Russia reports massive Ukraine drone attack on strategic port and logistics hub
In this handout photograph taken on Feb. 24, 2025 and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on Feb. 25, 2025, allied leaders visit an exhibition of the latest drones in Kyiv, Ukraine. Handout/UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SER
(LONDON) — Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have shot down 130 Ukrainian drones on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, in what appears to be among Kyiv’s largest ever long-range strike into Russian territory.
Moscow said that 85 Ukrainian drones were shot down over the southern Russian region of Krasnodar Krai, with 30 more over Crimea. Another eight drones were downed over the Sea of Azov, five over the Black Sea and one each over Bryansk and Kursk regions, the ministry said.
The drones over Krasnodar appeared to mass around the Black Sea port of Tuapse, which sits between the resort city of Sochi and the Russian naval base at Novorossiysk.
Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said several houses in the Krasnodar Krai region were damaged by drone strikes or falling debris.
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said on Telegram that Russian authorities “reported an attack on the seaport in Tuapse,” which he described as “one of the key cargo ports of the Russian Federation on the Black Sea.”
“There is an oil terminal there — one of the largest in Russia,” Kovalenko added. “Oil and oil products are transported through the port, which makes it important for the Russian energy industry.”
Kovalenko said the port processes significant volumes of coal, mineral fertilizers, metal products and grain, plus serves as a rail and logistics hub for Russia’s central and southern regions.
“The port plays an important role in supporting military logistics,” Kovalenko wrote. “It is used to transport equipment, ammunition and fuel for military needs. It provides logistical support to the ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, in particular those involved in the war against Ukraine.”
Ukraine’s air force, meanwhile, reported another night of Russian cross-border attacks on Tuesday night. The air force said Russia fired 177 drones into Ukraine, of which 110 were shot down and 66 were lost in flight.
The air force reported engagements in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad and Sumy regions.
Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
(LONDON) — One person was killed and least six others, including a pregnant woman, were injured in Kyiv as Russia launched more than 100 drones in an overnight strike into New Year’s Day, Ukrainian military and civilian officials said.
“In war, there are no holidays, and for Russia, nothing is sacred or inviolable,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. “It spares no one, killing people even amidst New Year celebrations, starting a deadly countdown from the very first day. The world must not allow tyranny and dictatorship to go unpunished or endorsed in the new year.”
Ukraine’s air force said at least 111 attack drones were launched toward 10 regions throughout Ukraine, including the capital. Ukraine shot down 63 of the drones and another 46 failed to strike a target, the military said.
“As the world marks the first day of the New Year, Russia launched 111 drones at the people of Ukraine,” U.S. Ambassador Ambassador Bridget A. Brink said on social media. “We are thankful for the air defenders and first responders whose tireless heroism protects us all.”
Ukraine began the new year under “another massive air attack,” said Ruslan Stefanchuk, the chair of Ukraine’s parliament.
“These inhumans decided to give us a hot start to the year and, like real weaklings and cowards, continued to hit civilians,” Stefanchuk said on social media. “I wish the victims a speedy recovery.”
Air raid sirens began blaring before sunrise in Kyiv, urging people to make their way to shelters, the Kyiv City State Administration said.
Most of the injured were in the city’s central Pecherskyi neighborhood, where the strike started a fire in an apartment building, Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor, said in a post in Ukrainian on the Telegram messaging app.
“Two of them were hospitalized. Two were treated on the spot by doctors,” Klitschko said. A pregnant woman was among the injured, the city administration said in a statement.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said one person had been killed in that strike on a residential building.
Falling debris also broke windows, started a fire in a garage and damaged trams in the western Sviatoshynskyi neighborhood, Klitschko added.
“The air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare units, mobile fire groups of the Air Force and the Defense Forces of Ukraine,” the air force said.
(NEW YORK) — Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met on Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to discuss how to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.
“We had a number of fruitful conversations, a number of things for us to follow up and work on,” Vance said. “And fundamentally, the goal is, as President Trump outlined it, we want the war to come to a close.”
“We want the killing to stop, but we want to achieve a durable, lasting peace, not the kind of peace that’s going to have Eastern Europe in conflict just a couple years down the road,” the vice president said.
