These are the key developments from day 1,421 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 15 Jan 2026
Here is where things stand on Thursday, January 15:
Fighting
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a state of emergency was being declared for Ukraine’s energy sector, after repeated Russian attacks destroyed electricity and heat infrastructure.
- Zelenskyy said he asked the government to review curfew restrictions during “this extremely cold weather”.
- Kateryna Pop, spokeswoman for the Kyiv City Military Administration, said 471 buildings in Ukraine’s capital remained without heat on Wednesday as temperatures again dropped to -19 degrees Celsius (-2.2 Fahrenheit) overnight, according to Ukraine’s Ukrinform news agency.
- Ukraine’s Ministry of Development announced the mandatory evacuation of children from five settlements in Ukraine’s front-line Zaporizhia region, according to the Ukrainian Interfax news agency.
- “In conditions of constant threat of shelling, this is the only responsible step that allows saving lives, primarily children,” Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said, according to Interfax.
- An 84-year-old woman and a 65-year-old man were injured in a Russian guided bomb attack on Tavriyske in Zaporizhia, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram.
- Russian forces have advanced near Zaliznyanske in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Yablunivka in Lviv region and Stepnohirsk in Zaporizhia, according to Ukrainian battlefield monitoring site DeepState.
- A Ukrainian attack left more than 3,000 people without electricity in Russian-occupied areas of Zaporizhia, Russian-appointed local official Yevhen Balitsky said on Telegram.
- A Ukrainian drone attack hit a power facility in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, leaving several settlements without electricity, according to Russia’s TASS state news agency.
Politics
- Ukraine’s parliament approved President Zelenskyy’s nomination of Denys Shmyhal as energy minister and first deputy prime minister weeks after dismiss