Aryna Sabalenka addresses Ukrainian opponent’s decision to skip handshake after Australian Open semifinal
Top-ranked women’s tennis player Aryna Sabalenka said she respected her opponent’s decision not to shake hands following their semifinal match at the Australian Open on Thursday, a decision that she says most Ukrainian players have been making “for so long.”
Sabalenka, who is Belarusian but is only permitted to play under a neutral flag at Grand Slams since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, defeated Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-2, 6-3.
Before the conclusion of the match, a message on the big screen from Australian Open organizers informed the crowd that the pair would not be shaking hands at the net following its completion.
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“At the conclusion of the match, there will be no handshake between the players. We appreciate your respect for both athletes during and following the match.”
After the match, Sabalenka was asked directly about Svitolina’s decision.
“I’m not focusing on that and they’ve been doing it for so long. It’s their decision and I respect that and I have time right now to respect her and [in the] on-court interview.”
She continued, “I think that she knows I respect her as a player, I know she respects me as a player – that’s all I care [about.] But no handshake, it’s their decision. I respect that.”
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Svitolina spoke highly of Sabalenka’s performance during their semifinal matchup. She was not asked directly about the handshake, but did say she chooses to remain optimistic despite such a crushing defeat because of the circumstances in her home country.
“I feel like I should not be allowed to really be sad. I have a great position. Firstly, not just as a personal perspective, I have this amazing opportunity to play in the center court here, represent my country, to do it in a decent way, to have an opportunity to use my voice and just be there for my people.”
“When I wake up in the morning, I see, of course, terrifying news but then I see people watching my matches, they write comments and they’re really – I think it’s a big exchange of positive emotions so I can not complain. The people are really living a horrible and terrifying life in Ukraine, so I should not be allowed to really be sad because I am a very, very lucky person.”
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With her victory on Thursday, Sabalenka set up a rematch of her 2023 final against Elena Rybakina. She became the third woman in the Open era to reach four consecutive singles finals at the Australian Open.
Trump says Putin agreed to halt Kyiv strikes for one week amid brutal cold
President Donald Trump said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to not open fire on Kyiv, Ukraine, for one week due to the freezing weather rocking the region.
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week during this,” Trump said. “It’s extraordinary cold, record-setting cold. Over there too, they’re having the same conditions. It’s a big it’s a big pile of bad weather. The worst. But it was, it really they said, they’ve never experienced cold like that.”
The president held his first Cabinet meeting of 2026 Thursday, where he welcomed special envoy Steve Witkoff to the table to provide updates on his negotiations with Russia to end the war on Ukraine.
Trump continued that he’s happy he made the call to Putin despite warnings to not “waste” a call to the Russian leader.
RUSSIA, UKRAINE TO DISCUSS TERRITORY AS TRUMP SAYS BOTH SIDES ‘WANT TO MAKE A DEAL’
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that,” Trump said. “And I have to tell you, I was very nice. A lot of people said, don’t waste that call. You’re not going to get that. And he did it. And we’re very happy that they did it.”
Trump added that the agreement was a “very good thing.”
Russian strikes in Kyiv, Ukraine, have hobbled the city’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks, with Reuters reporting Monday that more than 1,300 apartment buildings in Ukraine’s capital have been without heat in the chilling temperatures. The strikes also have left much of the population without electricity and running water.
Witkoff said Thursday during the Cabinet meeting that negotiations have moved along productively and that the people of Ukraine are “hopeful and expecting that we’re going to deliver a peace deal sometime soon.”
Witkoff and fellow administration envoy Jared Kushner joined trilateral peace talks earlier in January with Ukraine and Russia as the nations inch toward a hopeful peace deal.
WITKOFF AND KUSHNER SCHEDULED TO MEET PUTIN IN MOSCOW
“We had five Russian generals last Sunday in Abu Dhabi with Jared and I and Dan Driscoll. We think we made a lot of progress,” Witkoff said. “The talks will continue in about a week, but lots of good things happening. … We have a security protocol agreement that’s largely finished. A prosperity agreement that’s largely, largely finished.”
