Ukraine-Russia warfare newest: Trump denies assault on Putin residence after Moscow says Kyiv’s drone warfare escalating | EUROtoday

A Ukrainian drone assault sparked a fireplace in an industrial zone within the city of Yelets in Russia’s Lipetsk area, the regional governor reported this morning.

No instant casualties have been reported up to now.

Yelets is house to the Energiya battery plant, a significant producer of batteries and accumulators for Russia’s defence business, which Ukraine stated it has hit prior to now.

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed General Kyrylo Budanov, the nation’s navy intelligence chief, as his new chief of workers.

General Budanov replaces Andrii Yermak, president Zelensky’s long-standing aide, who resigned in November.

Yermak’s departure adopted an anti-corruption raid on his condominium, investigating alleged graft in Ukraine’s power sector.

The removing of such a robust determine was thought of a blow to the president, doubtlessly jeopardising his negotiating technique amidst US peace efforts.

Here’s what that you must find out about Budanov:

For Ukraine, there may be little motive to assume that 2026 is not going to proceed the sample set by 2025: the warfare will grind on, as a result of the repeated guarantees that peace is close to are primarily based on little greater than blind optimism and a determined have to pander to Donald Trump’s fantasies.

Russia will proceed to attempt to safe via diplomatic means what it has failed to overcome in 11 years of warfare, and its key software for doing so will proceed to be Donald Trump. Three occasions throughout 2025, Trump blindsided Europe’s leaders by making an attempt to coerce Ukraine into accepting Russia’s calls for beneath the guise of a ceasefire settlement.

On every event, the worst hazard was averted following a transatlantic diplomatic scramble, as European leaders dropped every part to attempt to roll again a number of the injury. It might look like a repetitive cycle, however on every event, Russia improves its place.

If a ceasefire is achieved in 2026, Keir Giles asks: at what value?

Ukraine has focused Moscow with drones day-after-day of 2026 up to now, Russia’s defence ministry has claimed.

By midnight on Sunday, Russian air defence techniques had destroyed 57 drones over the Moscow area and 437 over the nation in complete, the ministry stated, including that the each day assaults marked an escalation from extra sporadic assaults on the Russian capital.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported a number of interceptions since New Year’s Eve with out giving additional particulars.

Russia sometimes studies solely what number of drones its air defences downed, not what number of Ukraine launched, and infrequently discloses the complete extent of injury until civilians are killed or civilian websites hit.

There was no instant remark from Ukraine.

Kyiv has more and more used long-range drones to strike targets deep inside Russia. It says such assaults purpose to disrupt navy logistics and power infrastructure, increase prices for Moscow’s warfare effort and reply to repeated Russian missile and drone assaults.

Russia’s declare that Ukraine launched a 91-drone strike on Vladimir Putin’s private residence has threatened to derail months of talks over a peace deal to finish Moscow’s invasion.

“I am sure they are simply preparing the ground for strikes, probably on the capital, probably on government buildings,” he stated.

From a technical standpoint, Ukraine does have the weapons to launch an assault on Putin’s presidential residence utilizing strike drones and missile techniques, based on Oleksandr Kovalenko, a Ukrainian navy and safety analyst for the Information Resistance group.

President Donald Trump stated US officers had decided that Ukraine didn’t goal a residence belonging to Russian president Vladimir Putin in a drone assault final week, disputing a Kremlin declare that he had initially greeted with deep concern.

Trump stated “something happened nearby” however Americans officers did not discover the Russian president’s residence was focused.

“I don’t believe that strike happened,” Trump told reporters. “We don’t believe that happened, now that we’ve been able to check.”

Russian international minister Sergey Lavrov stated final week that Ukraine had launched a wave of drones at Putin’s residence within the northwestern Novgorod area that the Russian defence techniques had been capable of defeat.

Lavrov additionally criticised Kyiv for launching the assault at a second of intensive negotiations to finish the warfare.

The allegation got here only a day after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky held talks with Trump in Florida on the US administration’s 20-point plan geared toward ending the warfare. Zelensky had rapidly denied the allegation.

A Russian air assault on Kyiv killed one civilian, Ukraine’s navy stated this morning, in what gave the impression to be the primary reported loss of life in Russian strikes on the capital this 12 months.

“One person has been killed so far as a result of the attack. The attack is continuing,” stated Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s navy administration.

He stated individuals had been being evacuated from a constructing broken within the assault within the Obolonskyi district, north of Kyiv’s centre.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko stated air defence forces had been working within the capital and urged residents to stay in shelters.

Russia has repeatedly attacked Kyiv and different Ukrainian cities with missiles and drones throughout the almost four-year-old warfare, saying it strikes navy targets, whereas Ukraine says civilians and civilian infrastructure are sometimes hit.