Here are the latest updates as of Wednesday, February 18:
Fighting
A Russian drone strike on a civilian car in the city of Mykolaivka, in the Kramatorsk district of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, killed three people, the region’s emergency service said in a statement.
The three deceased, as well as another person injured in the attack, were all workers at the Sloviansk thermal power plant, according to the Kyiv Independent.
A woman has died after being injured in a Russian drone attack, Ivan Fedorov, the governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, said on the Telegram messaging app. Six other people were injured, including two children, Fedorov said.
A woman was killed by Ukrainian shelling in the village of Vodiane, in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, the Russian-installed official there, Yevhen Balitsky, said, according to Russia’s TASS state news agency.
One person was killed in the village of Kalinovka in Russia’s Kursk region following a Ukrainian drone attack, the region’s governor, Alexander Khinshtein, said, according to TASS.
An explosion at a military police facility in the town of Sertolovo in Russia’s Leningrad region caused a partial building collapse and killed three people, the region’s governor, Aleksandr Drozdenko, said. The cause of the explosion was not immediately known.
Ukrainian forces attacked the Ilsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region, sparking a fire, the Ukrainian General Staff said.
Russian authorities in Krasnodar later said a fire at an oil reservoir in the Black Sea port of Taman following a drone attack had been extinguished.
Russian air defense shot down 151 Ukrainian drones overnight Monday into Tuesday over several Russian regions and the Black and Azov seas, the Russian Defense Ministry said, according to TASS.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexey Krivoruchko acknowledged that Starlink satellite internet terminals used by Russian forces for communication have been “disconnected for two weeks.” This comes after Ukrainian officials said nearly two weeks ago that the terminals used by Russian forces were disconnected on the instructions of Starlink owner Elon Musk.
Krivoruchko said the Starlink disconnection has “not affected” the intensity or effectiveness of Russian drone operations.
Peace Talks
The first day of two-day, US-brokered talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials aimed at ending the war ended in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday. Negotiations are set to continue on Wednesday. The Geneva talks follow two rounds of discussions in Abu Dhabi.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his nightly address, said he is ready to “move toward a worthy agreement to end the war as quickly as possible,” but questioned Russia’s sincerity in seeking peace. “What exactly do they want?” he added, accusing Russia of prioritizing missile attacks over “real diplomacy.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier told reporters he did not expect any new developments to share after the first day of the Geneva talks. “I don’t think we should expect any news today,” he said.
Politics & Diplomacy
The Vatican will not participate in US President Donald Trump’s peace commission, Cardinal Pietro Parolin said on Tuesday.
“For us, there are key issues to be addressed,” Parolin said, adding that the Vatican has always “insisted” that the “primary responsibility for managing these crisis situations lies with the United Nations.”
Trump’s peace commission has drawn criticism, including for inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and an International Criminal Court warrant for Putin’s arrest over alleged war crimes.
French authorities have allowed the oil tanker Gringo, suspected of being part of Russia’s shadow fleet, to leave French territorial waters after its owners paid a “multi-million euro” fine, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Tuesday.