ZELENSKYY HOLDING UP RUSSIA-UKRAINE PEACE PROCESS, TRUMP SAYS
A monthly chart of the weather in Kyiv, Ukraine, shows it has been brutally cold similar to temperatures rocking many parts of the U.S., as winter storm Fern careened across much of the United States Saturday and Sunday. The month of January in Kyiv, Ukraine, shows the highest temperature reaching 34° Fahrenheit and the lowest hitting -5° Fahrenheit, according to weather data.
The war in Ukraine has raged since the Biden administration as Russia looks to take hold of the nation and expand its footprint in Europe. The war will notch its four-year anniversary Feb. 24.
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Trump campaigned in part on ending the war in Ukraine, arguing it never would have unfolded if he had been re-elected during the 2020 campaign cycle.
The president has noted that the war in Ukraine has been more difficult to solve than he anticipated, while touting he has ended eight other wars since he was sworn back into the Oval Office just more than one year ago.
Combined war casualties for Russia and Ukraine could hit 2 million, new report warns
A new report is warning that the combined war casualties in the nearly four-year Russia-Ukraine war could hit 2 million by spring 2026. The number includes soldiers killed, injured or missing on both sides of the conflict.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released a report on Tuesday predicting the grim milestone. CSIS states that Russia suffered 1.2 million casualties, including 325,000 troop deaths, between February 2022 and December 2025. It estimates that Ukraine suffered between 500,000 to 600,000 casualties, including 140,000 troop deaths. CSIS estimates that the current combined Russian and Ukrainian casualties could be as high as 1.8 million.
Getting a clear picture of the fatalities and casualties suffered on both sides is not easy as neither Moscow nor Kyiv gives timely data on military losses, according to The Associated Press, which noted that the two countries are also simultaneously focused on amplifying each other’s casualties. Russia has publicly acknowledged the deaths of just over 6,000 soldiers, the AP reported.
The outlet noted that activists and independent journalists have said that reports of military losses have been repressed in Russian media.
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“Despite claims of battlefield momentum in Ukraine, the data shows that Russia is paying an extraordinary price for minimal gains and is in decline as a major power,” the report reads.
“No major power has suffered anywhere near these numbers of casualties or fatalities in any war since World War II,” the report notes.
Russian battlefield casualties and fatalities have been “significantly higher” than Ukraine’s, according to the report.
CSIS estimates the ratio to be roughly 2.5:1 or 2:1. CSIS points to several reasons for the high Russian casualties and fatalities, including the country’s “failure to effectively conduct combined arms and joint warfare, poor tactics and training, corruption, low morale and Ukraine’s effective defense-in-depth strategy in a war that favors the defense.” The report also states that Russia has accepted taking high casualties as part of its strategy.
“Russia’s attrition strategy has accepted the costs of high casualties in hopes of eventually wearing down Ukraine’s military and society,” CSIS states in its report.
ZELENSKYY SAYS US SECURITY GUARANTEES DOCUMENT IS ‘100% READY’ FOR SIGNING
In addition to its high casualty rate, Russia has also been advancing “remarkably slowly,” according to the report. CSIS stated in its report that Russian forces had advanced at an average rate of 15 to 70 meters (49 to 230 feet) per day in its most prominent offenses since seizing the military initiative in January 2024. The authors of the report say Russia’s pace is “slower than almost any major offensive campaign in any war in the last century.”
The report comes less than one month before the fourth anniversary of Russia invading Ukraine. Despite international mediators, including the U.S., making attempts to end the war, it has persisted, with both sides suffering casualties.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said two people were killed during Russian strikes that hit an apartment block on the outskirts of Kyiv, the AP reported. Additionally, at least nine people were injured in separate attacks on the Ukrainian cities of Odesa and Kryvyi Rih.
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Representatives for Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. recently met in the United Arab Emirates for the first trilateral talks since 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that the “conversations were constructive.”
