What the war's reach looked like on 22 February 2026

What did the war look like in the days around 22 February 2026? The reports from that date and the preceding two days point to pressure on several fronts, from Russian territory to the Donetsk front, and to an arms deal involving Russia and Iran.

Strikes deep inside Russia

On 21 February 2026, Ukrainian forces launched long-range FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles. One struck the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant in Votkinsk, Udmurtia, and another hit a natural-gas processing plant in Samara Oblast. Both sites lie inside Russia, far from the front line.

The pressure extended to occupied territory. On 20 February 2026, Ukrainian drone strikes in Sevastopol, Crimea, killed one person and damaged several buildings. Crimea has been occupied by Russia since 2014 and served as a base for the Russian occupation of parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts after major hostilities began on 24 February 2022.

A slow advance in Donetsk

On the eastern front, Russian forces captured the village of Karpivka in Donetsk Oblast on 21 February 2026 as they tried to advance towards Lyman. Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv have been a theatre of operations since the war began in February 2022. The capture of a single village shows the scale of the fighting: gains were measured in settlements, while Ukraine struck at targets hundreds of kilometres away.

Iran and Russia

On 22 February 2026, the Financial Times reported that Iran had signed a confidential €500 million (US$589 million) arms agreement with Russia in December 2025. It covers 500 9K333 Verba man-portable air-defence systems and 2,500 associated missiles. The contract was negotiated between Iran's defence ministry and Rosoboronexport, with deliveries scheduled to run over several years beginning after this date.

Reading the picture

The reports describe distinct strands: Ukrainian missiles and drones reaching industrial and energy sites in Russia and targets in Crimea, Russian ground forces taking a village near Lyman, and a reported air-defence purchase by Iran from Russia. The reports do not link these events, and each stands on its own account. Together they show a war fought at different ranges: a gradual ground push in Donetsk, Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory, and a Russian arms-export relationship that the Financial Times said extended to Iran.