This is an important development on the 1,084th day of the full-scale invasion of Russia’s Ukraine.
The situation for Wednesday, February 12th is as follows:
Fineting
A Ukrainian drone attack has been damaged on an industrial facility in Russia’s Saratov region, Governor Roman Bastargin said. Li, an official from the Ukrainian Security and Defense Council, Andry Kovalenko, said the attack on Saratov targeted oil refineries that fueled Russian troops. No victims have been reported. The Russian Ministry of Defense said air defense units intercepted and destroyed 40 Ukrainian drones on Russian territory, of which 18 were destroyed in the Saratov region. The Russian army said its forces control the Yesenove village in eastern Ukraine. Kiev said Russia fired 124 drones and 19 missiles in Ukraine in the overnight attack. According to the Ukrainian army, 57 drones were fired down, and 66 failed to reach their target. According to state-owned oil and gas company Navtogaz, a Russian attack in the Poltaba region of central Ukraine, damaged natural gas production facilities. Ukrainian Energy Minister German Garszchenko announced power restrictions due to these attacks, but this did not result in casualties. The Russian state-owned TASS news agency reported that two men were sentenced to long sentences after being convicted of support from the Ukrainian military. A military court in western Kirov sentenced one of the men to 21 years in prison for causing fires to three electric railway structures. In another case, the 22-year-old was sentenced to 12 years in prison for treason. Polish forces said Russian aircraft had violated Polish airspace on top of the territory. The Russian Skoy 24MR tactical bomber aircraft reportedly flew 6.5km (4 miles) into Polish airspace, where it stayed for more than a minute. The Russian military’s operational order said the incident occurred due to a breakdown in the navigation system. An emergency ministry’s Russian bomb disposal expert has eliminated French-made scalp cruise missiles in the Kursk region, the ministry confirmed.
Politics and diplomacy
US President Donald Trump hopes to secure the “thousand billions of dollars” that the US spent on Ukraine in an interview with Fox News, whether or not Ukraine loses its sovereignty over Russia He said. Trump also claimed that Kiev had “essentially agreed” to provide the United States with $500 million worth of rare earth minerals in exchange for Washington’s support. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent is scheduled to visit Ukraine this week, Trump announced on social media. Reuters said Bescent will discuss potential deals on rare earth minerals during its travels. Trump’s administration has no intention of sending US troops to Ukraine, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses told reporters. Instead, Hegseth said he would push his European allies to spend more on defense. Ukrainian President Voldymeierzelensky said he would be willing to exchange Kiev-controlled areas in Russia’s Kursk region in exchange for Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory if negotiations were made. The White House announced that US Special Envoy Steve Witkov has secured the release of Mark Vogel, a US citizen who has been detained in Russia. Washington said this is a sign that things are moving in the right direction to end the war in Ukraine.
![Members of the police bomb squad work at the site of a building attacked by a Russian missile strike in Ijium, Ukraine](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2025-02-04T125147Z_243804534_RC2ONCALQ9AC_RTRMADP_3_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ATTACK-IZIUM-1738727399.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C545)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Ukraine’s significant population “want to become Russia.” The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia imposes “systematic and widespread” restrictions on the report, calling for Moscow for coordinated efforts to curb objections. Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency discusses the Ministry of State’s spokesman Maria Zakharova to discuss the operation of the Russian Institute of Diplomatic Studies with Moscow Lin Tracy’s US Ambassador Sergei Riabkov and Moscow’s Deputy Minister He said he said he had done it. The Ukrainian Parliament has passed a law allowing two Soviet-designed nuclear reactors to be purchased from Bulgaria for the Kumernitskyi power plant in Ukraine.
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