Category World News

Kyiv has announced that it is sending a delegation to Washington for talks on strengthening its defence and energy resilience as Russian forces continue targeting Ukraine’s power infrastructure ahead of the cold winter months.

The departure of a senior delegation, led by Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, was announced on Monday, just as Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said it had imposed power outages across the country in a bid to reduce pressure on the grid in the wake of damaging Russian attacks.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that he would meet with his US counterpart, President Donald Trump, in Washington on Friday to discuss Ukraine’s air defence and long-range strike capabilities.

Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said that he had shared with Trump a “vision” of how many US Tomahawk missiles Ukraine needs for its war effort against Russia and that the two leaders would further discuss the matter on Friday.

The comments came after recent remarks by Trump that he might consider giving Ukraine long-range precision strike Tomahawk missiles if Russia did not end the war soon, and as Zelenskyy has urged Trump to turn his attention to ending his country’s war with Russia, after having brokered a deal in Gaza.

Attacks on energy grid

The renewed talk of escalating pressure on Moscow comes in the wake of intensified Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities, prompting Ukraine’s Energy Ministry to announce that it was introducing restrictions across seven regions in an effort to reduce pressure on the damaged grid and preserve supply.

For the past three years, Russia has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in a bid to demoralise the population, leaving millions without power amid brutally cold conditions.

“Due to the complicated situation in Ukraine’s Unified Energy System caused by previous Russian strikes, emergency power outages were implemented” across seven regions, the energy ministry said in a post on Telegram.

It listed territories mainly in the centre and east of the country, including the Donetsk region, where officials have encouraged civilians to leave due to the targeted attacks on power facilities.

“The emergency power cuts will be cancelled once the situation in the power grid has stabilised,” the statement said.

The escalating attacks left more than a million households and businesses temporarily without power in nine regions on Friday, while overnight attacks on Saturday night left two employees of Ukraine’s largest private energy company wounded.

“Russia has … made its attacks on our energy more vicious – to compensate for their failure on the ground,” Zelenskyy said on Sunday.

Delegation to Washington

In response to the attacks, Zelenskyy’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak said on Monday that a delegation, including Svyrydenko and National Security and Defence Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, had left for talks in Washington.

“We’re heading for high-level talks to strengthen Ukraine’s defence, secure our energy resilience, and intensify sanctions pressure on the aggressor,” he posted on X.

“The ultimate goal remains unchanged – a just and lasting peace.”

The delegation came after Zelenskyy said on Sunday that he had spoken to Trump for the second time in two days, in discussions that covered “defence of life in our country” and  “strengthening our capabilities – in air defence, resilience, and long-range capabilities”.

“We also discussed many details related to the energy sector. President Trump is well informed about everything that is happening,” he said, adding that their respective teams were preparing for the talks.

Tomahawks on the table

Following the conversation, Trump told reporters on board his flight to Israel that he might consider giving Ukraine long-range precision strike Tomahawk missiles if Russia did not end the war soon.

“They’d like to have Tomahawks. That’s a step up,” Trump said, referring to the Ukrainians.

“The Tomahawk is an incredible weapon, very offensive weapon. And honestly, Russia does not need that,” Trump added.

On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded to the suggestion that Washington could provide the missiles to Kyiv by saying such a move could have serious consequences.

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev went even further, warning Trump on Monday that supplying Tomahawks to Ukraine could “end badly” for him.

During a meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, US President Donald Trump praised Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for playing a “very important role” in Gaza ceasefire talks with Hamas. Trump said the US stands “with him all the way” and confirmed that “phase two” of negotiations has begun.

“Cigars and champagne, who cares about that?” US President Donald Trump urged Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial in three corruption cases. In one case, Netanyahu’s accused of accepting gifts including cigars, jewellery and champagne from businessmen.

Thousands of Palestinians gathered in Ramallah on Monday to await the release of some 2,000 political prisoners and forcibly disappeared people who were taken by Israel from the West Bank, which it occupies, and Gaza, which it has waged war on for two years.

Palestinians welcomed back 96 political prisoners, as well as the vast majority of people Israel detained from Gaza during the war.