Zelenskyy thanked the U.S. and President Donald Trump for supporting Ukraine. He said they will work together on a plan to “stop” Russian President Vladimir Putin but emphasized Ukraine will need certain security guarantees as they move forward.
“We have good conversation today,” Zelenskyy said. “Our first meeting, not last, sure and really, what we need to speak for, to work for and to prepare the plan how to stop Putin and finish the war. We want, really, we want peace very much, but we need real security guarantees, and we will continue our meetings and our work.”
The meeting came on the heels of Trump’s 90-minute call with Putin on Wednesday, his first major diplomatic foray into the conflict he vowed on the campaign trail to bring to an end as soon as he entered office.
Trump also spoke with Zelenskyy that day, but his decision to speak with Putin first prompted criticism from the Ukrainian leader and other U.S. allies. Trump defended the decision on Thursday, saying he needed to know if Russia wanted to “make a deal.”
The administration has offered mixed messages on its position toward negotiations.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine and called full territorial liberation of Ukraine’s pre-war borders an “unrealistic” goal. Hegseth also said there would be no U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine.
Vance, however, told the Wall Street Journal the option of military action is on the table if Russia doesn’t negotiate in “good faith.”
“There are economic tools of leverage, there are of course military tools of leverage” the U.S. could use against Putin, Vance said in an interview with the newspaper.
When Trump was asked on Thursday what Russia should have to give up during negotiations, he sidestepped.
“As far as the negotiation, it’s too early to say what is going to happen,” Trump said. “Maybe Russia will give up a lot. Maybe they won’t.”
Zelenskyy said on Friday he is counting on Trump and the U.S. for support in the negotiations and that he won’t meet with Putin until “we have a joint plan with Trump and the EU.”
When asked whether negotiations will move forward even if Ukraine does not want to come to the table with Putin, Vance sidestepped.
“It’s important for us to get together and start to have the conversations that are going to be necessary to bring this thing to a close,” Vance said. “That’s all I’m going to say for now, because I want to preserve the optionality here for the negotiators and our respective teams to bring this thing to a responsible close.”
(LONDON) — Germany’s defense minister criticized President Donald Trump for what he called “regrettable” concessions to Moscow, after the president unilaterally announced an immediate start to direct peace talks with President Vladimir Putin to end the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.
Trump said in a post to social media on Wednesday that he spoke with Putin by phone, adding the two leaders “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” to end the fighting in Ukraine after nearly three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Trump’s announcement came shortly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told allies that Ukraine cannot liberate all territory occupied by Russian forces and will not be given NATO security protection as part of any peace deal.
NATO ministers quickly pushed back. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said it was “regrettable” that “the Trump administration has already made public concessions to Putin before negotiations have even begun.”
Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur concurred. “We must not hand Russia any advantage before negotiations even begin,” Pevkur said in a statement.
Moscow launched its attack in February 2022 with the aim of toppling Zelenskyy’s government in Kyiv and annexing swaths of the country. The “special military operation” — as the Kremlin termed the invasion — expanded on Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and its fomentation of, and active military support for, separatist rebellion in parts of eastern Ukraine in 2014.
“I think we’re on the way to getting peace,” Trump said. The president did not clarify whether Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be directly involved in any peace talks. Excluding Kyiv would align with Putin’s repeated demand that Ukraine be sidelined, the Russian leader having dismissed Zelenskyy as “illegitimate.”
Kyiv’s omission from negotiations would represent a striking break from years of U.S. and allied policy, which under former President Joe Biden was guided by the “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” principle, with the former president also refusing to speak directly with Putin while the war continued.
Trump spoke with Zelenskyy after his phone call with Putin. The Ukrainian leader said in a post to social media that the two discussed “opportunities to achieve peace, discussed our readiness to work together at the team level, and Ukraine’s technological capabilities — including drones and other advanced industries.”
Trump also said he would meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia, though did not set a date. Addressing the conversation, Trump said on Truth Social that Zelensky,”like President Putin, wants to make PEACE.”
Trump separately hinted at the expiry of Zelenskyy’s presidential term. Ukraine was due to hold presidential elections last year, but the vote was delayed as the country is still under martial law as a result of Russia’s invasion. At “some point you’re going to have an election,” Trump said.
