Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday (September 25, 2026) said U.S. President Donald Trump told him he would allow Ukraine to produce advanced Patriot air defence missiles, after a series of reversals on the issue.

Kyiv is facing a shortage of the missiles, needed to counter Russia’s increasing drone and missile attacks on the country, the latest of which killed a 14-year-old boy in the capital on Friday (September 25, 2026).

Mr. Zelenskyy during his latest visit to the United States this week renewed calls for air defence support, and for the Patriots, which remain the only system reliably able to counter Russia’s powerful ballistic missiles.

“At our last meeting, President Trump emphasised to me that yes, I have made a final decision. Ukraine will receive licences for the production of Patriot missiles,” he said in a voice note to journalists.

In July, Mr. Trump said it would be “pretty cool” to grant Ukraine the licences, before backtracking, saying the United States should be “very careful” before granting Ukraine authorisation.

Ukraine has reported an acute shortage of Patriot interceptors since the United States and Israel went to war with Iran in February, diverting supplies of the advanced systems.

Even if the licences are granted, establishing industrial capacity would require more than a year and would not meet Kyiv’s immediate needs.

And Kyiv, preparing for winter, has renewed calls for urgent support. It needs 5% of the United States’ Patriot interceptor missiles to get through the winter and 10 percent to destroy all of Russia’s ballistic projectiles, Mr. Zelenskyy said last month.

 Russian forces carried ​out a series ⁠of strikes across Ukraine overnight and later on Thursday (September 24, 2026), ‌targeting facilities and vessels that ‌Moscow said ‌were linked ⁠to the Ukrainian ⁠military.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said the overnight strikes targeted several ​Kyiv-based ‌facilities producing drones and drone components, two telecommunications centres serving the Ukrainian ‌military, logistics hubs ​at the port of Odesa, ⁠and an oil tanker bound for Chornomorsk.

The Ministry ‌said Russian forces later carried out additional strikes on an unspecified logistics centre in Odesa, a ‌drone storage warehouse in ​Novi Biliari in the Odesa ⁠region, and a cargo vessel ⁠bound for Odesa.

Reuters could not ‌independently verify the claims.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told leaders at the United Nations on Wednesday (September 23, 2026) that Ukraine was ready ​for a maritime truce in the Black Sea based on proposals by ‌Egypt, India and Turkey, and said it was ​now up to Russia to respond.

Mr. Zelenskyy spoke at Ukraine’s ⁠Crimean Platform summit on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly gathering of world leaders and ahead of a Security Council meeting on ‌Russia’s war in Ukraine, which is now in its fifth year.

Ukraine, which fears that Russia plans to pound ‌power and heating facilities with missiles and drones this winter, ‌has been ⁠pressing for ceasefires covering attacks on energy infrastructure and ⁠shipping in the Black Sea.

Mr. Zelenskyy said Egypt, India and Turkey had outlined options to restore safe navigation for merchant shipping in the Black Sea, where cargo movements ​are at a near ‌standstill due to heavy attacks on ships and port infrastructure by both sides.

“We are waiting for Russia’s response. Ukraine is ready … to ensure safe shipping and food security in the ‌Black Sea if Russia is ready to take real steps ​towards de-escalation too. We have to start somewhere,” he said.

Top wheat importers in Asia, West Asia ⁠and Africa that count on the Black Sea region for wheat have been finding it hard to secure supplies. Global wheat prices have ‌soared.

Mr. Zelenskyy, who was expected to address the UN General Assembly later on Wednesday (September 23, 2026), met U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday (September 22, 2026) and said they had also discussed a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire on energy-related targets.

Russia, Ukraine have voiced interest in ‘limited ceasefire’: Rubio

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday (September 23, 2026) that both Russia and Ukraine had ‌expressed interest in a limited ceasefire involving grain and energy.

“I think both sides have expressed an interest in some limited ceasefire that involve grain and energy. ‌Obviously, you know, that won’t be easy either,” Mr. Rubio told reporters.

Russia has ‌given ⁠no public indication it is ready to agree a maritime or energy ⁠truce with Ukraine and it was not immediately clear if Mr. Rubio was suggesting there had been movement on the Russian side after his talks with Mr. Lavrov.

Ahead of the Lavrov-Rubio meeting, the Kremlin said there were no grounds for wider ⁠Ukraine peace talks, while saying it remained open to such talks. “For now, ⁠there are no prerequisites for moving on to a peaceful negotiating track, although we, as the Russian side, remain ‌open to peace talks,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Mr. Zelenskyy said on Tuesday (September 22, 2026) that he would be ready to meet Russian ​President Vladimir Putin at a trilateral meeting with Mr. Trump.

