Six people were killed and 20 others injured in separate Russian attacks on Ukrainian regions overnight Tuesday and Wednesday morning, according to Ukrainian officials. Moscow said it had targeted military-industrial facilities and ports, and expressed readiness to resume serious talks with Ukraine and the United States.
Attacks hit a bus and residential areas
A Russian attack targeted a train traveling from Kyiv to Mykolaiv, with no injuries reported, according to Ukrainian media. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces struck a Kyiv plant producing specialized vehicles for Ukraine’s armed forces, as well as military-industrial complexes and ports. It added that Russian air defenses shot down 71 Ukrainian drones overnight.
In response, Ukraine’s Air Force said it had shot down 63 of 80 Russian drones targeting several areas. Separately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian drones entered Moldova’s airspace twice while he was crossing the country on his outbound and return flights.
Zelenskyy speaks of drones over Moldova
He said both incidents occurred while he was at Chisinau airport, adding: "They attacked Moldova when my presidential plane was there. Maybe they did not want to attack me personally... And when we returned home, passing through Chisinau again, they repeated what they had done." A Moldovan government spokesman had announced on 9 September that Zelenskyy’s flight to Norway was delayed after airspace was closed because of a drone-related alert.
Two Russian drones entered the country’s airspace that day. One landed in a field north of the capital and caused a fire, while the other continued into Romanian airspace. Moldovan authorities also said two drones entered its airspace on 14 September.
On the diplomatic front, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow was always ready for serious negotiations, whether trilateral talks with the United States and Ukraine or bilateral ones. He stressed that Russia would not halt its military operations during the talks and that its conditions regarding Ukraine had not changed.
Lavrov said Moscow’s position focused on preventing NATO from approaching Russia’s borders and guaranteeing the rights of Russians and Russian speakers, while remaining ready for what he described as reasonable compromises within that position. He also said some European countries were trying to establish secret channels of communication with Moscow over Ukraine, and that Russia had not abandoned negotiations.