“A lot was discussed, and it is important that the conversations were constructive,” he wrote on X, noting the delegations could have further meetings as early as next week. “As a result of the meetings held over these days, all sides agreed to report back in their capitals on each aspect of the negotiations and to coordinate further steps with their leaders.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Russia and Ukraine’s foreign affairs ministries.
Russian drone attack on passenger train is an ‘act of terrorism,’ Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian attack drones struck a civilian passenger train in the Kharkiv region on Tuesday, killing at least four people in what he called an “act of terrorism.”
“In any country, a drone strike on a civilian train would be regarded in the same way – purely as an act of terrorism. There would be no doubt about the classification, neither in Europe, nor in America, nor in the Arab world, nor in China, nor anywhere else,” he wrote in a post on X. “There is, and can be, no military justification for killing civilians in a train carriage.”
The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office said Wednesday on Telegram that the number of confirmed fatalities had risen to five, with two people injured and one man reported missing.
Oleksiy Kuleba, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, said three Russian drones were used in the attack on the train, which was carrying more than 200 people.
ZELENSKYY SAYS FRESH RUSSIAN ATTACK ON UKRAINE SHOWS PUTIN’S ‘TRUE ATTITUDE’ AHEAD OF TRUMP MEETING
Eighteen passengers were inside the carriage hit by one of the drones, he added.
The attack followed trilateral talks between Moscow, Kyiv and Washington in Abu Dhabi over the weekend that were aimed at ending the nearly four-year war.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said the meetings were “very constructive” and plans were being made for the sides to meet again this week.
RUSSIA, UKRAINE TO DISCUSS TERRITORY AS TRUMP SAYS BOTH SIDES ‘WANT TO MAKE A DEAL’
“President Trump and his entire team are dedicated to bringing peace to this war,” Witkoff said.
Russia has continued to strike Kyiv’s energy infrastructure during negotiations, leaving thousands of residents without power and heat as winter conditions persist.
RUSSIA HAS SUFFERED MORE CASUALTIES IN UKRAINE WAR THAN ALL OTHER CONFLICTS COMBINED SINCE WWII: PENTAGON
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Zelenskyy said significant outages remain across the region, with hundreds of residential buildings in three districts of the capital still without heating despite ongoing repair efforts.
“Repair crews are working at maximum capacity. Crews from almost across the entire country have been deployed to assist,” he noted.
Zelenskyy says US security guarantees document is ‘100% ready’ for signing
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a long-anticipated document on U.S. security guarantees is “100% ready” for signing, with Kyiv now waiting for its American partners to confirm the date and place before the agreement moves to ratification in both the U.S. Congress and the Ukrainian parliament.
“For us, security guarantees are first and foremost guarantees of security from the United States. The document is 100% ready,” Zelenskyy said Sunday at a joint press conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, with the presidents of Lithuania and Poland, according to a translation of his remarks from Reuters.
Zelenskyy reiterated at the press conference that Ukraine views membership in the European Union as another core security guarantee and is aiming to join the bloc by 2027, the Ukrainian president’s office said in a statement on its website.
His remarks come after Ukraine, Russia and the United States held trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi for two days over the weekend.
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Zelenskyy said on X that the discussions, which involved political and military representatives from all three sides, were “constructive” and focused on potential parameters for ending his country’s war with Russia.
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The talks in the United Arab Emirates followed a meeting in Moscow on Thursday between Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and head of the Federal Acquisition Service Josh Gruenbaum.
Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said the “extremely frank” discussions lasted roughly four hours and included U.S. officials updating Moscow on their recent conversations with Ukrainian and European leaders, according to a summary of the meeting from the Kremlin.
Territorial issues remain a key obstacle in the negotiations, with Moscow pressing Kyiv to relinquish parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region that Russian forces do not fully control.
ZELENSKYY SAYS UKRAINE, AHEAD OF TRUMP MEETING, IS ‘WILLING TO DO WHATEVER IT TAKES’ TO END WAR WITH RUSSIA
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U.S. officials told Axios that negotiations examined the full range of unresolved issues, from Russia’s territorial demands in the Donbas to control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and potential steps to prevent a return to fighting.
