Here is where things stand on Thursday, January 8:
Fighting
- One person was killed and five people were injured in a Russian attack on two ports in Ukraine’s Odesa region, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said in a post on Facebook. “The attack damaged port facilities, administrative buildings, and oil containers,” Kuleba said.
- A Russian attack on Kryvyi Rih, in Ukraine’s Dnipro region, injured eight people, including two seriously, the head of the Kryvyi Rih defence council, Oleksandr Vilkul, wrote on Telegram.
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Russian attacks left Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia regions in southeastern Ukraine “almost completely without electricity”, Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy said in a statement on Telegram. “Critical infrastructure is operating on reserve power,” the ministry added.
- Firefighters put out a blaze that broke out at an oil depot in Russia’s southern Belgorod region following an overnight Ukrainian drone attack, the Vesti state TV channel reported on Wednesday, citing the regional governor.
Politics and diplomacy
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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that any deployment of UK forces under a declaration signed with France and Ukraine would be subject to a parliamentary vote. “I will keep the house updated as the situation develops, and were troops to be deployed under the declaration signed, I would put that matter to the house for a vote,” Starmer told parliament on Wednesday.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters on WhatsApp that he hopes to meet with United States President Donald Trump soon to gauge his openness to a Ukrainian proposal that Washington ensure security for Kyiv for more than 15 years in the event of a ceasefire, according to the Reuters news agency. “The Americans, in my view, are being productive right now; we have good results … They need to put pressure on Russia. They have the tools, and they know how to use them,” Zelenskyy said.
- Zelenskyy also said during a visit to Cyprus on Wednesday that Ukraine is “doing everything required on our side in the negotiation process. And we expect that no additional or excessive demands will be placed on Ukraine.”
- Zelenskyy was in Cyprus as it assumed the rotating presidency of the European Union, as he continued a push for his country to join the bloc. “We are working to make as much progress as possible during this period on opening negotiating clusters and on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union,” Zelenskyy said after a meeting with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides in Nicosia, in a statement posted on X.
- Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Wednesday that negotiations are still “far from a peace plan” for Ukraine. “There is an outline of ideas,” Albares said, according to Reuters.
Sanctions
- The US seized two Venezuela-linked oil tankers in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, including the Marinera crude oil tanker sailing under Russia’s flag.
- US Vice President JD Vance said that the tanker “was a fake Russian oil tanker,” in an interview set to air on Fox News, excerpts of which were provided in advance. “They basically tried to pretend to be a Russian oil tanker in an effort to avoid the sanctions regime,” Vance said, referring to sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on Venezuelan oil. The Trump administration has separately imposed sanctions on some Russian oil companies.
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Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Wednesday that Kyiv welcomed the move. “The apprehension of a Russian-flagged ship in the North Atlantic underscores the United States’ and President Trump’s resolute leadership,” Andrii Sybiha wrote on X. “We welcome such an approach to dealing with Russia: act, not fear. This is also relevant to the peace process and bringing a lasting peace closer.”
- Russia’s Ministry of Transport protested the seizure, saying in a statement that “in accordance with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, freedom of navigation applies in the high seas, and no state has the right to use force against vessels duly registered in the jurisdictions of other states”.
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US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that President Trump has “greenlit” a long-awaited bipartisan bill imposing sanctions on Russia after the pair met on Wednesday. “I look forward to a strong bipartisan vote, hopefully as early as next week,” Graham said in a statement.
