These are the main developments since day 1,441 of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Here’s what it looked like on Wednesday, February 4:

struggle

• A Russian attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye left at least two teenagers dead and nine others injured, Ivan Fedorov, governor of the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye Oblast, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
• A 24-hour air raid alert was issued in the Zaporozhye region following the attack, which damaged four high-rise apartment buildings.
• Kremlin authorities said Ukraine shelled the southern Ukrainian town of Novokakhovka in the Moscow-occupied Kherson region, killing three people.
• Russia launched an attack overnight, dubbed ” This year’s “strongest” Kiev officials say damaged energy facilities in Ukraine have left hundreds of thousands of people without heat ahead of frigid winter temperatures and negotiations to end four years of war.

• DTEK, Ukraine’s leading private energy company, said on Telegram that Russia’s latest actions against Ukraine’s energy industry are the largest since early 2026.

• A power plant in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, was also severely damaged in the Russian attack, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. At least five people were also wounded in the attack in the city of Kharkiv, officials said.

• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andry Sibiha said Russia deployed 450 attack drones and more than 60 missiles during the attack, and accused Moscow of waiting for temperatures to drop before launching the attack.

• A power plant in the Darnitsky district of eastern Kiev was severely damaged in a Russian attack, Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Telegram, prompting officials to redeploy resources to restore heat to the city’s thousands of residents.

• Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said at least 1,142 high-rise apartment buildings in the Ukrainian capital were without heating following the Russian attack.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of “deliberate attacks on energy infrastructure” and said the attack involved a “record number of ballistic missiles.”
• Zelensky also said Russia took advantage of a brief truce in recent U.S.-backed attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure to stockpile weapons that have been used in recent attacks. Russia’s latest attack comes one day before next scheduled attack Abu Dhabi trilateral talks Wednesday.
• Kiev’s massive Motherland Monument, an iconic Soviet-era World War II monument featuring a woman holding a sword and shield, was partially damaged in Russia’s latest attack, with Ukraine’s Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhina describing the damage as “symbolic and cynical.”

• In a speech after Tuesday’s attack, U.S. President Donald Trump defended Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he had “kept his word” and abided by a short-term deal to halt attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure by Sunday.
• Trump’s spokesperson Carolyn Leavitt said earlier that the US president was not surprised by the attacks.
• NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said during a visit to Kiev on Tuesday that Russia’s overnight attack did not demonstrate Moscow’s serious commitment to peacemaking.

military aid

• Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonsson and Danish Defense Minister Trolls Lund Poulsen announced that Sweden and Denmark will jointly purchase and provide Ukraine with air defense systems worth 2.6 billion Swedish kronor ($290 million) to help it defend against Russian attacks.

Politics and Diplomacy

• The Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that Ukraine has reached an agreement with its Western partners that any continued violations by Russia of future ceasefire agreements will trigger a coordinated military response from Europe and the United States.

• french president Emmanuel Macron He said he was ready to resume dialogue with Putin nearly four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but stressed that Moscow had not shown any “real willingness” to negotiate a ceasefire.

• The British government said Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to Trump and discussed the situation in Ukraine, including Russia’s overnight attack on the country.

• Speaking to Ukraine’s parliament during a visit to Kiev, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said reaching a peace deal to end Russia’s war would require hard choices.

economy

• The Kremlin said it had not heard a statement from India about stopping purchases of sanctioned Russian oil after Trump announced New Delhi had agreed to stop buying the oil as part of a trade deal with Washington.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was carefully analyzing Trump’s remarks about a trade deal with India. He added that despite the recent announcement, Moscow still intended to “further develop our bilateral relations with Delhi.”

• Putin said the Russian economy would grow by 1% in 2025, a much slower pace than 2024 figures as the country reels under the burden of the war in Ukraine and international sanctions. Putin admitted at a government meeting that economic growth was “lower” than in the previous two years.

sports

• Russia welcome speech FIFA president Gianni Infantino said he wants Russia to lift its four-year ban from international football tournaments because it “has not achieved anything”, with Peskov calling Infantino’s comments “very good”.
• Ukrainian Sports Minister Matvey Bidny called Infantino’s comments “irresponsible” and “childish,” noting that Russia’s intrusion has killed more than 650 Ukrainian athletes and coaches.
• Ukrainian athlete Vladislav Hraskevich said the International Olympic Committee undermined the principle of neutrality by allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals despite their ties to the occupied territories or expressing support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine. He said he planned to use the Winter Olympics to draw attention to the war in Ukraine.