Ukraine war latest: Drones strike oil, chemical plants in Russia as fresh peace talks begin in Geneva
Key developments on Feb. 17
- Ukraine, Russia hold US-mediated Geneva talks focused on 'practical issues,' negotiations to resume Feb. 18
- SBU strikes chemical factory used for explosives production deep inside Russia
- Kremlin threatens to deploy navy if Europe seizes more Russian shadow fleet vessels
- Oil refinery, port terminal struck in Krasnodar Krai amid joint deep strike on southern Russia, Ukraine says
- Russian drone strike on civilian car kills 3 energy workers in Donetsk Oblast
- 1 killed, 25 injured across Ukraine as Russia launches latest mass missile, drone attack
Ukraine, Russia, and the U.S. held a new round of trilateral peace talks in Geneva on Feb. 17, as Washington presses for progress toward a deal before summer.
A follow-up session is scheduled for Feb. 18. This marks the third round of negotiations since January, after earlier meetings ended without a breakthrough.
"Discussions focused on practical issues and the mechanics of possible solutions," Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov said. "We would like to thank our American partners for constructive cooperation."
Umerov, who heads Ukraine's delegation, added that the results of the first day will be reported to President Volodymyr Zelensky today.
Zelensky has indicated that the most sensitive issues, including territories and control over the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, remained unresolved after the UAE talks.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Feb. 16 that this round would cover a broader range of issues than the limited set previously discussed in Abu Dhabi.
"This time, we intend to discuss a wider range of issues, including, in fact, the main issues that concern both the territories and everything else related to our demands," he said.
SBU strikes chemical factory used for explosives production deep inside Russia
Deep strike drones operated by the Security Service of Ukraine successfully hit a large Russian chemicals plant that supplies the country's explosives production, a source in the agency told the Kyiv Independent.
The attack on the Metafrax Chemicals plant in Perm Krai was carried out overnight between Feb. 16-17 by deep strike specialists from the SBU's Alpha unit, which regularly strikes targets deep inside Russian territory.
The facility, a home to methanol, urotropine, urea and pentaerythritol production — all precursors for weapons-grade explosives — is under international sanctions, the SBU said.
Kremlin threatens to deploy navy if Europe seizes more Russian shadow fleet vessels
A top Kremlin official has suggested Moscow could retaliate with its navy if European powers intensify the seizure and boarding of Russian ships in the Baltic Sea.
The threat comes as European countries toy with more direct action against Russia's "shadow fleet," a network of hundreds of tankers, flying foreign flags to evade sanctions.
Presidential aide Nikolai Patrushev, who had previously served as head of the FSB intelligence agency as well as secretary of the Security Council, made the comments to Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty on Feb. 17.
Over the past months, while most continue to operate uninterrupted, some shadow fleet tankers have come under increasing scrutiny, with France, Germany, Finland, and Italy all raiding ships suspected of Russian sanctions evasion, both at port and at sea.
On Jan. 22, the French Navy boarded and seized a suspected shadow fleet ship, later understood to be the tanker GRINCH, in an operation publicized by French President Emmanuel Macron as direct action against the Russian war effort.
The GRINCH was released on Feb. 17, the same day as Patrushev's comments, after paying a fine worth millions of euros, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot wrote.
Oil refinery, port terminal struck in Krasnodar Krai amid joint deep strike on southern Russia, Ukraine says
Drone attacks targeted several regions of Russia overnight on Feb. 17, including the Ilsky oil refinery in Krasnodar Krai, where a large fire broke out following reported strikes, according to Ukraine's General Staff, local authorities, and social media.
In a productive night for Ukraine's long-running deep strike campaign, the Security Service of Ukraine's (SBU) Alpha special forces unit also struck the Tamanneftegaz oil terminal in the same region, a source in the agency told the Kyiv Independent.
The Ilsky refinery, which supplies fuel to Russian troops, processes 6.42 million tons of oil annually, making it one of the largest in southern Russia. Due to its proximity to Black Sea ports, its products are widely used to support Russian military logistics.
At the Tamanneftogaz facility, itself with a reserve capacity of over a million cubic meters of petroleum products, the SBU Alpha strike was the second successful attack on the terminal in less than a month.
The previous strike on Jan. 22, on pipes near the docks and reserve storage buildings, was assessed to have caused damage worth over $50 million.
"At night, local residents wrote on social networks about a series of explosions," the SBU source said.
"As a result of the drone attack, a fire was recorded at the oil transfer complex."
Russian drone strike on civilian car kills 3 energy workers in Donetsk Oblast
Three workers at the Sloviansk Thermal Power Station in Donetsk Oblast were killed, and another was injured on Feb. 17 when a Russian first-person-view (FPV) drone struck their car, the Energy Ministry said.
The civilian car was struck in the town of Mykolaivka, which services the power plant, located east of the city of Sloviansk and only around 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the front line.
Another energy worker in the car was also injured, the region's state emergency service wrote soon after.
Russia's use of FPV drones against civilians in front-line areas — a blatant war crime first practiced at scale in Kherson — has escalated over recent years.
As Russian drone crews steadily increase the range of their weapons, including with the use of unjammable fiber optic cables, more Ukrainian settlements have come into range.
1 killed, 25 injured across Ukraine as Russia launches latest mass missile, drone attack
At least one person has been killed and 25 others injured in Russian attacks against Ukraine over the past day, local authorities said on Feb. 17.
In a major mass attack overnight, Russia launched 4 Iskander-M ballistic missiles, 4 Iskander-K cruise missiles, 20 Kh-101 cruise missiles, one Х-59/69-type cruise missile and 396 long-range drones of various types at Ukraine, the Air Force said.
According to the Air Force, Ukrainian air defenses intercepted all of the cruise missiles and 367 drones.
The four ballistic missiles and 18 of the drones made it through Ukraine's air defense network, striking 13 locations, while debris fell in eight locations.
Overall, nine people were injured by the long-range mass attack, including children, as twelve Ukrainian regions were targeted, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
