Reciprocal attacks between Russia and Ukraine have continued alongside diplomatic efforts led by the United States and Türkiye to halt the war. Moscow has warned that it will intensify strikes on Kyiv, while Ukraine has announced attacks on oil and industrial facilities inside Russian territory. The escalation comes ahead of an expected meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York.
Ukrainian authorities said a Russian attack carried out overnight killed 4 people, including 3 children, as drone attacks on Kyiv and the surrounding area continued throughout the day. Kyiv regional governor Timur Tkachenko said the attacks had lasted for more than a day and affected several areas.
Tkachenko said Fastiv district, south-west of Kyiv, recorded the greatest damage from the attacks. In the north of the country, local officials said Russian forces shelled an area near a residential building in the city of Sumy in the evening, killing one person and injuring another. In Kramatorsk, another person was killed during one of several waves of shelling that targeted the city.
Strikes on cities and facilities intensify
The developments on the ground coincided with Moscow announcing its intention to continue retaliating against Ukrainian attacks, as the targeting of cities and facilities on both sides of the border expanded. Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said his country had carried out missile and drone attacks on oil and industrial facilities in Russia’s Moscow and Voronezh regions.
He added that the strikes hit one of Russia’s main oil industry facilities, as well as a logistics facility, saying that the funds associated with them support what he described as the “war machine”. The Ukrainian president said the attacks used the guided Flamingo missile and Pelican ballistic missile, as well as various types of drones.
He also published footage that he said documented operations carried out by Ukrainian forces against the targeted facilities inside Russia. Moscow, for its part, threatened to intensify strikes with precision weapons against military targets in Kyiv, saying this was in response to Ukrainian drone attacks during Russia’s legislative elections.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Russian air defence systems had destroyed Ukrainian drones overnight as they headed towards the capital. Sobyanin added that the attacks had damaged the Moscow oil refinery, with no casualties reported.
US pressure to halt attacks on energy facilities
Energy facilities continue to be targeted despite pressure from the Trump administration to halt attacks on the sector. The US president urged Zelenskyy last week to stop operations targeting Russian oil production. Axios reported that Trump had repeatedly asked Zelenskyy to stop attacking Russian oil refineries, telling him that the operations were contributing to higher diesel prices worldwide. According to the report, the word “diesel” was repeated many times during the call between the two presidents.
Trump had announced that Russia and Ukraine had pledged to stop targeting energy infrastructure in both countries. In this context, Zelenskyy affirmed that Kyiv was ready to take “de-escalatory steps” if Moscow took similar measures, while the Kremlin described the initiative as a “good idea”.
French warnings of a possible Russian attack
Against the backdrop of European concerns, French intelligence agencies assessed that autumn 2027 could be a possible time for a “major Russian attack” on several European countries, including France, according to France Télévisions, citing intelligence sources. Previous assessments had identified 2030 as a possible date for such a scenario.
The report said critical French infrastructure could be among the potential targets, including power stations, communications networks and drinking-water facilities. The broadcaster quoted Alain Chrétien, a former senior French military intelligence official, as saying that a possible attack could rely on drones targeting French defence facilities.
Chrétien added that France currently lacked the full capability to provide comprehensive protection against an attack of this kind. French President Emmanuel Macron said on 18 September that his country was “already the target of hybrid attacks”, announcing plans to protect critical infrastructure from cyberattacks and Russian drone attacks.
Expected meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy
On the political track, Zelenskyy announced that he had spoken by telephone with Trump and that they had agreed to hold a meeting in New York in the coming days, alongside their participation in United Nations General Assembly meetings. The Ukrainian president said the meeting “could achieve a lot”, pointing to the possibility of resuming negotiations aimed at ending the war and adding that “diplomatic momentum exists”.
The head of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service and chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said the Ukrainian side’s main priority was to find solutions to end the war and obtain security guarantees. Kyiv is placing both issues at the forefront of its efforts ahead of the expected meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump.
In a parallel diplomatic track, Türkiye announced that it had sent Ukraine and Russia a proposal aimed at ending the fighting in the Black Sea. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara had presented a proposal to both sides and received responses from them, but had found that some of the demands and positions put forward were difficult to reconcile.
Fidan said the priority of his country’s efforts was to move grain out of the region. He noted that other initiatives were seeking to end the war completely, but said reaching a lasting solution remained difficult at the current stage.