This comes as part of an exchange of 20 living and 28 deceased Israeli captives held in Gaza for the nearly 2,000 Palestinian captives.

Of the more than 200 Israeli captives taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023, a total of 114 were released during two captive swaps with Hamas in November 2023 and January 2025, respectively.

They were handed over in exchange for the freedom of a total of 1,240 Palestinians.

Despite the brief euphoria, Israel violated ceasefires that coincided with those captive releases, arresting Palestinians across Gaza and the occupied territory wholesale, usually without charge.

Here’s all you need to know about the Palestinians expected to be released as part of the ceasefire deal, as well as those who were not included in the deal and who will stay in captivity.

Who is being released?

A total of 250 Palestinian political prisoners who are either serving life sentences or long sentences are being released from Israeli jails.

According to data obtained by Al Jazeera, all but nine of these prisoners are from the West Bank, and 157 of them are members of Fatah, the party that controls the Palestinian Authority governing parts of the West Bank.

Sixty-five are from Hamas, and the rest are from smaller political factions.

In addition, Israel will free 1,718 Palestinians who were, according to the United Nations, forcefully disappeared by Israel over the last two years of its genocidal war on Gaza.

Five of them are children under the age of 18, and two are women, according to the prisoner list obtained by Al Jazeera.

Most of the disappeared from Gaza were held in military camps, where dehumanisation and torture were rampant, according to international and Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups.

Palestinians were reportedly subjected to severe beatings, medical neglect, starvation and even rape.

According to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, 77 prisoners have died in Israeli custody since October 7.

How many Palestinians is Israel not releasing?

Thousands.

According to Addameer, a Palestinian human rights organisation tracking political prisoners, the number of people taken captive by Israel increased from 5,200 to 11,100 since October 7, 2023.

The vast majority of these prisoners are from the occupied West Bank – 400 of them children.

Murad Jadallah, a human rights researcher with Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, told Al Jazeera: “Israel tries to destroy Palestinian society in different ways, and arresting children is one of the tools it uses to do so.”

Once a Palestinian captive is released, that’s it, right?

No.

Israel tends to re-arrest Palestinians shortly after they are freed in captive swaps, said Tahani Mustafa, an expert on Israel-Palestine with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

In November 2023, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners in a swap for Israeli captives held by Hamas in Gaza as part of a temporary ceasefire deal.

Weeks later, Israel re-arrested 30 of those people.

“Israel has a long history of using incarceration and arrests as a political weapon, and sometimes that could be for bargaining purposes for a later date,” Mustafa told Al Jazeera.

“There’s also no guarantee [with this current deal] that those being released won’t be rearrested again,” she added.

Will all of these Palestinian detainees be able to go home today?

Most of them have already been released.

While 96 of the 250 high-level political prisoners are being released to the West Bank and Gaza, about 154 of them are being deported from Palestine to third countries that have not been announced yet.

According to WAFA, the 154 have been taken to Egypt, but that will not be the final destination for all of them.

Israel may decide not to release everyone until it also retrieves the bodies of 28 deceased Israeli captives, which are expected over the next 72 hours.

Hamas said that it may struggle to locate all the deceased captives in that timeframe, but that the group is actively searching for them.

Thousands of people gathered in Khan Younis, Gaza, to welcome Palestinians – mostly civilians, including medics – who were disappeared by Israel.

There must be thousands of happy families today?

Well, yes, but they’ve been threatened not to show it.

Families are ordered by Israel not to celebrate the release of their loved ones or raise Palestinian flags in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.

And the families of prisoners who are being exiled today will likely be prevented from travelling abroad to meet them in their country of exile.

Jadallah, from Al-Haq, added that most Palestinians merely hope the captive swap represents a permanent end to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

He added that Palestinians are unhappy that prominent Palestinian leaders such as Marwan Barghouti and Ahmed Saadat will not be released.

The former is arguably the most famous Palestinian political prisoner, traditionally aligned with Fatah, and the latter leads the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Renowned Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safia, who was abducted from Kamel Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza in December 2024, was not among the list of prisoners expected to be released.

Abu Safia has been subjected to severe torture and solitary confinement, according to human rights monitors.