Ukraine and American allies in Europe called for a unified negotiating front.
“We are looking forward to discussing the way ahead together with our American allies,” said a joint statement from the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain, the U.K., Ukraine, the European Union’s European External Action Service and the European Commission.
“Our shared objectives should be to put Ukraine in a position of strength,” the statement added. “Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations.”
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, said on X, “Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity are unconditional.”
Trump said a meeting between Zelenskyy, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio was scheduled during the weekend Munich Security Conference event in Germany.
The State Department said that Ukraine-Russia envoy Keith Kellogg will begin a 10-day visit to Germany, Belgium and Ukraine on Thursday.
Hegseth preceded Trump’s latest remarks by telling allies in Belgium on Wednesday that Ukraine cannot liberate all territory from Russian occupation, and that Kyiv will not be given NATO security protection as part of any peace deal.
“The bloodshed must stop and this war must end,” Hegseth said. His address was the most detailed delineation of the Trump administration’s desired peace deal since the president returned to the Oval Office. Pro-talk signals from the U.S. raised concerns in Ukraine and abroad that Kyiv will be forced into territorial and political concessions in exchange for an end to the fighting.
John Bolton — Trump’s former national security adviser — for example, said on X that the president’s approach is tantamount to a “sell out” of Ukraine. “Trump has effectively surrendered to Putin on Ukraine.”
The latest remarks from Trump and Hegseth also stoked concerns inside Ukraine. “It’s a bad sign that he has talked first to Putin, not to Zelenskyy,” Oleksandr Merezhko — a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the chair of the body’s foreign affairs committee — told ABC News.
“Such a phone call is in itself a reward for Putin,” he added. “It’s sort of a break in his political isolation.” Still, Merezhko said Trump’s approach does “not quite” mean a total exclusion of Ukraine. “The principle ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine’ is more about not taking decisions without Ukraine which have influence upon Ukraine,” he said.
Pressure for peace is building within and without. A Gallup poll published in November indicated that most Ukrainians favored a rapid end to the devastating war. Zelenskyy’s public rhetoric largely reflects this sentiment, though the president has warned that no peace deal is sustainable without concrete U.S. security guarantees.
“This war of attrition is only going to make us weaker,” Iuliia Mendel — Zelenskyy’s former press secretary — told ABC News. “For a long time, Ukraine has been at the stage when negotiations are urgent to save the nation.”
The Kremlin confirmed that Trump had spoken with Putin.
“The topic of a settlement in Ukraine was discussed,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters after the call on Wednesday.
“President Trump spoke in favor of an early end to hostilities and a peaceful solution to the problem,” he added. “President Putin, for his part, mentioned the need to eliminate the root causes of the conflict and agreed with Trump that a long-term settlement can be achieved through peaceful negotiations.”
On Thursday, Peskov told reporters that Moscow had begun preparing a negotiating group to organize a meeting between Trump and Putin. “Definitely started. And as the president makes the appropriate decisions, we will inform you,” Peskov said.
When asked if a visit by U.S. representatives to Moscow is expected in the near future, Peskov said: “Not yet. So far, there are no specific agreements in this regard.”
Both Moscow and Kyiv are maneuvering for leverage in preparation for revived talks. This week, Russia and the U.S. concluded a prisoner swap described by Trump as a goodwill gesture that could help advance peace talks.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, met with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Kyiv to discuss a potential deal to secure U.S. access to hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Ukrainian minerals.
Russian and Ukrainian leaders have both expressed readiness to resume negotiations, though neither side has indicated willingness to make significant concessions.
This week, Zelenskyy suggested Ukraine would be ready to give up territory it seized in Russia’s western Kursk region in exchange for the liberation of some Ukrainian territory occupied by Moscow’s troops.
Peskov dismissed the idea as “impossible” at a Wednesday briefing with journalists. “Russia has never discussed an exchange of its territories and never will,” Peskov said.
“Naturally, Ukrainian units will be ousted from this territory. Everyone who is not eliminated will be ousted,” Peskov added.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky, Anastasia Bagaeva, Nataliia Popova, Zoe Magee, Tanya Stukalova and Tom Soufi Burridge contributed to this report.
