BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters marched again in Serbia on Monday with shielded riot police guarding the Belgrade headquarters of Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic, who has threatened a major crackdown against those protesting his populist rule.
The protest led by high school and university students marked 10 months since a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station in Serbia’s northern town of Novi Sad, killing 16 people. The disaster ignited a wave of public outrage, with state corruption and negligence cited as a major cause.
The protests Monday were held in the capital Belgrade and several other towns in Serbia. In Novi Sad, baton wielding police charged against the peaceful protesters, slightly injuring some of them, according to local portals.
Shielded riot police cordons and paramilitary loyalists guarded a park in the downtown of the capital in front of Vucic's headquarters, which has been serving for months as a human shield against the protesters.
The protesters have been demanding early elections, transparent investigations and criminal prosecutions against those responsible for the canopy collapse, as well as free media that Vucic is trying to stifle.
"I think this fight will not be over soon," said Anabela Arsenovic, a student. "There are months ahead of us fighting, but I hope it will at some point and the elections will be held.”
More than a hundred university and high school professors have been sacked as authorities cracked down against their support of the students. They have been replaced by Vucic's loyalists.
The large protest on Monday was held as Vucic, who has claimed he wants to take Serbia to a European Union membership, traveled to China for a gathering that includes Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of China and North Korea, along with the Belarus and Iranian presidents.
Vucic, who has been annoyed by independent media coverage of the protests, has branded the protesters as terrorists who want to unseat him from power.
Thousands of Vucic's supporters marched in several Serbian towns on Sunday in a sign of deep divisions in the Balkan state.
People march during an anti-government rally pressing for an early election after ten months of almost daily anti-corruption demonstrations that have shaken the populist government of President Aleksandar Vucic, in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
People march during an anti-government rally pressing for an early election after ten months of almost daily anti-corruption demonstrations that have shaken the populist government of President Aleksandar Vucic, in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Police officers take positions between government supporters and people taking part in a major anti-government rally pressing for an early election after ten months of almost daily anti-corruption demonstrations that have shaken the populist government of President Aleksandar Vucic, in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has not spared a single Ukrainian power plant from attack since its all-out invasion, Ukraine’s new energy minister said Friday, as a recent escalation of aerial bombardments left hundreds of thousands of people without heat or light for days during the coldest winter in years.
Denys Shmyhal said Russia conducted 612 attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure objects over last year. That barrage has intensified in recent months as nighttime temperatures plunge to minus 18 degrees C (minus 0.4 F).
“Nobody in the world has ever faced such a challenge,” Shmyhal told lawmakers in a speech at Ukraine’s Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.
Russia has hammered Ukraine’s power grid, especially in winter, throughout the almost four-year war. It aims to weaken the Ukrainian will to resist in a strategy that Kyiv officials call “weaponizing winter.”
Securing from abroad new missile supplies for air defenses that can counter Russia’s power grid attacks is a difficult and exhausting process, Zelenskyy said, revealing that some of the country’s air defense systems were out of missiles and at Russia’s mercy until a new shipment arrived Friday morning.
Obtaining supplies requires intense diplomatic pressure due to minimum stockpile levels and national laws in allied countries, according to the Ukrainian leader.
“But honestly, what do those rules and laws mean when we are at war and we desperately need these missiles?” Zelenskyy said.
The grim outlook roughly halfway through the winter season coincides with uncertainty about the direction and progress of U.S.-led peace efforts.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that a Ukrainian delegation is on its way to the United States to try and finalize with Washington documents for a proposed peace settlement that relate to postwar security guarantees and economic recovery.
If American officials approve the proposals, the U.S. and Ukraine could sign the documents next week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zelenskyy said at a Kyiv news conference with Czech President Petr Pavel.
U.S. President Donald Trump plans to be in Davos, organizers say.
Russia would still need to be consulted on the proposals.
In Ukraine, the hardship was acute amid extended blackouts.
“This is a critical moment,” Jaime Wah, the deputy head in the Kyiv delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said Friday.
“This is the hardest winter since the escalation of the conflict: punishing cold temperatures and the lack of heating and electricity are affecting millions who are already pushed to the edge by years of violence and economic strain,” he told a briefing in Geneva.
Ukraine's power shortage is so desperate that Shmyhal urged businesses to switch off their illuminated signage and exterior decorations to save electricity.
“If you have spare energy, better give it to people,” the energy minister said. “This is the most important thing today. People will be grateful.”
Ukraine has introduced emergency measures, including temporarily easing curfew restrictions to allow people to go whenever they need to public heating centers set up by the authorities, Shmyhal said. He said hospitals, schools and other critical infrastructure remain the top priority for electricity and heat supplies.
Officials have instructed state energy companies Ukrzaliznytsia, Naftogaz and Ukroboronprom to urgently purchase imported electricity covering at least 50% of their own consumption, according to Shmyhal.
U.K. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was in Kyiv on Friday to mark the first anniversary of the “100-year partnership” between Britain and Ukraine. To coincide with the anniversary, Britain announced a further 20 million pounds ($27 million) for repairs to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
A grinding war of attrition is continuing along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line. For all its military might, Russia has managed to occupy less than 20% of Ukraine since 2014.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Emergency tents are set up in a residential neighborhood where people can warm up following Russia's regular air attacks against the country's energy objects that leave residents without power, water and heating in the dead of winter, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vladyslav Musiienko)
