Russian strikes leave apartments icy. People wake up shivering, warm their hands by ovens, and wear 3-5 pairs of socks just to get through the day.

Tetiana from Kyiv: Cold. Very cold. Everything is icy. I turn on the oven and stand there to warm myself. That’s life.

1/ Daria: With a child, it’s impossible to stay in the apartment. We came yesterday for two or three hours, and I froze so badly my throat started to hurt.

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Ben Hodges: It's naive to believe Russia wants to be a responsible global player.

The Kremlin represents a government killing Ukrainians daily, including civilians and children. To say they were “almost friends” is absurd and deeply misguided. 1/ Hodges: U.S. has not shown real commitment to Ukraine, and Ukrainian leaders rightly doubt any promises.

Trump administration hasn’t delivered weapons or guarantees. European allies must show their support, as the U.S. risks destroying trust with its inconsistent actions. 2/

Russian strike drones hit a passenger train in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. If we call things by their names, this was another act of terrorism.

As of now, 4 people are confirmed dead. 1/ In any country in the world, a drone strike on a civilian train would be classified the same way — as a terrorist attack.

There is no military objective, and there can be none, in killing civilians inside a train car. 2/

Snyder: The United States in its current form wants to undermine European democracy.

In particular, it wants to undermine European Union, and those two things work together. The Union helps create the conditions for democracy. 1/ Snyder: There’s no moment when we were innocent and everyone else was guilty. History’s never like that.

History gives us a sense of possibility. The more you know about the past, the more scenarios you see. All kinds of things have actually been tried and did happen. 2/

Ukraine’s drone and cyber attacks inside Russia set the reference for MI6.

Britain’s MI6 is shifting from intelligence collection to active covert action against Russia — FP.

This includes sabotage, resistance support, and grey-zone operations.

1/ New MI6 chief Blaise Metreweli explicitly invokes WWII-style SOE tactics: disrupting enemies, supporting resistance, and operating “between peace and war.”

Ukraine is described as the only country that has successfully fought back in this grey zone.

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Kuleba: Russia uses talks to buy time, not to stop the war.

They are open to talks, but too far from settlement to stop.

They will keep bombing and advancing. For Ukraine, nothing has changed — we must survive what may be the hardest winter of our independence.

1/ Kuleba: A ceasefire is impossible without three detailed agreements approved by Ukraine: security guarantees, Ukraine’s reconstruction, and EU membership.

Without these, there are no real guarantees the deal will hold — and no reason for Ukraine to make concessions.

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China's top general, Zhang Youxia, is accused of leaking nuclear weapons data to the U.S. and accepting massive bribes.

Once Xi Jinping's most trusted military ally, the 75-year-old faces investigation for severe violations of party discipline and state laws — WSJ. 1/ A closed-door briefing on Saturday revealed shocking details: Zhang allegedly leaked core technical data on China's nuclear weapons to the U.S., formed political cliques, and abused his authority in the Communist Party's top military decision-making body. 2/

Russia sentenced Margarita Kharenko to 20 years in prison for her pro-Ukrainian stance.

In Russian-occupied Melitopol, she was convicted on fabricated “espionage” charges.

Ukrainska Pravda shows how Moscow has turned courts into a machine for jailing civilians. 1/ Margarita Kharenko is 36 years old.

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, she worked as a pharmacist and volunteered with the Ukrainian Volunteer Service, helping elderly people and caring for animals. 2/

Rutte: We’re coming up to the 4th anniversary of Russia's all-out war on Ukraine.

This is the harshest winter for Ukrainians in over a decade. It is -20°C in Kyiv. Russia is heavily targeting civilian infrastructure, leaving Ukrainians in freezing cold without heat or water. 1/ Rutte: Europe cannot provide enough of what Ukraine needs to defend itself today and to deter tomorrow.

Without flow of weaponry from the US, we cannot keep Ukraine in the fight. They provide interceptors to take down missiles going into Kyiv. 2/

Stoltenberg on Greenland: It’s serious when NATO's biggest ally, the US, is challenging the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Denmark and Greenland.

Especially because the core mission of NATO is to protect borders and sovereignty. 1/ Stoltenberg on progress in Davos: When there are disagreements among NATO allies, it’s good to find different platforms for talking.

There have been some contacts between Denmark and the US. That's a good thing. 2/

Russia has just 3 Oreshnik missiles but is trying to scare Europe with a growing “arsenal”.

Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence (FISU): The system is a tool for intimidating Ukraine’s partners, but it's combat performance is dubious and relies on outdated technology — United 24. 1/ FISU: Moscow plans to start serial production of Oreshnik in 2026, aiming for at least five missiles per year. But its combat value is doubtful.

