Ukraine answers the February 17 strike: Refineries & Plants Hit

February 17, 2026February 18, 2026

Today brought a rare — perhaps unique — event connected not just to Ukrainian air defense work, but to an adequate response to the enemy. Ukraine answers the February 17 strike with both shields and swords. As already known, the enemy launched a massive combined medium-intensity attack on Ukraine’s territory today. For this strike, the enemy deployed practically its entire arsenal: drones, cruise missiles of various types, and ballistics. According to our Air Force report, it looked like this:

Practically everything flew past the locations where ballistic interception systems exist. Therefore, nothing could intercept all four Iskander-M ballistic missiles. However, the unusual aspect of today’s raid was this: Ukraine shot down all cruise missiles. Specifically, 20 Kh-101 missiles launched from enemy bombers over the Caspian Sea went down. Four ground-based Iskander-K missiles went down. One guided missile launched by a tactical aviation aircraft went down.

As a result, four Iskander-M ballistic missiles hit their targets, along with 18 Shaheds. We can carefully assume that aviation deserves credit for zeroing out all cruise missiles. This may mean that either some new aviation equipment arrived, or we got more aircraft, or both.

The Rumors

Also rumors circulate that pilots from the US and the Netherlands are working specifically on missile interception. There’s logic in that — where else would they gain such combat experience? Speaking of rumors – a significant replenishment of Ukraine’s Air Force fleet should happen soon. Such a development has already been announced, but nobody knows exactly when it might be realized. Perhaps the process has already begun.

This is bad news for the Orcs¹ because quantity inevitably transforms into quality. Who knows — maybe after we increasingly see interception of all cruise missiles, we’ll one day see the carrier itself struck. I think video of a Tu-95 disintegrating and falling onto the heads of Caspian crabs would become an absolute global hit.

Attack on Orc Storage Facilities

Since evening, enemy publics were tearing themselves in half, warning that drone groups were flying over practically all territory of temporarily occupied Crimea. Then reports came that explosions could be heard in one place, then another — especially in Sevastopol. As usual, the Orcs stay silent as fish on ice about what got hit. Our General Staff provides information with a time lag for some reasons. For example, today brought confirmation of a strike on an Iskander-M launcher in Crimea. We identified the location where it was parked. At least two drones flew there, after which secondary detonation began on site.

Temporarily occupied Crimea was loud, but the drones made their main noise further on — in the Krasnodar Territory of the Swamps². By the way, only today did they extinguish fuel tanks in the port that was attacked on February 15. Here’s what they write about it:

Firefighters eliminated the open burning of an oil product tank in the Volna settlement of Temryuk district, which occurred on Tuesday due to a drone strike… On February 15, as a result of a UAV attack, the terminals of the Taman port and an oil product tank were damaged.

Strikes With Deep Hits on Refineries

While they were extinguishing the tank at Taman port, good birds flew further. It became clear that targets in Crimea were optional. Something got hit there simply to maintain a certain level of enemy air defense sterility. In reality, the birds flew to the Ilsky refinery, which recently suffered another attack. It seems the Defense Forces have moved to decisive action and are now finishing refineries off to zero.
If previously, after striking a specific plant, a fairly long pause of several weeks or months emerged during which something could be repaired, the situation has now changed. Strikes come so that no thoughts of repair even arise. Of course, unless they figured out that money can be siphoned endlessly for this purpose, since the next strike will write everything off.

But regardless, the plant got hit solidly. As enemy sources report, strikes hit not only the plant but also a communications hub and something else. Obviously, the enemy decided to allocate some military unit for air defense needs and placed it in the plant area.

Several months ago, talk emerged about forming such detachments from reservists who would handle drone attack repulsion. Judging by everything, they armed them with machine guns and MANPADS. But as we see, this didn’t help the plant — and strikes hit them too. In other words, the quantity of attacking drones proved sufficient and therefore, the remaining drones took apart other targets. So, Ukraine answers the February 17 strike with deep hits on enemy’s refineries, but not only…

Chemical Plant in Gubakha: Components for Explosives

However, fire shows were observed not only in the southern part of the Swamps but in itsvery center — in the Ural region, where enormous quantities of various military enterprises are concentrated. We know for certain that dense strikes hit Tatarstan, specifically Kazan and Nizhnekamsk. But since no data exists from there except that things were flying and exploding, it’s too early to assess the scale of the good birds’ visit. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine hasn’t commented on this yet.

That’s understandable: this location has been getting hit hard and regularly for a long time, since flagship drone-building enterprises are located here. Therefore, the enemy conducts information cleanup harshly and quickly — in real time, as they say. But in other places they’re not used to such things, so they share their impressions more than thoroughly. We’re talking about the Metafrax Chemicals enterprise in the settlement of Gubakha, Perm Territory. Good birds also flew there today and threw themselves a hot disco.

Confirmation of the ASTRA Telegram channel

According to various data, five to ten devices accurately hit targets on the plant territory. As a result of the hits, a fire started there. The local gauleiter confirmed it, talking about units of special equipment and the fire area. This plant is very interesting. The ASTRA Telegram channel, relying on data from its own sources, defines the struck target as follows:

The Metafrax Chemicals plant in the city of Gubakha, Perm Territory, is the main enterprise of the Metafrax Group chemical holding. The enterprise specializes in the production of chemicals, including methanol, formalin, as well as derived organic substances, synthetic resins, and other chemical products. Individual products produced by the Metafrax Chemicals plant — such as hexamine, methanol, urotropin, and pentaerythritol — are important components for the manufacture of explosives and weapons components.

So Ukraine answers the February 17 strike — and the enemy receives feedback for its strikes on Ukraine. Feedback that goes farther and hurts more. Here we should emphasize an important point. Ukrainian military forces, for various reasons, couldn’t respond to the enemy with a whole range of actions. But when they take this on, it comes out several times better than the Orcs. By the way, just like everything else. So Orcs who haven’t seen strikes hit a military plant or fuel depot in their city shouldn’t be upset. Gubakha is already having fun. They’ll have fun too.

¹Orcs – a common term for Russians who support or participate in the armed aggression against Ukraine. Dehumanizing? Yes. Accurate? Also yes.

²Swamps – an ironic name for Russia, emphasizing decay, stagnation, and filth. The Commander of the USF, Robert Browdie, and most soldiers use this word.