Another night of drone warfare jolted Ukraine and Russia, with Zaporizhzhia coming under Russian attack just a day after Kyiv’s forces unleashed more than 1,000 drones toward Russia, officials said.
The near-daily strikes highlight how little headway has been made toward ending the conflict, more than four years after Russia invaded its neighbour, and they come as world leaders convene this week for the UN General Assembly.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expects to meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the annual gathering in New York.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is not scheduled to attend.
Ukrainian firefighters extinguish a fire at Zaporizhzhia National University
Mr Trump today described the war as “ridiculous” and said Moscow had “unfortunately lost control” of its diesel oil production as Ukraine intensifies long-range drone attacks on Russian refineries.
“A large number of (Russian) diesel refineries have been blown up and are, at least temporarily, out of commission,” he wrote in a social media post.
Earlier this month, Mr Trump urged Mr Zelensky to stop the refinery strikes, arguing they were contributing to a global shortage and sharp price rises.
European leaders, who fear Moscow harbours hostile ambitions elsewhere on the continent, want to ratchet up pressure on Mr Putin to pull back from Ukraine. The Kremlin leader, however, has offered no sign he is prepared to abandon his objectives.
In Zaporizhzhia, Mr Zelensky said Russian drones hit apartment buildings, a university and a shopping centre late yesterday, among other locations, injuring five people. He posted the update on social media this morning.
Smoke rises after drone strikes hit oil refinery in Moscow
He added that Russia also struck nine other regions of Ukraine.
“Russia is not backing down from its escalation and is sending many signals that it is ready to expand the war,” Mr Zelensky said.
“At the UN General Assembly, we will discuss how we can achieve peace through joint efforts.”
Russia’s Defence Ministry, in its own statement, said its forces overnight targeted Ukrainian logistics hubs, warehouses, ports and other military-related sites.
The latest exchanges followed what officials described as a massive Ukrainian drone operation from Saturday to Sunday. The barrage included hundreds aimed at Moscow and coincided with voters casting ballots on the third and final day of a tightly managed parliamentary election.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said air defences overnight shot down 244 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and the waters of the Black Sea.
Donald Trump has urged Volodymyr Zelensky to halt strikes on Russian refineries
Ukraine’s air force, meanwhile, said it downed or electronically suppressed 148 Russian drones during an overnight assault.
As the drone campaign has intensified, unmanned aircraft have repeatedly veered into neighbouring countries, unsettling governments already wary of Russia and anxious about the risk of being pulled into a wider conflict.
Moldova’s Ministry of Defence said it temporarily closed part of its northern airspace overnight after surveillance systems detected an “aerial object” entering the country’s airspace shortly after midnight.
Moldova has reported multiple airspace violations in recent weeks, and authorities have found drone debris on its territory.
With electronic jamming capable of knocking drones off course, officials said it was not clear whether the aircraft were Russian or Ukrainian, though blame has often been directed at Moscow.
Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu has repeatedly condemned Russia’s war on Ukraine and earlier this month warned that Moscow’s “brutal war is reaching our border” after Russian strikes along Moldova’s frontier with Ukraine.
Romania has also seen a significant increase in drone incursions into its airspace.