Russia launched strikes at businesses and storage facilities in Ukraine overnight, injuring seven people across the country, according to local authorities.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday (September 23, 2026) that its forces overnight carried out “group strikes” using drones on Ukraine’s “military-industrial and energy sector facilities, logistics centres and maritime vessels.”

In Kyiv and the surrounding region, a storage facility and an industrial facility used for storing and making drones were hit, the Ministry said.

The Kyiv City Military Administration said three people were injured in the city and added that a warehouse in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district was damaged and caught fire, while a fuel station and an office building in the district were also damaged.

In the Solomianskyi district, drone debris fell in open areas between residential buildings and at another location.

In the Darnytskyi district, debris fell in an open area in a non-residential zone and a gas station was damaged, the administration said.

In Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, two people were injured in a Russian attack on a business, Ukraine’s Emergency Service said in a post on Telegram.

And in Zaporizhzhia, in southeastern Ukraine, two men aged 37 and 39 by a strike that sparked a large fire at a shopping centre. Emergency services said the fire spread across about 6,000 square metres (1.5 acres) before being brought under control.

Emergency crews worked under difficult conditions as the threat of further attacks forced them to periodically halt operations and take shelter, it added.

In the southern Odesa region, Russia also attacked warehouse buildings, sparking a large fire. Firefighters faced difficult conditions as repeated air raid alerts, the structure of the building and the large quantity of goods inside complicated efforts to extinguish the blaze, the service said.

Russia said three logistics centres used for storage of military and dual-use goods were hit in Odesa. Another storage facility used for storing drone components, was hit in the wider Odesa region, the Russian defense ministry said.

A bulk carrier “transporting military supplies to the port of Odesa” was also hit at sea, the ministry added. (AP) ABD

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 Russia hit industrial sites in southeastern and central Ukraine overnight, killing ​three, while an attack cut power to ‌thousands in the country’s north, Ukrainian officials ​said on Tuesday (September 22, 2026).

Moscow had ⁠simultaneously hit industrial enterprises in the cities of Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih and Pavlohrad in the ‌southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said on Telegram.

Russia deployed missiles, ‌drones and artillery at four districts ‌of ⁠the region, killing three people ⁠and injuring another six in Dnipro, where Mr. Hanzha said a business and warehouse premises were badly damaged.

With ​fighting on the ‌front line largely stalled more than 4-1/2 years into the war in Ukraine, Moscow and Kyiv increasingly have struck businesses, ‌ports, logistics and other economic targets ​in recent months to try to damage the other’s war effort.

The ⁠overnight Russian barrage on Ukraine included an unspecified number of Oniks anti-ship and ballistic ‌missiles, as well as four cruise missiles and 212 drones, Ukraine’s air force said.

Businesses have also been damaged in Pavlohrad and Kryvyi Rih, which is the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Mr. Hanzha ‌said.

A Russian attack on an energy facility ​in a neighbouring region left nearly 1,00,000 consumers in the northern ⁠region of Chernihiv without power, a regional electricity ⁠distribution company said.

Moscow also carried out a “massive” attack on a central region ‌of Poltava, hitting an industrial enterprise and a critical infrastructure facility, Governor Vitalii ​Diakivnych said.

EU countries scrambled on Monday (September 21, 2026) for a deal to extend sanctions on Russia over the war on Ukraine after France demanded oligarch Alisher Usmanov be taken off the blacklist.

The 27-nation bloc last week pushed back a deadline for prolonging its asset freezes and visa bans on some 3,000 individuals and entities to midnight Tuesday (2200 GMT Tuesday).

Ambassadors in Brussels were set to meet for talks on Monday (September 21, 2026) afternoon after failing to make a breakthrough in the morning.

All EU countries are required to agree to extend the sanctions — a key part of the bloc’s response to Russia’s war since 2022 — every six months.

This time around an agreement has been held up as France has joined Slovakia in calling for Russian-Uzbek billionaire Usmanov to be removed from the blacklist.

Officials in Paris have cited “national security” concerns for the request, but refused publicly to give details.

The Financial Times has reported that the demand is linked to a potential prisoner release deal involving French nationals held in Azerbaijan.

More hawkish EU countries — including Poland and Baltic states — are fiercely opposed to easing the sanctions on Usmanov for political reasons.

