As Russia's war in Ukraine closes in on four full years, one report puts its casualties at more than a million - a figure Moscow disputes. While no diplomatic breakthrough to end that war is imminent, Donald Trump says "very good things are happening" in negotiations. Follow the latest.
Wednesday 28 January 2026 12:45, UK
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A crater has been left at the site of another Russian missile and drone attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram that six people were hurt in the overnight attack, which also damaged at least 12 residential buildings, partially knocking out power to some.
The frontline city has been a regular target for Moscow's troops in the war.
"Words will not cut it" when it comes to security guarantees for Ukraine when the war ends, says military analyst Michael Clarke.
Kyiv sees US security guarantees as vital for any settlement ending the conflict with Russia.
There appeared to be progress at a meeting with envoys for Kyiv and Moscow in Abu Dhabi last weekend, and US President Donald Trump said yesterday that there were "very good things happening on Ukraine and Russia".
But a source has told the Reuters news agency that Washington wants Ukraine to sign on to a peace deal with Russia before it is given security guarantees.
"The Ukrainians are not that stupid," says Clarke.
"You've got to remember that the Ukrainians were given security guarantees in 1994, which turned out to be meaningless when the Russians attacked them in 2014. And then they were given more security guarantees 20 years later, as a result of 2014, and they were meaningless in 2022 when the Russians attacked them again.
"So they've been given solemn security guarantees twice in 20 years that were meaningless... they're not going to believe anything that is mere words."
Clarke says the West has to be prepared to "sit in Ukraine" as a reassurance force after the war, with support from the US.
"[The US is] not going to do that, but that's what it would take for the Ukrainians to believe in them. Words will not cut it," Clarke adds.
Clarke points out that Trump can "say what he likes", but "fewer people believe him this week even than last week".
Ukraine has summoned Hungary's ambassador to Kyiv in a retaliatory move after Budapest accused it of meddling in the upcoming Hungarian elections.
Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, said on Monday that the Ukrainian ambassador would be summoned over the alleged interference.
Now Ukraine's foreign ministry says it is summoning the Hungarian ambassador to protest over the allegations.
Orban, who has retained close ties with Moscow during the war, has stepped up his anti-Ukraine rhetoric in recent weeks. In one election campaign targeting rural voters, the Hungarian leader portrayed Kyiv as being unworthy of financial support, and framed the vote in April as one between war and peace.
Repeated Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine's energy system have left millions of people suffering power cuts this winter as temperatures fall as low as -20C.
The situation is so grave the Ukrainian government has declared a state of emergency in the energy sector.
Sky's security and defence editor Deborah Haynes visited a block of flats in Kyiv that have been without heating for more than two weeks. Here's what residents told her...
A change in the US-Europe relationship is "structural, not temporary", a senior EU figure has warned.
Kaja Kallas, the bloc's foreign policy chief, told leaders that Europe is no longer Washington's "primary centre of gravity".
Speaking at the European Defence Agency's annual conference, Kallas said that while the EU will still strive for strong transatlantic ties and the US will remain a partner and ally, "Europe needs to adapt to new realities".
"Europe is no longer Washington's primary centre of gravity. The shift has been ongoing for a while. It is structural, not temporary. It means Europe must step up," she said.
Kallas added that NATO must become "more European" to maintain its strength.
"The risk of a full-blown return to coercive power politics, spheres of influence and a world where might makes right, is very real", she said.
Ukraine has identified areas in an agreement with the US on post-war recovery that need to be worked through in more depth, Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.
The recovery agreement is part of wider deal on ending the nearly four-year war with Russia.
"Work with the American side is progressing actively, and on the Ukrainian side we are working with maximum efficiency," he said on X.
Following on from our previous posts, another US thinktank has said it would take Russia at least another 18 months to seize the remainder of Ukraine's Donbas region with a pace of advance that has slowed in recent weeks.
The Institute for the Study of War says Ukraine's Donetsk region - which alongside the Russian-held Luhansk region makes up the Donbas - will fall into Moscow's hands by August 2027 if Putin's troops sustain their rate of advance.
It says Russia "would need to expend significant amounts of resources, time, and personnel to seize the rest of Donbas".
This comes as a report in the Financial Times suggests the Trump administration has indicated to Ukraine that US security guarantees are contingent on Kyiv first agreeing a peace deal that would likely cede the Donbas to Russia.
The White House has hit back against the report, calling it "totally false".
Anna Kelly, the deputy White House press secretary, said the US's "only role in the peacemaking process is to bring both sides together to make a deal".
We're getting some reaction from Moscow to that report that Russian forces have likely suffered around 1.2 million casualties since the start of the war (see our previous post).
The Kremlin has rejected the research by the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, saying such reports should not be deemed reliable.
Russia has previously denied estimated casualty figures originating from the US.
Casualties from both sides of the war could reach two million by spring this year, according to a thinktank.
The Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies says Russian forces have suffered nearly 1.2 million casualties - more than any major power since the Second World War - and have advanced at a slower rate than almost any major offensive campaign in any war of the past century.
Moscow has waged a "highly destructive" air campaign on Ukrainian targets and has "been innovative in its use of drones, electronic warfare, and other facets of the fight", the thinktank says.
But it also has an "extraordinary" casualty rate, it adds, suffering nearly 1.2 million battlefield casualties - including those killed, wounded, and missing - between February 2022 and December 2025.
There were some 415,000 Russian casualties in 2025 alone, says the CSIS.
Russian casualties and fatalities are also "significantly greater" than the Ukrainians', it says. Kyiv's forces likely suffered "somewhere between 500,000 and 600,000 casualties" between the start of the war and December last year.
"Combined Russian and Ukrainian casualties may be as high as 1.8 million and could reach 2 million total casualties by the spring of 2026," according to researchers.
The CSIS says there could be several reasons why Russian casualties and fatalities are so high - including poor tactics and training, low morale and an effective Ukrainian defence.
Ukraine's military claims to have hit a Russian oil depot in an overnight attack.
It said on Telegram that the Khokholska oil depot in Russia's western Voronezh region was targeted, with a fire reportedly breaking out and "thick smoke" seen.
"The results [of the attack] are being clarified," the military said.
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