Two Killed in Series of Russian Attacks on Ukraine

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a Russian strike on a residential area a day before, in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 03 January 2026. (EPA)
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a Russian strike on a residential area a day before, in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 03 January 2026. (EPA)
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Two Killed in Series of Russian Attacks on Ukraine

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a Russian strike on a residential area a day before, in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 03 January 2026. (EPA)
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a Russian strike on a residential area a day before, in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 03 January 2026. (EPA)

Russia bombarded Ukraine early Monday, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France.

A countrywide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine's military said air defenses were operating in several places.

In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building, said AFP.

Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, according to Kyiv regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk.

The strikes caused power outages in the area, with backup systems activated to maintain water and heating supplies, the official said, as temperatures dropped to -8C.

The attacks came on the eve of a meeting of European leaders in Paris as they seek a breakthrough on a peace plan Kyiv says is "90 percent" ready.

To lay the groundwork, security advisers from 15 countries, including Britain, France and Germany as well as representatives from NATO and the European Union, gathered in Kyiv over the weekend.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff joined the talks virtually, a Ukrainian official told AFP, though the United States' large-scale military attack on Venezuela earlier in the day overshadowed proceedings.

Another preparatory meeting, between chiefs of staff, is scheduled for Monday.

Diplomatic efforts to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II have gained pace in recent weeks, though both Moscow and Kyiv remain at odds over the key issue of territory in a post-war settlement.

Russia, which occupies around 20 percent of Ukraine, is pushing for full control of the country's eastern Donbas region as part of a deal.

But Kyiv has warned that ceding ground will embolden Moscow and said it will not sign a peace deal that fails to deter Russia from invading again.

Bombarded daily and losing ground, Ukraine has responded with its own drone attacks launched towards Russian territory, targeting in particular energy infrastructure that funds the war effort.

Russia's defense ministry said it has downed Ukrainian drones targeting the Moscow region every day of 2026, and claims to have shot several hundred -- an unusually high number -- over the weekend.

The Kremlin published a video of a downed drone it said Ukraine had launched at the home of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Novgorod region, adding that the property was not damaged and the leader was elsewhere at the time.

Kyiv refuted the allegation, and its European allies expressed skepticism.

Asked about it on Sunday, US President Donald Trump said that "something" had happened near Putin's residence, but after reviewing the evidence, American officials did not believe it had been targeted by Ukraine.

"I don't believe that strike happened," Trump said in response to a reporter's question aboard Air Force One.

Russia has also accused Kyiv of firing drones at a hotel and cafe in the Moscow-held part of Ukraine's southern Kherson region early Thursday, killing what it said were 28 people celebrating the New Year. Ukraine says it was a military gathering.

Moscow accuses Kyiv of being insincere in its peace efforts, while Ukraine says Russia is trying to scupper the diplomatic momentum to end the conflict.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a "special military operation" to prevent the expansion of NATO.

Russia made bigger advances on the battlefield last year than any other year since it launched its invasion, according to an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War.



Nigeria's President to Make a Sate Visit to the UK in March

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu gives a joint statement with Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, at the Planalto presidential palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu gives a joint statement with Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, at the Planalto presidential palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
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Nigeria's President to Make a Sate Visit to the UK in March

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu gives a joint statement with Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, at the Planalto presidential palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu gives a joint statement with Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, at the Planalto presidential palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)

Nigeria’s president is set to make a state visit to the UK in March, the first such trip by a Nigerian leader in almost four decades, Britain’s Buckingham Palace said Sunday.

Officials said President Bola Tinubu and first lady Oluremi Tinubu will travel to the UK on March 18 and 19, The AP news reported.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla will host them at Windsor Castle. Full details of the visit are expected at a later date.

Charles visited Nigeria, a Commonwealth country, four times from 1990 to 2018 before he became king. He previously received Tinubu at Buckingham Palace in September 2024.m

Previous state visits by a Nigerian leader took place in 1973, 1981 and 1989.

A state visit usually starts with an official reception hosted by the king and includes a carriage procession and a state banquet.

