Ukrainian drone damages Russian Black Sea port ahead of US-brokered peace talks
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A Ukrainian air strike has ignited a fire at one of Russia’s Black Sea ports, officials said Sunday, ahead of new talks aimed at ending the nearly four-year-old war.
Two people were injured when the attack on the port of Taman, Krasnodar region, destroyed an oil storage tank, warehouse and terminals, said Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.
Meanwhile, falling debris from Russian trucks damaged transport infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region, officials said, causing disruptions to electricity and water supplies.
Ukraine’s long-range strikes on Russian energy fields aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to continue its full-scale offensive. Russia wants to cripple Ukraine’s electricity grid, seeking to deny residents access to heat, light and running water in what officials in Kyiv say is an attempt to “winterize.”
The attack took place before another round of US talks between representatives from Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva, just before the fourth anniversary of the attack on all Russians on its neighbor on February 22.
Ukraine’s security guarantees remain uncertain
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that questions remain about his country’s future security guarantees. Zelenskyy also asked how the concept of a free trade zone – proposed by the US – will work in the Donbas region, with Russia insisting that Kyiv must cease peace.
He said that the American people want peace immediately and the American delegation wants to sign all agreements in Ukraine at the same time, while Ukraine wants to sign guarantees for the future security of the country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was being asked ‘too many times’ to make a deal ahead of US-led peace talks in Geneva next week with Russia.
Zelenskyy’s concerns were echoed by Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“Unless we have real security guarantees in any peace deal that is decided in the end, we will be here again, because one of the things we know is that Russia is not only serious about Ukraine but also beyond Ukraine,” he told reporters in Munich on Sunday.
The head of the European Union’s foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, said that Russia hopes to succeed in communications what it failed to achieve on the battlefield, and is counting on the US to give permission at the negotiating table. But Kallas told the Munich conference on Sunday that Russia’s key demands – including the lifting of sanctions and a freeze on assets – were Europe’s decisions.
“If we want sustainable peace, then we need permission from the Russian side,” he said.
Previous efforts led by the US to find consensus on ending the war – 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 the Ukrainian industrial base Donbas occupied by Russian forces.
