A Ukrainian drone strike sparked fires at Russia’s Black Sea port of Taman in the Krasnodar region as Russia and Ukraine were preparing for fresh U.S.-brokered talks in Geneva this week, the Associated Press reported. Regional officials said the blast wounded two people and caused damage to facilities including oil storage and port terminals.
The announcement came after officials described additional effects of the drone war beyond the Russian shoreline. In Ukraine’s Odesa region, officials said debris from Russian drones damaged civilian and transport infrastructure and disrupted power and water supply, adding to the pressure on critical services as both sides weigh battlefield posture and diplomatic terms.
Regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said the Sunday attack damaged an oil storage tank, warehouse and terminals at the port, and wounded two people, according to AP. The report did not provide details on the condition of the injured.
Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian energy sites are aimed at depriving Moscow of oil export revenue, AP reported, citing the Ukrainian strategy described in the coverage. Russia, meanwhile, is seeking to cripple Ukraine’s power grid, with Kyiv officials saying the goal is to deny civilians access to heat, light and running water and what Kyiv described as “weaponize winter.”
The strikes came as diplomats prepared for another round of U.S.-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine envoys scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva, just before Feb. 24 marked the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor. The timing put the renewed missile and drone pressure alongside talks that have yet to resolve the most difficult issues.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy raised doubts about what he said were unresolved questions over future security guarantees for Ukraine, AP reported. He also questioned how a free trade zone proposed by the U.S. would operate in the Donbas, a region that Russia says Kyiv must give up for peace.
Zelenskyy said the U.S. wants peace as quickly as possible and that the U.S. team wants agreements on Ukraine signed at the same time, while Ukraine wants guarantees for the country’s future security signed first, according to AP. The concerns were echoed by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a ranking member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Shaheen told reporters in Munich on Sunday that she said the talks would have to produce real security guarantees, saying: “Unless we have real security guarantees on whatever peace agreement is ultimately determined, we are going to be here again, because one of the things we know is that Russia has geared up not just for Ukraine, but to go beyond Ukraine,” AP reported.
European officials also weighed in on how concessions might be structured. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Russia was hoping to win diplomatically what it had failed to achieve on the battlefield and was banking on the U.S. to deliver concessions at the negotiating table, AP reported. She also said that key Russian demands—including lifting sanctions and unfreezing assets—were decisions for Europe.
“If we want a sustainable peace then we need concessions also from the Russian side,” Kallas said at the Munich conference, according to AP.
The AP report said previous U.S.-led efforts to reach consensus have failed, including two rounds of talks in Abu Dhabi, where difficult questions such as the future of Ukraine’s Donbas industrial heartland—largely occupied by Russian forces—remained unresolved.
While both sides move toward Geneva under U.S. facilitation, the drone strikes and infrastructure damage described by officials underscore the stakes attached to the negotiating agenda, from security guarantees to trade arrangements and sanctions relief.