Poltava Oblast Governor Filip Pronin on Dec. 7, 2023. (Filip Pronin/Telegram)
Russian forces attacked Poltava Oblast with drones overnight on Feb. 19-20, causing a fire to break out at an industrial facility in the Kremenchuk district, Governor Filip Pronin reported.
According to Pronin, the attack hit an industrial facility and caused a substantial fire that required 85 firefighters to extinguish.
No casualties were reported.
A Russian drone attack previously struck an industrial facility in Poltava Oblast on Feb. 18. Throughout the winter months, Russia has ramped up aerial attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure.
An earlier attack on Feb. 2 damaged a granary in Poltava Oblast.
Abbey Fenbert is a senior news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She is a freelance writer, editor, and playwright with an MFA from Boston University. Abbey served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine from 2008-2011.
The news comes a few hours after Zelensky announced he would appoint Kyrylo Budanov, head of the military intelligence, to take charge of the President’s Office.
Along the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, the front line has remained largely static, but fighting continues every day. The Kyiv Independent’s Francis Farrell and Olena Zashko embedded with Ukraine’s forces in Kherson Oblast, following FPV drone and night bomber teams tasked with defending river islands.
The poll also revealed that 69% of Ukrainians support a peace plan that would freeze the war with security guarantees, as long as Ukraine is not forced to officially recognize Russian-occupied territories as part of Russia, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology said.
Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service warned on Jan. 2 that Russia may be preparing a provocation as part of its efforts to disrupt the U.S.-mediated peace talks.
Earlier on Jan. 1, Volodymyr Saldo, a Ukrainian politician turned top Russian proxy head of Russian-occupied parts of Kherson Oblast, accused Kyiv of launching three drones at a hotel and a cafe on the Black Sea coast. Saldo claimed that the alleged New Year drone strike on the village of Khorly killed 24 people, including a child, and wounded more than 50.
Russian forces occupied 4,336 square kilometers (1,674 square miles) of Ukrainian territory in 2025, accounting for less than 1% of the country, the Ukrainian open-source mapping project DeepState reported in an year-end assessment published on Jan. 1.
Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, over 100 animals and five people, including employees and volunteers, have been killed by Russian forces on the eco-park's grounds.
Ukraine is preparing to host a new round of high-level security discussions with Western partners in early January, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Dec. 30, signaling an effort to maintain diplomatic momentum.
Ukraine formally joined the European Union's single roaming zone on Jan. 1, allowing Ukrainian citizens to use their mobile phone service across the European bloc without incurring additional charges.
Patriot is one of the world's most advanced air defense systems, capable of intercepting aircraft as well as cruise, ballistic, and hypersonic missiles.
