Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events – day 1,090

Here is the situation on Tuesday, February 18:

Fighting

• Ukraine’s military said Russia launched a barrage of 147 attack drones against Ukraine overnight. Out of this, the Ukrainian Air Force reported shooting down 83, while 59 did not reach their targets. Reports of damage to a number of storage facilities and private residences
• The supply from neighboring Kazakhstan was impacted by Ukrainian drones hitting one of its major oil pipelines in the Krasnodar region’s Kropotkinskaya pumping station, according to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium.
• At least 20 explosions were audible in the area, according to the Ukraine’s Security Service, which claimed responsibility for the pipeline attack and claimed responsibility for the attack.
• The settlement of Fyholivka in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine was taken, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Sverdlikovo, a village in the Kursk region of Russia, was later reported as having been seized from Ukrainian forces in a second announcement.

Politics &amp, Diplomacy

• Prior to scheduled peace talks between US and Russian officials over the Ukraine war, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Saudi Arabia.
• Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister, and Yuri Ushakov, the head of foreign policy, both confirmed Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Kremlin, at the meetings with the US in Riyadh.

• Russian officials will talk with US counterparts about renouncing ties with Russia, negotiating a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine war, and setting up a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, according to Peskov.
• The issue would be “complex,” according to the Kremlin, if Kyiv and Moscow were to reach a peace agreement and start sending European peacekeeping forces there.
• At the Elysee Palace in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron met with senior European Union leaders to discuss the EU’s response to Washington’s peace talks with Moscow.
• Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a media briefing that the Paris meeting, to discuss the US’s policy shift 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 the US-Russian negotiations, unlike them, we want peace in Ukraine”, Szijjarto said.
• If European politicians want the conflict to continue, Russia’s Lavrov questioned why Europe should be invited to join negotiations for a peace agreement in Ukraine. In upcoming peace talks, he added, Russia won’t even consider making territorial concessions to Ukraine.

• The Ukrainian leader will visit Saudi Arabia on a “long-planned” visit the day after the meeting between Russia and US officials is over, according to Sergii Nykyforov, the spokesperson for Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office.

The Ukrainian leader added that he would not accept the Saudi Arabian talks’ outcome, including those that didn’t involve Kyiv.
• Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates and Zelenskyy met with Sheikh Mohammed during a visit to the UAE, where Sheikh Mohammed reportedly pledged to continue supporting efforts to end the conflict and to lessen the impact of human trafficking.
• Zelenskyy is currently in Turkiye to meet with Russian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to talk about prisoner-exchanges between Ukraine and Russia.