Ukrainian drone strike sparks fire at Russian Black Sea port ahead of talks

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A fire broke out at one of Russia's Black Sea ports on Sunday after a Ukrainian drone strike, wounding at least two people, officials said. The strike comes days ahead of fresh U.S.-brokered talks aimed at ending the nearly 4-year-old war.

The strike on the port of Taman in the Krasnodar region damaged an oil storage tank, warehouse and terminals, according to regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev. Meanwhile, falling debris from Russian drones damaged civilian and transport infrastructure in Ukraine's Odesa region, officials said, disrupting the power and water supply.

Kondratyev said that more than 100 people were working to put out several fires at the port, according to Reuters. He added that strikes hit the resort city of Sochi and the village of Yurovka, causing less significant damage.

Aftermath of a Russian drone attack in Odesa

Ukraine's long-range drone strikes on Russian energy sites aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion. Russia wants to cripple the Ukrainian power grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials say is an attempt to "weaponize winter."

The attacks came just days ahead of another round of U.S.-brokered talks between envoys from Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva. There have already been two rounds of talks under this trilateral format so far this year, held in Abu Dhabi, but this week's session will be the first on European soil, and it comes just days before the fourth anniversary of the all-out Russian invasion of its neighbor on Feb. 22.

Neither side has voiced any optimism that the negotiations will yield a comprehensive ceasefire agreement, but there has been some progress on other issues.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested there were still questions remaining over future security guarantees for his country. Zelenskyy also questioned how the concept of a free trade zone — proposed by the U.S. — would work in the Donbas region, which Russia insists Kyiv must give up for peace.

He said the Americans want peace as quickly as possible and that the U.S. team wants to sign all the agreements on Ukraine at the same time, whereas Ukraine wants guarantees for the country's future security signed first.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Zelenskyy in Munich and they spoke on "Ukraine's security and deepening defense and economic partnerships."

"President Trump wants a solution that ends the bloodshed once and for all," Rubio said in a social media post.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a ranking member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, echoed Zelenskyy's concerns.

"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," she told reporters in Munich on Sunday.

European Union 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. But Kallas told the Munich conference Sunday that key Russian demands — including the lifting of sanctions and unfreezing of assets — were decisions for Europe.

"If we want a sustainable peace then we need concessions also from the Russian side," she said.

Previous U.S.-led efforts to find consensus on ending the war, most recently two rounds of talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, have failed to resolve difficult issues, such as the future of Ukraine's Donbas industrial heartland that is largely occupied by Russian forces.

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