Russia launches 405 drones and 28 missiles at Ukraine, targeting energy facilities. A Russian drone strike on Kharkiv hits a kindergarten, killing one person. The Kremlin signals to Trump that his demands to end the war are incompatible with Russia’s war aims, ISW says.
Russia launches 405 drones and 28 missiles at Ukraine, targeting energy facilities
Russia carried out a mass missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s energy facilities overnight into Wednesday, killing six people.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia had launched 405 drones, including around 250 Shaheds, and 28 missiles toward Ukraine, including 11 Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles, nine Iskander-K cruise missiles, four Kh-47M2 Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles and four Kh-59/69 air-to-surface guided missiles. Ukraine’s air defenses shot down or otherwise neutralized a total of 349 aerial targets, including 333 drones of various types, eight Iskander-K cruise missiles, six Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles and two Kh-59/69 air-to-surface guided missiles. Seventeen drones disappeared off radar after likely being disabled by electronic warfare systems.
The main target for the attack was the region of Kyiv, the Ukrainian Air Force said. The regions of Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Odesa were also affected.
Twelve missiles and 55 attack drones hit target in 26 locations, and drone debris fell in 19 sites, it added.
Six districts of the capital, Kyiv, were affected by an overnight Russian attack. Two people were killed and at least 30 others injured, the city’s mayor Vitaliy Klychko said. The strikes damaged high-rise apartment buildings, a medical facility, non-residential buildings and garages. Emergency power cuts were imposed in the city.
A woman, a 12-year-old girl and a six-month-old baby were killed in the village of Pohreby, in the Brovary district, east of Kyiv, after strikes caused their home to catch fire, according to Mykola Kalashnyk, head of Kyiv regional military administration. A man, born in 1987, was killed in the Brovary district.
A woman, born in 1941, was rescued from a burning house in the same district, Kalashnyk added.
Russian drone strike on Kharkiv hits kindergarten, killing one person
A drone strike on Kharkiv on Wednesday hit a kindergarten, killing one man and injuring ten others, including a five-year-old girl, the city’s mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
All 48 children were evacuated to safety following the attack, he added.
Three explosions rocked the city on Wednesday morning after an air alert was declared and the Ukrainian Air Force warned of a drone threat.
Ukrainian President, Volodomyr Zelenskyi, said on X: “All the children have been evacuated and are now in shelters. Preliminary reports indicate that many are showing acute stress reactions. There is no justification for a drone strike on a kindergarten, nor can there ever be. Clearly, Russia is growing more brazen. These strikes are Russia’s spit in the face to everyone who insists on a peaceful resolution.”
Kremlin signals to Trump that his demands to end the war are incompatible with Russia’s aims, ISW says
Recent statements by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are a continuation of the Kremlin’s attempts to signal to U.S. President Donald Trump that Trump’s demands for an immediate end to the war are incompatible with Russia’s war aims, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an update on Tuesday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the report.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that Russia is unwilling to agree to an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine that does not result in Ukraine’s complete capitulation. Lavrov stated that Russia has not changed its position since the August 2025 Alaska summit, and that Russia does not need a short-term ceasefire that “leads nowhere,” but a “long-term stable peace.” Lavrov responded to American demands for an immediate end to Russia’s war in Ukraine by claiming that a ceasefire would not resolve the alleged “root causes” of the conflict — which Lavrov has continued to identify as NATO’s eastward expansion and Ukraine’s alleged discrimination against Russian speakers.
Lavrov’s statements emphasize the Kremlin’s determination to achieve its original war aims despite American demands for an immediate end to the conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin and senior Kremlin officials have repeatedly stated that Russia will not agree to a ceasefire until Ukraine and the West meet Russia’s demands of Ukrainian neutrality, the removal of the legitimate government in Ukraine, the installation of a pro-Russian government, and changes to NATO’s Open Door Policy. Lavrov’s statements are a continuation of the Kremlin’s attempts to signal to US President Donald Trump that Trump’s demands for an immediate end to the war are incompatible with Russia’s war aims.
Russia’s ongoing and ever-intensifying long-range strike campaign against Ukraine is just one indicator of the Kremlin’s disinterest in peace.
Bloomberg previously reported that Russian strikes had taken out roughly 60 percent of Ukraine’s natural gas production as of October 3, which will likely force Ukraine to spend 1.9 billion euros on fuel imports in Winter 2025-2026. Russia has conducted a series of intensified strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure each fall and winter since 2022, in what ISW continues to assess is a Russian effort to degrade Ukraine’s energy security and industrial capacity and demoralize the Ukrainian populace.
