At least three people killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine

A Russian air attack has killed two people in Kyiv region’s Bilohorodska community, and a drone attack killed another person in central Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, according to local authorities.

The deadly attacks came overnight on Wednesday, just hours after a deadly drone attack on a commuter train in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv – an incident denounced as “terrorism” by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who put the number of people on that train at 200.

Also on Wednesday, three people were injured in a Russian drone attack on port infrastructure in the southern region of Odesa, according to Governor Oleh Kiper.

In the capital, Kyiv, a 17-storey residential building was hit, causing minor damage to the roof and damaging windows on the upper floors, emergency services said.

Several residential buildings in Kyiv remain without power due to earlier Russian attacks on the country’s energy grid.

Russia attacked Ukraine overnight with an Iskander-M ballistic missile and 146 drones – 103 of them neutralised by air defences, Ukraine’s air force said.

On Tuesday night, five people were confirmed dead and several others injured after a Russian drone hit a passenger train near Kharkiv city, Al Jazeera’s Audrey Macalpine said, reporting from Kyiv.

“This attack has struck fears among Ukrainians,” Macalpine said. “With the country’s airspace closed, people rely heavily on trains as a means of moving around the country,” she said. “And this is a culmination of weeks of threats on the security of the train system.”

In a statement, Zelenskyy said the attack in Kharkiv undermined peace efforts and urged allies to step up pressure on Moscow to end the war.

“In any country, a drone strike on a civilian train would be viewed the same way – exclusively as terrorism,” Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel.

“The Russians have significantly increased their ability to kill, their ability to terrorise,” he said, while rallying the international community to put more “pressure” on Moscow to halt its deadly offensive amid ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire.

“Russia must be held responsible for what it is doing,” Zelenskyy said.

Sweden’s foreign minister, Maria Stenergard, in a post on X, said the attack was “senseless” and said she would press for further measures against Russia on Thursday.

Baiba Braze, Latvia’s foreign minister, said “Maximum global pressure is needed” in response to Russian attacks on Ukraine.

The attacks that have left many Ukrainians without power in freezing winter temperatures come after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in the United Arab Emirates last week for United States-brokered talks aimed at ending the conflict.

The next round is expected to take place on February 1, according to Zelenskyy.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian media as saying talks with Ukrainian and US negotiators were “tentatively” scheduled to take place on February 1 in Abu Dhabi.

He said the talks were about a “very sensitive topic” and were “highly complex”.

The scheduled talks come as a report published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies predicted that by the end of the first few months of this year, the number of soldiers killed or missing on both sides could reach 2 million, with Russia suffering slightly more than half that estimated figure.

Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, dismissed the report as not being reliable.

Ukraine is asking partners, particularly the US, for strong security guarantees in the event of a peace deal that would deter Russia from attacking again.

A source familiar with internal discussions told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday that Washington has told Ukraine it must sign a peace deal with Russia to get US security guarantees.