Ukrainians struggling without power, heating, amid freezing conditions react to latest peace talks

Описание: (25 Jan 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kyiv, Ukraine - 25 January 2026
1. Wide of tent where people can charge phones and get warm with the buzz of generators in the background
2. Close of generators running
3. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Andrii Poliovyk, 59, pensioner:
“We don’t have heating right now. But we’re holding on — we have electricity, we’re managing somehow, and we also have gas as backup.”
4. Poliovyk with grandchildren
5. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Andrii Poliovyk, 59, pensioner:
“There’s always hope. We always hope for the best. Any war ends with peace and negotiations before that.”
6. Snow covered playground in front of apartment block, man walking along
7. Yevheniia Klymenko with her husband Serhii pushing her child on swing
8. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Yevheniia Klymenko, 31, mother of a two-year-old child:
“We have electricity more often off than on. I have a small child — you have to keep her warm. There’s always a pile of laundry, and after shelling the water is often gone for a long time, which makes things hard. But we’re already used to it.”
9. Person walking into tent
10. People sitting inside tent charging phones
11. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Petro, (no last name given for concerns about security), 69:
“We’ve been without electricity for a second day now. Before that, it was only on and off. Yes, it’s hard… We have water. I live in a place where there’s gas.”
12. Cutaway hands UPSOUND (Ukrainian) “There’s no heating. It’s difficult, and we hope for the best.”
13. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Petro, (no last name given for concerns about security), 69:
“I’ll tell you — there’s no point in hoping. We have to fight. With Western countries, with weapons. Because what — there’ll be a ceasefire now, he’ll build up his strength (Putin), and then say, ‘Take care, I’m going again’, So we have to stand firm, get through the winter, and then things will go our way.”
14. Exterior of tent
STORYLINE:
Residents in Ukraine's capital, expressed mixed feelings Sunday about the prospects for peace following two-days of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi concluded.

Ukrainians are enduring a harsh winter after repeated Russian strikes on the energy infrastructure have left many without heating and electricity.

More than 1,500 apartment buildings in Kyiv are still without heating in minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 Fahrenheit) following the latest overnight attack, mayor Vitalii Klitschko said Sunday.

Yevheniia Klymenko, 31, a Kyiv resident, said the heating returned to her apartment in the Desnianskyi district shortly before the Jan. 20 attack, but went again after the most recent assault.

She and her husband, Serhii, 33, say they have to dress warmly indoors and place hot water bottles in their 2 year-old daughter's bed to keep her warm.

“We have electricity more often off than on. I have a small child — you have to keep her warm," Klymenko said. "We're already used to it."

The two days of talks involving representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the United States wrapped up Saturday with “constructive” discussions on “possible parameters" for ending the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Negotiators will return to the United Arab Emirates for the next round on Feb. 1, according to a U.S. official who described the meetings as upbeat and positive.

The talks are the first known instance that officials from the Trump administration have sat down with both countries as part of Washington’s push for progress to end Moscow’s nearly 4-year-old invasion.



But Petro, 69, says he sees no point in hoping for negotiations.





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