The system relies on Soviet-era designs, suffers frequent failures, and one launch reportedly flew without a proper warhead. 2/

Three Ukrainian officers carried out a solo assault in Lyman, and captured a Russian infiltration group — United24.

Officer “Fifteen”: “Orel” was wounded, but he didn't mention it when we were escorting the prisoners. He said he didn't want them to hear it and get any ideas. 1/ Three officers — Granat, Fifteen, and Orel, launched the operation after intel confirmed Russian troops inside the town.

Russians had set up a covert outpost in a basement, with antennas, radios, ammo, thermobaric grenades, and supplies — planning to hold until reinforcements arrived.

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The Pentagon has unveiled a new US defense strategy: Russia will remain a persistent but manageable threat to NATO's eastern members for the near future.

Russia suffers from demographic and economic issues. Moscow is not in a position to make a bid for European hegemony. 1/ Russia still retains deep reservoirs of military and industrial power. Russia has also shown that it has the national resolve required to sustain a protracted war in its near abroad. 2/

Stubb: We need to reverse the narrative that Putin is winning the war in Ukraine. He is not.

He tried to take over Ukraine. He failed. He tried to stop NATO from expanding. Also failed. He tried to keep NATO’s defense spending down. It’s now at 5%. 1/ Stubb: My big fear is that the Russians are going to say “nyet” [no to a deal on Ukraine].

Ukraine, the US, and Europe are now on the same page, there is a clear some progress in negotiations. But it is still unclear what the Russians are going to do. 2/

Historian Ferguson: We are in Cold War II. China has taken the place the USSR used to occupy. That’s the dominant strategic reality. Many misread Trump and misread the world.

It’s not about Europe, except that Europe can’t help Ukraine effectively without the United States. 1/ Ferguson: The reason the US won the Cold War was its alliances. What distinguished Trump is his disdain for allies and his view that they take advantage of the US.

For 50 years, American presidents said Europeans don’t pay enough for NATO. 2/

Applebaum: Trump fundamentally sympathizes with Putin, and in some ways with Xi as well.

He likes leaders who rule without checks and balances, without opposition, without critical media. He envies that. He would like to be like that. 1/ Applebaum: Trump’s entire business career was wrapped up with Russians and Russian money.

In New York real estate in the 1990s and 2000s, quite a lot of investment came from Russia, often via anonymous companies. He seems to be grateful for that. 2/

A Russian missile shut down a Kyiv heating plant — underwater.

Ukrainian divers crawled through a flooded tunnel buried beneath the Dnipro river and sealed missile-caused cracks by hand, Hromadske. 1/ On Jan 15, engineers showed divers a sketch.

A vertical shaft led into a square concrete tunnel, hundreds of meters long, underground and below river level. Only one person could pass. Seismic shock fractured about 30 meters of walls. Water flooded the plant. 2/

Russia has just 3 Oreshnik missiles but is trying to scare Europe with a growing “arsenal”.

Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence (FISU): The system is a tool for intimidating Ukraine’s partners, but it's combat performance is dubious and relies on outdated technology — United 24. 1/ FISU: Moscow plans to start serial production of Oreshnik in 2026, aiming for at least five missiles per year. But its combat value is doubtful.

The system relies on Soviet-era designs, suffers frequent failures, and one launch reportedly flew without a proper warhead. 2/

Kasparov: Russia is losing influence. Not because of Maduro, Iranians, or Syria, but because Ukraine survived, period.

Ukraine proved that Putin is not all-powerful.

In 2022, leaders of the free world — Biden, Scholz, Macron — were ready to give up.

1/ Kasparov: Trump betrayed Iranian protesters. He promised them that “help was on the way”. Then betrayed.

Tens of thousands were killed or arrested. The free world stayed paralyzed, while much of the media ignored Iran’s massacre, treating it as unimportant.

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Olena Janchuk, a former kindergarten teacher, can’t leave her apartment on the 19th floor in Kyiv for weeks.

She has severe rheumatoid arthritis, and the elevator is not working due to constant power outages from Russian attacks on energy plants — ProKyiv, AP. 1/ The apartment has frost on the windows from the inside

Lyudmila Bachurina, Olena’s mother: When the lights come on, I start turning on the washing machine, fill up water bottles, cook food, charge power banks.

It’s cold, but we manage. 2/

Anna, wife of a missing Ukrainian soldier: "I still text him. It’s really difficult to send texts in one way and not get a response. The silence is depressing.

I will believe until the very end that he is alive," — The Times. 1/ More than 150,000 soldiers on both sides remain missing.

Vadym, son of a missing soldier: "After a year and a half, I still don’t fully accept that he is missing.

I cried the first time only after a month." 2/