Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,427

On Wednesday, January 21, 2018, this is the current status:

Fighting

• Governor Ivan Fedorov announced on the Telegram messaging app that at least three people had been reported killed when Russian forces attacked Zaporizhzhia, a city in southeast Ukraine. Nearly 1,500 homes without electricity were also left by Russian strikes, including several private residences and cars, according to the governor.
• In earlier Russian drone and missile strikes in the Kyiv-arean region and the surrounding capital city, one person was killed.
• In his weekly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that more than one million Kyiv residents are without power and more than 4, 000 apartment buildings are without heating as a result of Russian air attacks.
• According to Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv, about 600,000 people have effected the Ukrainian capital since he urged residents to temporarily relocate following the Russian attacks on crucial energy facilities.
• In response to the recent Russian attacks, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba reported that 68 repair units have been stationed in Kyiv and that more than 1,400 emergency stations have provided the capital’s residents with warm and charged electronic devices during power outages.
• No one was hurt when a Russian attack targeted a crucial infrastructure facility in the Vinnytsia region of central Ukraine, whose capital is the Ukrainian Air Force’s headquarters, according to governor Natalia Zabolotna on Telegram.
• According to Governor Oleh Kiper, another Russian attack in the southern Odesa region of Ukraine, an energy infrastructure facility was damaged.
• A Russian drone also struck a multistory residential building in Chornomorsk, according to Kiper, adding that no details have been released about the injuries.
• Zelenskyy has demanded tougher sanctions against Moscow in order to stop its military arsenal, claiming some of the weapons used in the deadly drone and missile attacks on Kyiv and Zaporizhia from Tuesday.

energy-related infrastructure attacks

• Oleksii Sobolev, the head of Ukraine’s economy and World Economic Forum (WEF), claimed that since October, Russian attacks have affected about 8.5 gigawatts of Ukraine’s power generation capacity.
• According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), several substations critical to nuclear safety have been impacted by the attacks, as have power lines to a number of other nuclear power plants. The IAEA reported that after a Russian attack, the Chornobyl plant, which was the site of the worst civil nuclear accident in history, lost all off-site power. The plant was later reconnected, according to Kyiv.
• Andrii Sybiha, the foreign minister of Ukraine, claimed that Russia acted as a coercive force by using the threat of a nuclear disaster.
• Volker Turk, the UN’s human rights representative, claimed that civilians are “bearing the brunt” of the “cruel” Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

talks on a ceasefire

• On the WEF’s sidelines, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold special envoy meetings in Davos. They described their discussion of a potential peace deal with Ukraine as “very constructive” and “very positive.”
• According to Rustem Umerov, the national security and defense council secretary, Ukrainian peace negotiators met with national security advisers from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom in Davos. On Telegram, Umerov stated that there are going to be more meetings.
• Zelenskyy urged the United States to increase its influence on Moscow, telling reporters that he thought it was possible to do more to persuade Russia to reach a ceasefire agreement.
• Zelenskyy added that he was concerned that Trump’s attempt to overthrow Russia’s planned full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is about to end in four years.
• If Washington was ready to sign documents requiring Ukraine’s security guarantees and a post-war prosperity plan, Zelenskyy said he was.
• Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, stated that he does not think that the leaders of Europe are interested in bringing an end to the 2022 conflict.

Military

• As Moscow plans to increase its armed forces to 2.5 million by 2030, Zelenskyy has urged Ukraine and Europe to form a joint defense force of up to three million people.
• Mykhailo Fedorov, the country’s new defense minister, has promised a comprehensive, data-driven overhaul of the Ukrainian army, giving Ukrainian forces the advantage over Russia’s larger and better-equipped army.
• Fedorov added that Ukraine would test its own-made drone, the DJI Mavic drone, this month, despite the fact that both sides are frequently using it for aerial reconnaissance on the front lines. The manufacturer was not disclosed by him.
• The minister also made the announcement that Ukraine would set up a system that would enable its allies to use Kyiv’s valuable combat data, which had been gathered over the course of the nearly four-year conflict, to train their AI models.