Meanwhile, diplomats said that Luxembourg is insisting that if Usmanov is taken off the list, it wants to see sanctions lifted on another Russian tycoon, Mikhail Fridman.

A diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a compromise deal on the table would see Usmanov and Fridman removed, and the rest of the sanctions extended for up to 36 months.

Multiple EU diplomats insisted that despite the standoff over Umanov, there was widespread agreement that the EU sanctions should not be allowed to lapse.

The blacklist includes key figures such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

A parliamentary election that President Vladimir Putin has cast as a ‌test of support for Russia’s war in Ukraine entered its third and final day ​on Sunday (September 20, 2026), with the ruling United Russia party expected to retain its dominance in ⁠a political system critics say does not tolerate dissent.

The State Duma vote, the first since Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022, is likely to be presented by the Kremlin as evidence of public ‌backing for Mr. Putin’s policies and for the war, Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two, now in its fifth year with no sign of ending soon.

Most anti-war candidates ‌were barred from the ballot. Those who did run from the liberal Yabloko party, which ‌has ⁠polled in the single digits in recent years but hoped to tap into ⁠war fatigue, said they feared for their freedom after courts handed long jail terms to two senior party figures before the vote for comments about the conflict deemed illegal by authorities.

Discrediting the army or spreading what authorities regard as fake news ​are punishable by lengthy prison sentences.

The Kremlin ‌says national unity and some censorship are necessary during what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine. It casts the conflict as part of an existential struggle with a hostile West and says Ukrainian intelligence services and other enemies are stepping up efforts to stir unrest inside ‌Russia.

Permitted opposition parties could benifit

Mr. Putin on Friday (September 18, 2026) accused Ukraine of trying to interfere ​in the election, citing what he said was a Ukrainian strike on the home of an election official in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region that ⁠killed Elena Astanina, the official. Reuters could not independently verify details of the attack and there was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

Russian electoral officials also said on Saturday (September 19, 2026) that an online voting system in ‌Moscow had come under cyberattack. Kyiv, which has suspended elections under martial law, has dismissed the Russian vote as a “pseudo election”.

Despite what most experts see as the election’s predictable outcome, the NEST think-tank in Berlin, co-founded by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom Russian authorities have designated “a foreign agent”, said the vote could still produce awkward moments for the Kremlin at a time of economic strain.

“The consequences of the war are increasingly being felt within the country, and accumulated anxiety and frustration may translate into votes ‌for the systemic opposition parties that the Kremlin has allowed to remain on the ballot,” it said in a note.

It ​said the Communist party and the New People party could attract votes the authorities would prefer to go to United Russia. Both parties have consistently voted in ⁠line with United Russia on major issues.

Mr. Putin told the nation in a televised address before the election that ⁠the vote would underline support for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

“Your choice, and your will, will once again demonstrate that millions of people stand behind our soldiers, that ‌we are a united people bound together by shared values, historical memory, and love for our homeland, and that no one will succeed in dividing or intimidating us,” said Mr. Putin.

Initial results are ​expected to start emerging at around 1800 GMT on Sunday (September 20, 2026), with more complete results available on Monday (September 21, 2026).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hosted leaders and representatives from seven regional countries for talks on deepening cooperation on Friday (September 18, 2026), after overnight Russian strikes in multiple regions sparked fires and caused several deaths and injuries.

The inaugural summit of the so-called “Carpathian Eight” brings together Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary, with the European Union also involved.

It comes as U.S.-mediated efforts to end Russia’s 4.5-year full-scale invasion have stalled, with the issue of territorial concessions in eastern Ukraine among the central sticking points. Ukraine is also seeking security guarantees from partners for a deal.

The summit also comes as three days of voting began in Russia’s first wartime parliamentary election, which features virtually no opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s party and is all but certain to secure the Kremlin’s political dominance.

Some of the nations attending the meeting in western Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk region, such as Poland and Romania, have been staunch supporters of Ukraine. Others, such as Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia, have refused to provide Kyiv with direct military assistance.

Mr. Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram that the summit was a “significant beginning” of a movement intended to “further strengthen ties between our countries and create another strong element of cooperation at the EU level.” He added that the participating countries would work together on security, energy, logistics, cross-border economic ties and support for local communities.

European countries concerned over Russian hybrid threats

The meeting in the western Ukrainian ski resort of Bukovel came amid increasing concern among many European countries that Russia is ramping up hybrid threats including sabotage, cyberattacks, disinformation and potential drone incursions into NATO territory.

