These are the key developments from day 1,408 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 2 Jan 2026
Here is where things stand on Friday, January 2:
Fighting
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Ukraine and Russia have traded allegations of attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure over the New Year, with Kyiv saying there had been another broad attack on its power supplies, and Moscow reporting a deadly strike on a hotel in territory it occupies in southern Ukraine.
- Russia said at least 24 people, including a child, have been killed in a drone strike on a hotel and cafe where civilians were seeing in the new year in a Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.
- Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor of the region, said three Ukrainian drones had hit the celebrations in Khorly, a coastal village, in what he said was a “deliberate strike” against civilians. He said many people had been burned alive.
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Asked about the strike on Kherson, a Ukrainian military spokesperson told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency that Kyiv’s forces exclusively targeted Russian military or energy sites.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a message on Telegram that Russia launched more than 200 attack drones against Ukraine, targeting energy infrastructure in seven regions across the country.
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Russian air defence units have downed a total of 29 Ukrainian drones headed for Moscow over a 20-hour New Year period, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Restrictions were in place on the evening of New Year’s Day for two Moscow airports. Sobyanin made no mention of casualties or damage.
Ukrainian drones struck energy and industrial targets across the Russian regions of Krasnodar, Tatarstan and Kaluga overnight, Russian officials said on Thursday. The Ukrainian military confirmed it had carried out two of the three attacks.
Alleged attack on Putin’s residence
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A senior Russian military chief, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, said he had given a United States military attache what he claimed to be part of a Ukrainian drone. He said data from the drone proved that the Ukrainian military targeted a residence of President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s northern Novgorod region this week.
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Ukraine has denied Russia’s claim. US intelligence sources told reporters on Wednesday Kyiv was not behind the attack.
- Ukraine staged the death of an anti-Kremlin Russian fighter, Denis Kapustin, to prevent his killing ordered by Moscow’s special forces, Ukrainian military intelligence announced. Kapustin’s Russian Volunteer Corps claimed that he was killed on the front line, but he later appeared in a video briefing with the head of Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), Kyrylo Budanov.
- Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence said it had deployed two new Patriot air defence systems received from Germany as part of a previously announced military aid supply.
Diplomacy
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Ukraine’s top negotiator in US-brokered peace talks, Rustem Umerov, said he met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Ankara. Umerov said he discussed with Fidan the negotiation process and next steps, with particular attention to humanitarian issues and the return of Ukrainians held by Russia.
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In his New Year’s address to the nation, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy said he wanted the war to end, but not at any cost. He added he would not sign a “weak” peace agreement that would only prolong the war.
- Zelenskyy also said that weeks of US-led diplomacy, including his talks last weekend with US President Donald Trump in Florida, had produced a peace deal that was nearly ready. “A peace agreement is 90 percent ready, 10 percent remains,” he said.