Another U.S. official told the outlet a second round of talks is scheduled to take place on Feb. 1.
Zelenskyy touts ‘constructive’ trilateral talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday described recent trilateral talks between the United States, Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi as “constructive,” saying the meetings marked the first format of their kind in some time and focused on potential parameters for ending Moscow’s war.
Zelenskyy said the talks, which were hosted by the United Arab Emirates over two days, involved political and military representatives from all three sides and addressed security-related issues, including the need for American monitoring and oversight.
“A lot was discussed, and it is important that the conversations were constructive,” he wrote on X, noting the delegations could have further meetings as early as next week. “As a result of the meetings held over these days, all sides agreed to report back in their capitals on each aspect of the negotiations and to coordinate further steps with their leaders.”
The Abu Dhabi talks followed a meeting in Moscow on Thursday between Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Josh Gruenbaum, the head of the Federal Acquisition Service.
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Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said the “extremely frank” discussions lasted roughly four hours and included U.S. officials updating Moscow on their recent conversations with Ukrainian and European leaders.
“Importantly, the participants in the conversation between the President of Russia and the Americans reaffirmed the fact that bringing about a lasting settlement would be unlikely without addressing the territorial issue based on the formula as agreed in Anchorage,” Ushakov said, according to a summary of the meeting from the Kremlin.
Territorial issues remain a key obstacle in the negotiations, with Moscow pressing Kyiv to relinquish parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region that Russian forces do not fully control.
RUSSIA, UKRAINE TO DISCUSS TERRITORY AS TRUMP SAYS BOTH SIDES ‘WANT TO MAKE A DEAL’
The diplomatic efforts come as Russia continues its strikes across Ukraine, targeting the country’s energy sector, critical infrastructure and residential areas.
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Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Russian forces had launched more than 1,700 attack drones, over 1,380 guided aerial bombs and 69 missiles in the past week alone.
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The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, said ahead of the trilateral talks that it was deploying 447 emergency generators to help restore power to hospitals, shelters and critical services, as more than one million Ukrainians face outages amid freezing temperatures.
“The EU will not let Russia freeze Ukraine into submission and will continue helping Ukrainians get through this winter,” the commission said.
Russia, Ukraine to discuss territory as Trump says both sides ‘want to make a deal’
The U.S., Russia and Ukraine are meeting in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), to discuss one of the major sticking points stopping a deal to end the nearly four-year war: territorial disputes. The talks in Abu Dhabi are the first trilateral talks since 2022.
The trilateral sit-down comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump in Davos and Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s meeting with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Witkoff and Kushner traveled to the UAE for the talks after their meeting with Putin in Moscow on Thursday.
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Zelenskyy and Putin are under increasing pressure to reach a peace deal as the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s invasion approaches and President Donald Trump pushes to end the war.
While Russia has demanded Ukraine cede the Donbas, Zelenskyy has stood firm in his opposition to making land concessions, though the discussions in Abu Dhabi suggest that he could be ready to negotiate. Putin is demanding Ukraine surrender the 20% it holds of the Donetsk region of the Donbas, according to Reuters.
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“The question of Donbas is key. It will be discussed how the three sides… see this in Abu Dhabi today and tomorrow,” Zelenskyy told reporters via WhatsApp, according to Reuters. The outlet added that an aide for Zelenskyy said the talks are expected to continue Saturday.
The envoys are meeting as Ukrainians face below-freezing temperatures after Russian strikes damaged the country’s power supply.
Maxim Timchenko, the head of Ukraine’s top private power producer, told Reuters that the situation was nearing a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
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While speaking with reporters on Air Force One, Trump was asked if the trilateral meeting could lead to one with himself, Putin and Zelenskyy. He would not commit but said that “any time we meet, it’s good.” He also expressed doubts about whether Putin wanted to take over all of Ukraine.
“What’s happened here is there were times when Putin didn’t want to make a deal, times when Zelenskyy didn’t want to make a deal, and it was opposite times. Now, I think they both want to make a deal. We’ll find out,” Trump said.
The president also acknowledged that the topics of the discussions that were happening had been debated for months.