Below are the main developments on the day that takes 10,090 from Russia’s widespread invasion of Ukraine.
This is the situation on Tuesday, February 18:
Fighting
- The Ukraine Army said that Russia fired a barrage of 147 drones against Ukraine overnight. From this, the Ukrainian Air Force reported the dropping of 83, while 59 did not reach their targets. Several storage facilities and private housing have been reported.
- The Caspian pipeline federation said that Ukrainian drones hit one of the major oil pipelines at the Krupotkinskaya Pump Station in southern Russia in the Krasnodar region, affecting the offer from neighboring Kazakhstan.
- The security service in Ukraine demanded that it be responsible for the attack on the oil pipeline and said that the oil refinery in Moscow in Krasnodar was also hit by at least 20 explosions in the area.
- The Russian Ministry of Defense said that its forces had acquired the settlement of Vixa in the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine. A second advertisement later said that the village of Sfildlikovo in the Russian Cursk region had recovered from the Ukraine forces.
Politics and diplomacy
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Saudi Arabia before the planned peace talks between the United States and Russian officials on the war in Ukraine.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Russia will be represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Foreign Policy Director Yuri Ushakov at the United States’ meetings in his head.
- Peskov also said that Russian officials will speak with their American counterparts about restoring relations, negotiating a peaceful settlement of the war in Ukraine and preparing a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.
- The Kremlin said that any plans to deploy European peacekeepers after Kiev and Moscow faced a peace deal that would make it “complicated.”
- French President Emmanuel Macron hosted an emergency meeting with the leaders of the main European Union countries at the Elysee Palace in Paris to discuss the European Union’s reaction to peace talks in Washington with Moscow.
- Hungary Foreign Minister Peter Szigarto told a media conference that the Paris meeting, to discuss the transformation of the United States ’policy towards Moscow in its war on Ukraine, would be an attempt to” prevent “peace. “Unlike them, we support Donald Trump’s ambitions; unlike them, we support US -Russian negotiations; unlike them, we want peace in Ukraine.”
- Lavrov asked Russia why Europe invited to join talks about peace settlement in Ukraine if European politicians want the war to continue. He also said that Russia will not even look at regional concessions to Ukraine in future peace talks.
- A spokesman for Ukrainian President Folodimir Zellinski, Sergey Nikiforov, said that the Ukrainian leader will travel to Saudi Arabia on a “long -standing plan” on the day after the meeting between Russia and US officials.
- The Ukrainian leader also said that he would not know any result of the talks of Washington Moscow in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which did not include Kiev.
- Zelinski met with the Sheikh of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed Al -Nayhane, during a visit to the United Arab Emirates, where Sheikh Mohammed is committed to supporting the efforts made by a peaceful solution to the war and continuous initiatives to alleviate the human impact.
- Zelenskyy is now in Turkiye to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the exchange of prisoners between Ukraine and Russia.