Mr. Tusk, Poland’s Prime Minister, warned on Thursday (September 17, 2026) before departing for Ukraine that Moscow is planning hybrid strikes with drones or rockets on European countries supporting Kyiv, among them Poland.

Officials in Poland, Germany and Denmark have in recent weeks accused Russia of involvement in drone incursions, sabotage, arson, surveillance of defense facilities and planning to use a drone carrying explosives to attack an airport.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday (September 16, 2026) that the EU needs a NATO-like mechanism to better respond to hybrid attacks blamed on Russia, and to develop “a consensus on how to respond to certain incidents … that fall below armed aggression but clearly threaten our national security.”

Putin issues a new warning against seizing Russian ships

Speaking at a meeting of a government commission on new weapons, Mr. Putin declared that the Western claims about Russia’s purported aggressive plans were intended to justify a boost in defence spending. He again denied that Russia has any hostile intentions toward Europe, but warned that it will be forced to respond to any aggressive action by Western allies, such as the seizure of merchant vessels operated by Russia.

“Let’s live in peace, otherwise we will be forced to respond in kind – it must be quite obvious to everyone,” he said.

Last month, Mr. Putin threatened retaliation for Western seizures of Russia’s commercial vessels, describing them as “piracy.” He warned that the Russian response wouldn’t necessarily come in the waters where the Russian ships were seized, noting that Moscow could retaliate in any area.

Russia is believed to be using a fleet of hundreds of ships to evade international sanctions imposed after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

France and the U.K. have detained tankers suspected of being part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” shipping oil in violation of international sanctions. The EU has sanctioned hundreds of “shadow fleet” ships.

Russia has recently started deploying warships to escort its commercial vessels.

Hundreds of civilians and prisoners have been subjected to sexual violence and torture — overwhelmingly by Moscow’s forces — since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the UN reported on Friday (September 18, 2026).

The UN Human Rights Office attributed 89% of the documented cases to “Russian authorities — including members of the armed forces, the prison service and the national security service”.

It blamed the remaining 11% on “Ukrainian authorities”, saying both countries should investigate promptly and bring perpetrators to justice.

“Some 1,004 cases of sexual violence were documented from February 24, 2022, when Russia’s attack on Ukraine began, through to the end of July this year,” the UN agency said in a report.

“Sexual violence has been used against civilians and prisoners of war [POWs] in Ukraine in a shocking pattern of torture, intimidation and coercion,” it said.

The 20-page report is based on confidential interviews “with hundreds of victims and survivors of sexual violence committed by both parties”, as well as court documents and official records.

“I am deeply alarmed by the prevalence of these abhorrent acts documented in our report, and fear that they are almost certainly continuing amid the unceasing violence we are witnessing every day in Ukraine,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement.

Danielle Bell, head of the UN rights office team in Ukraine, told reporters in Geneva the cases documented were “just a fraction of the reality”, given that UN investigators were only able to talk to around 10% of prisoners released by both sides and could not access regions of Ukraine controlled by Russian forces.

“Most of the victims of sexual violence were men, particularly in places of detention, but women and children were also affected, primarily in occupied territory of Ukraine,” the report said.

“The violations committed include gang rape, rape, genital mutilation, electric shocks and beatings to the genitals, and other degrading acts of a sexual nature.”

The youngest rape survivor the UN documented was a four-year-old girl, and the oldest was an 82-year-old woman. It blamed both cases on Russian authorities.

Almost half the violations attributed to Ukrainians against Russians and other foreign POWs also “comprised threats of sexual violence”, the UN said.

Mr. Turk urged Russia to withdraw its military forces from Ukraine, in line with “binding international law”.

Russia destroyed a wave of Ukrainian drones bound for Moscow, the city’s mayor said on Friday (September 18, 2026), as polling stations opened for the country’s first parliamentary election since the start of the war.

While few doubt President Vladimir Putin’s party will sail to victory again, the vote will serve as a barometer for feelings on the war that has killed hundreds of thousands and undermined the daily lives of Russians.

“More than 350 UAVs flew towards the Moscow region between 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) on 17 September and 7:00 am on 18 September,” Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram.

“Most were reportedly destroyed at the outer defensive perimeter, including 64 UAVs intercepted while approaching Moscow.”

Mr. Putin has ruled Russia since New Year’s Eve 1999 and his United Russia party has dominated Russian politics since the early 2000s.

Moscow has banned criticism of its Ukraine campaign and the Russian elections, tightly controlled by the Kremlin, are bringing few surprises.

The vote to renew the 450 seats in the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, will run until 1800 GMT on Sunday (September 20, 2026).