Volodymyr Zelensky has been talking up Russia’s battlefield fatalities and has asked his new Defense Minister to make it a priority.

The U.S. and Russia agreed on Thursday to re-establish high level military-to-military dialogue following a meeting between senior Russian and American military officials in Abu Dhabi, the United States European Command said in a statement.

Twelve people have been killed by a Russian drone strike near a company shuttle bus in eastern Ukraine, a regional official has said. Preliminary information also found seven others were injured by the strike in the Dnipropetrovsk region, regional military administration chief Oleksandr Ganzha wrote on Telegram.

American negotiators trumpeted plans for a prisoner swap, but that was small recompense for months of diplomatic efforts by the Trump administration.

The attack knocked out heating to more than 5,600 apartment buildings in the capital, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Nearly 80% of the affected buildings had recently had their heating supply restored after a major Russian barrage on Jan.

By Tom Balmforth KYIV, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Starlink internet terminals used by Russian troops in Ukraine have been deactivated, Kyiv said on Thursday, dealing what one official said was a big battlefield setback for Moscow that had disrupted assault operations.

A senior Ukrainian government official says his country will not accept unfavorable conditions, such as the unilateral withdrawal of troops from the front lines, to end the fighting with Russia.

Blackouts were reported in Kyiv, as well as Zhytomyr and Kharkiv regions, in the center and northeast of the country respectively. The outage cut water supplies to the Ukrainian capital, officials said, while the city’s subway system was temporarily suspended because of low voltage on the network.