A Ukrainian drone strike sparked a firestorm in Russia’s Black Sea port ahead of talks with the US

A fire broke out at one of Russia’s Black Sea ports on Sunday after a Ukrainian airstrike, injuring at least two people, officials said. The strike comes days before new US talks aimed at ending almost 4 year old war.

The strike at the port of Taman in the Krasnodar region damaged an oil storage tank, a warehouse and oil storage facilities, according to Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev of the region. Meanwhile, falling debris from Russian jets damaged transport infrastructure in the Ukrainian Odesa region, officials said, disrupting electricity and water supplies.

Kondratyev said that more than 100 people are working to put out many fires in the port, according to Reuters. He added that the strikes hit the city of Sochi and the village of Yurovka, causing minor damage.

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 happened a few days before another round was due to begin US-brokered negotiations between delegates from Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva. There have already been two talks under this tripartite structure so far this year, held in Abu Dhabi, but this week’s session will be the first on European soil, and comes a few days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s attack on all of its neighbors on February 22.

Neither side has expressed hope that the talks will lead to a comprehensive ceasefire, but there has been progress on other issues.

Speaking to Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested there are still questions 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 Americans want peace immediately and the American delegation wants to sign all agreements in Ukraine at the same time, while Ukraine wants the guarantees of future national security to be signed first.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Zelenskyy in Munich and they talked about “Ukraine’s security and deepening defense and economic ties.”

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

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, ranking member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, echoed Zelenskyy’s concerns.

“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 has not only prepared Ukraine, but it has gone 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 an end to sanctions and an asset freeze – were Europe’s decisions.

“If we want sustainable peace, we need agreements on the Russian side as well,” he said.

Previous efforts led by the US to find an agreement to end the war, recently two 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, which is home to most of the Russian military.