Last year Charles hosted state visits for world leaders including US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.


Iran Strikes Hard Line on US Talks, Saying Tehran's Power Comes From Saying 'No'

Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iran Strikes Hard Line on US Talks, Saying Tehran's Power Comes From Saying 'No'

Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran's top diplomat insisted Sunday that Tehran's strength came from its ability to “say no to the great powers," striking a maximalist position just after negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program and in the wake of nationwide protests.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to diplomats at a summit in Tehran, signaled that Iran would stick to its position that it must be able to enrich uranium — a major point of contention with President Donald Trump, who bombed Iranian atomic sites in June during the 12-day Iran-Israel war.

Iran will never surrender the right to enrich uranium, even if war "is imposed on us,” he noted.

"Iran has paid a very heavy price for its peaceful nuclear program and for uranium enrichment." 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to travel to Washington this week, with Iran expected to be the major subject of discussion, his office said.

While Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian praised the talks Friday in Oman with the Americans as “a step forward,” Araghchi's remarks show the challenge ahead. Already, the US moved the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, ships and warplanes to the Middle East to pressure Iran into an agreement and have the firepower necessary to strike the Islamic Republic should Trump choose to do so, according to The AP news.

“I believe the secret of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s power lies in its ability to stand against bullying, domination and pressures from others," Araghchi said.

"They fear our atomic bomb, while we are not pursuing an atomic bomb. Our atomic bomb is the power to say no to the great powers. The secret of the Islamic Republic’s power is in the power to say no to the powers.”

‘Atomic bomb’ as rhetorical device Araghchi's choice to explicitly use an “atomic bomb” as a rhetorical device likely wasn't accidental. While Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is peaceful, the West and the International Atomic Energy Agency say Tehran had an organized military program to seek the bomb up until 2003.

Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step to weapons-grade levels of 90%, the only non-weapons state to do so. Iranian officials in recent years had also been increasingly threatening that Tehran could seek the bomb, even while its diplomats have pointed to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s preachings as a binding fatwa, or religious edict, that Iran wouldn’t build one.

Pezeshkian, who ordered Araghchi to pursue talks with the Americans after likely getting Khamenei's blessing, also wrote on X on Sunday about the talks.

“The Iran-US talks, held through the follow-up efforts of friendly governments in the region, were a step forward,” the president wrote. “Dialogue has always been our strategy for peaceful resolution. ... The Iranian nation has always responded to respect with respect, but it does not tolerate the language of force.”

It remains unclear when and where, or if, there will be a second round of talks. Trump, after the talks Friday, offered few details but said: “Iran looks like they want to make a deal very badly — as they should.”

Aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea During Friday's talks, US Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the American military's Central Command, was in Oman. Cooper's presence was apparently an intentional reminder to Iran about US military power in the region. Cooper later accompanied US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, to the Lincoln out in the Arabian Sea after the indirect negotiations.

Araghchi appeared to be taking the threat of an American military strike seriously, as many worried Iranians have in recent weeks. He noted that after multiple rounds of talks last year, the US “attacked us in the midst of negotiations."

“If you take a step back (in negotiations), it is not clear up to where it will go,” Araghchi said.

 

 


Russia: Man Suspected of Shooting Top General Detained in Dubai

An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
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Russia: Man Suspected of Shooting Top General Detained in Dubai

An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Sunday that the man suspected of shooting top Russian military intelligence officer Vladimir Alexeyev in Moscow has been detained in Dubai and handed over to Russia.

Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, deputy head of the GRU, ⁠Russia's military intelligence arm, was shot several times in an apartment block in Moscow on Friday, investigators said. He underwent surgery after the shooting, Russian media ⁠said.

The FSB said a Russian citizen named Lyubomir Korba was detained in Dubai on suspicion of carrying out the shooting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the assassination attempt, which he said was designed to sabotage peace talks. ⁠Ukraine said it had nothing to do with the shooting.

Alexeyev's boss, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, the head of the GRU, has been leading Russia's delegation in negotiations with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on security-related aspects of a potential peace deal.