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Here is the situation on Friday, February 14:

Fighting

• A Russian drone with a high-explosive warhead hit the protective containment shell of the Chornobyl nuclear power reactor in the Kyiv region, Ukraine said. The Kremlin dismissed Kyiv’s accusation as a “provocation”.
• Russia said Kyiv conducted an artillery attack on a thermal power plant it controls in southern Ukraine, which is located near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, causing “critical damage” to energy infrastructure.
• Russia’s Defence Ministry announced that its forces have captured Ukraine’s Vodyane Druhe settlement in the Donetsk region.
• Moscow claimed it launched a coordinated overnight attack on Ukraine’s military airfields, ports and workshops for drone production, as well as fuel and lubricant storage sites.
• Ukraine launched a huge wave of drones as well as missiles, Russia said, with 202 unmanned aerial vehicles shot down, along with three French-made Hammer guided bombs and United States-made HIMARS rockets.
• Ukraine’s Security Service said the attack targeted Russia’s Andreapol oil pumping station, causing an oil leak and subsequent fire, the Reuters news agency reports.
• Russia launched 140 drones in an overnight attack, the DPA news agency reports, with Ukrainian forces reportedly destroying 85 and more than 50 being lost before reaching a target. Damage and injuries were reported in Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Odesa regions.

Resident Natalia collects her granddaughter’s toys that were scattered around her home after it was hit by a Russian air strike in the town of Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on February 9, 2025 [Anatolii Stepanov/Reuters]

• Ukrainian military commander Oleksandr Syrskii said his troops hold about 500 square kilometres (193 square miles) of Russia’s western Kursk region. The figure is about 800sq km (309sq miles) less than what Kyiv’s forces controlled in September.
• A  Russian attack on the town of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region killed a 46-year-old man and wounded five others, including a 16-year-old girl. A separate attack in the southern region of Kherson reportedly killed two more, aged 58 and 62.

Politics & Diplomacy

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was ready for direct talks with Russia once Kyiv reached a common position with the US and Europe on how to end the war. “We are ready for any conversations with America and our allies. If they provide us with specific answers to specific requests from us and a common understanding of the dangerous Putin, then, with our unified understanding, we will be ready to talk with the Russians,” he said in Munich where he will hold talks with US Vice President JD Vance on Friday.

• UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Zelenskyy that there could be no peace talks in the Ukraine-Russia conflict without Ukraine’s involvement. He said Kyiv needs “strong security guarantees” if a deal is struck.

• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin needed to be organised “promptly”.
• Peskov said Moscow wants to discuss European security with the US president.
• Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told the Le Monde newspaper that Kyiv and Europe should not be excluded from future talks between Trump and Putin on ending the war in Ukraine.
• Zelenskyy said Kyiv would not accept any agreements on his country’s fate decided on by Washington and Moscow if Ukraine and Europe were not involved. He also called for a plan to “stop Putin” before any peace talks happen.
• Zelenskyy also warned global leaders against trusting Putin’s claim of willingness to end Russia’s war on Ukraine.
• The European Union’s foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas warned that any deal on the war in Ukraine made behind Europe’s back would fail.

• Moldova’s Foreign Ministry “urgently” summoned Russia’s ambassador after two Russian drones exploded in Moldovan territory.
• The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the number of documented missing people due to the Russian war on Ukraine more than doubled to 50,000 in the past year. The ICRC said about 90 percent of those missing are men and women in the military.
• NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the military alliance had to make sure Putin never attacks Ukraine again but clarified that Ukraine was never promised NATO membership as part of a peace deal.
• Reuters reported that the United Arab Emirates has offered to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
• Two girls have been brought back to Russia from Ukraine thanks to mediation by Qatar after being separated from their mother because of the war, Russian children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova said. Altogether 17 children from 11 families had been reunited with families in Russia, while 95 children from 75 families had rejoined relatives in Ukraine and other countries.

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