The war in Ukraine plunges Kyiv into darkness and extreme cold

Volodimir Zelensky, leader of Ukraine, stated that an agreement on the safeguards that the United States provides to his nation is ‘100% ready’ to be signed. All that remains is to decide the time and place to finalise it before presenting it to the US Congress and the Ukrainian Parliament for approval.

This announcement was made after two days of trilateral negotiations with representatives from the United States and Russia in Abu Dhabi, seeking to move towards an end to the conflict with Russia. Zelensky highlighted the relevance of direct US involvement and also the importance of European security guarantees, while reaffirming that Ukraine will not give up any part of its territory, especially in the east, and that its goal remains to join the European Union in 2027.

The situation on the ground remains tense, with constant Russian offensives causing casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure. Ukraine continues to face significant challenges, and Zelensky emphasises that only significant achievements in security and diplomacy can provide his people with a more lasting opportunity for peace. Negotiations between the parties are expected to continue in the near future with the hope of narrowing differences and moving towards a broader agreement.

More broadly, Zelensky has expressed criticism of some Western allies in international forums for their lack of firm action against Russia. Specifically, he has called on the West to apply stronger pressure, pointing to the response to other leaders and the lack of strong measures against Vladimir Putin. These statements come as the war enters its fourth year and the international community continues to seek more effective ways to support Ukraine's defence.

Correspondent and journalist María Senovilla, reporting from Kiev, describes not only this diplomatic process, but also the reality on the ground, the humanitarian aftermath of the Russian attacks, the resistance of the Ukrainian population to territorial demands, and the impact of extreme cold on the daily lives of civilians.

President Zelensky is on a rampage, announcing three-way meetings after the White House's contacts with Putin and harshly criticising Europe.

Yes, that was what surprised me most about his speech at the Davos summit, the harshness of his words, which, amid thanks for the aid he was receiving from Europe, did not leave out criticism. He said that Europe liked to talk a lot about the future but was not so forceful in its actions to stop Putin.

One of the things that really hurt the Ukrainian president was that in the negotiation of this £90 billion loan that the European Union is going to give Ukraine, the frozen assets from Russia on the European continent were not used. Zelensky is of the opinion that this money, those frozen assets, will sooner or later end up financing Putin's war against Ukraine and will worsen the situation that already exists here, when we are about to reach the four-year mark of that large-scale invasion. He said this very harshly at the Davos summit, where he also took the opportunity to announce that first meeting in the framework of the negotiations that will be held by the negotiating groups from the United States, Russia and Ukraine. This will be the first time the three have sat down at the table, where it is hoped that more progress will be made than in 2025.

It is true that in 2025, with Trump's arrival in the White House, the negotiation process was accelerated, or at least attempts were made to accelerate it, but the fact is that no major progress was made. Perhaps this weekend, when the three parties sit down at the table together, there is hope that progress will be achieved.

After meeting with Trump's envoys, Russia has warned that lasting peace depends on a territorial solution.

For Putin, the territorial solution is the cession of land by Ukraine.

Putin aspires to keep the entire Donbass region, including the northern part of Donetsk, which he has not managed to conquer by force of arms, and this is likely to be the major stumbling block in these negotiations, which appear to be continuing. The truth is that throughout 2025, Putin made more significant advances than he had in the previous two years. He conquered more than 4,000 square kilometres of territory, but still failed to achieve his main objective, which was to take over the entire Donbass region.

With those cities of Kramatorsk, where we usually connect, Sloviansk, Dobropillia, which, although they are being bombed daily, cannot be subdued. And what they are now asking for is for Ukraine to give it to them. The United States' solution is to create a free trade zone in which neither government, so to speak, has de facto control over the area, but whatever the case may be, as we say, the territorial issue is going to be the major stumbling block at the negotiating table and, for the moment, from what I have been able to gauge here in Ukraine, the citizens are not willing to give Russia anything that it has not managed to take by force of arms.

The reality on the ground, which you are suffering, Maria, is the lack of electricity due to Russian attacks. Are temperatures 15 degrees below zero?

Temperatures do not rise above 10 degrees below zero and at nightfall they drop to minus 20 or even minus 22. This is the harshest winter in decades here, and Putin has waited for these freezing temperatures, this unprecedented cold snap, to intensify his bombing campaign against the country's energy network, against its power stations and, above all, against its heating plants.

What he has achieved is to plunge the capital, which is currently the worst-affected city, Kiev, into almost permanent darkness. I have been there over the last few days and I can assure you that the civilian population is facing extremely harsh conditions, with power cuts lasting more than 20 hours a day. In recent days, I have had no electricity at all during the day.

They gave you three or four hours in the early morning so as not to overload the grid, and on top of that, a large part of the population is without heating, and there are even a considerable number of buildings without running water. Imagine what it is like to survive at 20 degrees below zero without electricity, heating or running water at home. The mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klichko, has already said that some 600,000 people have left the city in the last week.

Those who have relatives and have had the opportunity to go to other cities have left Kiev. Schools are closed and it is estimated that around one million people are disconnected from the electricity grid. The areas where those few hours of electricity are supplied are alternating so that there is no overload on the system, on the electricity grid, which would leave the entire city in darkness.

In any case, this is a war crime against the civilian population and Putin continues to commit it with impunity on a daily basis.