Russia kills at least 3 in overnight strikes across Ukraine using ballistic missile, 146 drones

Russia launched a fresh barrage of missiles and drones across Ukraine overnight Wednesday, killing at least three civilians and deepening the toll of a conflict that shows no sign of slowing even as negotiators prepare to meet again next week. The attack deployed an Iskander-M ballistic missile and 146 drones, according to Ukraine's air force, which said its defenses managed to intercept 103 of them. Two people died in Bilohorodska, a community in the Kyiv region, while a third was killed by drone fire in Dnipropetrovsk in central Ukraine. A 17-storey residential building in Kyiv took direct hits, its upper floors shattered and roof damaged, while several neighborhoods across the capital lost power as Russian strikes continued their systematic assault on the country's energy infrastructure.

The overnight strikes arrived just hours after a separate attack that had shaken the country the day before. On Tuesday evening, a Russian drone struck a passenger train traveling near Kharkiv in the northeast, killing five people and injuring several others. The train had been carrying roughly 100 passengers. The strike landed with particular force because it targeted one of the few reliable ways Ukrainians can move around their country—with airspace closed to civilian traffic, trains have become essential, and they have become targets. This latest attack on the rail system capped weeks of mounting threats to transportation infrastructure that ordinary people depend on to reach safety, reach family, reach work.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to the train attack with unsparing language, calling it terrorism and demanding that the international community recognize it as such. "In any country, a drone strike on a civilian train would be viewed the same way—exclusively as terrorism," he said in a statement posted to his Telegram channel. He argued that Russia had dramatically expanded its capacity to kill and to terrorize, and he used the moment to press allies, particularly the United States, to increase pressure on Moscow to halt its offensive. The timing was pointed: these attacks were unfolding even as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators had recently met in the United Arab Emirates for talks brokered by Washington aimed at ending the war. A ceasefire round is scheduled for February 1.

The human cost of the overnight assault extended beyond the three dead. Three more people were injured when a Russian drone hit port infrastructure in Odesa in the south, according to regional Governor Oleh Kiper. Across Kyiv, the power outages left residents without heat in freezing winter temperatures—a consequence that compounds the physical danger of the strikes themselves. Russia has made a deliberate strategy of targeting energy infrastructure, weaponizing the cold season to pressure civilians and strain the country's capacity to sustain itself.

Zelenskyy's calls for international pressure carry an implicit warning about what Ukraine believes it needs to survive any peace agreement. The country is asking partners, particularly the United States, for strong security guarantees that would prevent Russia from launching new attacks once a deal is signed. According to a source familiar with internal discussions who spoke to Reuters, Washington has indicated that Ukraine must agree to a peace deal with Russia in order to receive those guarantees—a formulation that leaves Ukraine in the position of having to choose between the security it seeks and the terms it can negotiate. The next round of talks on February 1 will test whether that calculus can shift.