MOSCOW, Feb 17, 2026 (Net) – Russia repelled more than 150 Ukrainian drones overnight, Moscow’s defence ministry told state media on Tuesday, as Kyiv steps up its counterattacks ahead of talks in Gene-va.
“Overnight, air defence forces destroyed 151 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, as well as over the Black and Azov Seas,” the ministry reported.
In Russian-annexed Crimea, Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said two dozen drones were shot down during “one of the longest attacks in recent times”.
“Unfortunately, there were injuries. According to preliminary information, one child was wounded,” he posted on Telegram.
On Tuesday, the two sides are set to begin another round of diplomatic negotiations backed by the Unit-ed States, after two previous rounds of talks mediated by the White House yielded no breakthroughs.
While Russia occupies around one-fifth of Ukraine, Kyiv has recently made battlefield advances, recap-turing 201 square kilometres (78 square miles) between Wednesday and Sunday last week, an AFP anal-ysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War shows.
