at least seven people were killed when violence broke out overnight in the town of Butambala, about 55km (35 miles) southwest of the capital Kampala.

Local police spokesperson Lydia Tumushabe said machete-wielding opposition “goons” organised by local MP Muwanga Kivumbi attacked a police station and vote-tallying centre.

Kivumbi, a member of Wine’s party, said security forces attacked opposition supporters who had gathered at his home to wait for the election results to come in. The opposition lawmaker said 10 people were killed.