These are important developments since day 1,455 of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
listen to this article4 minutes
information
Published February 18, 2026
Here’s what happened on Wednesday, February 18th.
finding
A Russian drone attacked a civilian vehicle in the city of Mykolaivka in the Kramatorsk region of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, killing three people, the country’s emergency services said in a statement. The three people and another person injured in the attack were workers at the Sloviansk thermal power plant, Kyiv Independent News Agency reported. A woman injured in a Russian drone strike in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya region has died, Governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on the messaging app Telegram. Six people, including two children, were injured in the attack, Fedorov said. Evgen Balitsky, a Russian-appointed official in the Russian-occupied region of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya region, said a woman was killed by Ukrainian military shelling in the village of Vozhane, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported. One person was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in the village of Kalinovka in Russia’s Kursk region, Governor Alexander Hinshteyn announced, TASS news agency reported. Three people were killed after part of the building collapsed after reports of an explosion at a military police facility in the town of Sertovo, Russia’s Leningrad region, Governor Alexander Drozdenko announced. The cause of the explosion remained unknown.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces announced that military units attacked the Irsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region, causing a fire.
Russian authorities in Krasnodar later announced that a fire at an oil reservoir in the Black Sea port of Taman, which was damaged by a drone attack, had been extinguished. Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced that it shot down 151 Ukrainian military drones over the skies in several Russian regions and over the Black Sea and Azov seas between Monday night and Tuesday morning, TASS reported. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko admitted that Starlink satellite internet terminals used by the Russian military for communications had been “out of service for two weeks.” It’s been about two weeks since Ukrainian officials announced that the terminal used by the Russian military had been disconnected at the direction of Starlink owner Elon Musk. Krivoruchko said the loss of Starlink “has not affected the strength or effectiveness” of Russia’s drone operations.
peace negotiations
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators concluded the first round of two days of U.S.-brokered peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday, and talks are expected to continue on Wednesday. The Geneva negotiations follow two previous rounds in Abu Dhabi. In his daily evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was ready to “move quickly towards a worthy agreement to end the war,” but he also questioned whether Russia was serious about peace. “What do they want?” He also accused them of prioritizing missile strikes over “real diplomacy.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier told reporters he did not think he would be able to share any updates after the first day of talks in Geneva. “I don’t think we should expect any news today,” he said.
politics and diplomacy
Cardinal Pietro Parolin said Tuesday that the Vatican will not participate in U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace commission. “I would say that for us… there are some important issues to resolve,” Parolin said, noting that the Vatican “insists” that “first and foremost it is the United Nations that will manage these critical situations.” President Trump’s peace commission has drawn criticism for inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to participate, even though the Russian government has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the Russian leader is wanted by the International Criminal Court on suspicion of war crimes. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrault announced on Tuesday that French authorities have allowed the Grinch oil tanker, believed to be part of Russia’s shadow fleet, to leave French waters after the company that owns the ship paid a penalty of “several million euros”.
