Russian drone strikes killed at least seven in Kyiv as attacks stretch from night into day
Russian forces launched a series of drone strikes on Kyiv overnight into September 25 that continued through the daytime, killing at least seven people and injuring more than 30 others, according to city authorities. Among the dead was a 14-year-old boy. Fifteen people, including two children, were hospitalized.
The assault began in the early morning hours after air-raid alerts had already sounded for a possible missile threat. One drone struck a 16-story residential high-rise in a central part of the city, slamming into the building between the 10th and 11th floors and setting apartments ablaze. Fires also broke out at commercial and non-residential sites in densely populated areas.
Later in the morning and into the afternoon, additional drones hit an office building, killing four people and injuring several others, including a child, in the adjacent parking lot. A nearby medical facility was also damaged. By mid-afternoon, the capital had come under its seventh air-raid alert of the day as the attacks persisted.
The strikes form part of a broader pattern of intensified Russian aerial assaults on the Ukrainian capital in recent weeks. Moscow has increasingly relied on faster, jet-powered drones that fly higher and are more difficult for air defenses to intercept. The previous night had already seen ballistic missile attacks that killed two people and damaged residential buildings and a maternity hospital.
Emergency services worked throughout the day to extinguish fires and clear debris from multiple locations. The full extent of structural damage was still being assessed as the attacks continued.
Starvation crisis deepens in occupied Oleshky as food blockade enters fourth month
In the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in Ukraine’s Kherson region, a severe humanitarian crisis has reached critical levels. The last official delivery of food supplies took place on May 26, according to the head of the city’s military administration. Since then, no regular humanitarian aid has reached the area, leaving remaining residents to face growing hunger.
Before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Oleshky was home to approximately 24,000 people. Today, only about 2,000 remain in the city itself. Across the broader Oleshky community—which once included 13 settlements and a total population of around 40,000—roughly 6,000 people, including about 182 children, are still present. Five of the surrounding settlements have been destroyed, and three others have been damaged by about 80 percent.
Local officials report that some families have resorted to eating dogs as food stocks have been exhausted. Residents have been surviving on limited garden produce, weeds, and whatever they can barter, but even these resources are running out. Electricity, gas, and reliable water supplies have been unavailable for years in much of the area. Medical care is extremely limited, with the local hospital operating only partially and facing severe shortages of medicine and fuel for generators.
The city and surrounding villages lie close to the front line on the left bank of the Dnipro River. Russian forces control the territory and have restricted movement through minefields, checkpoints, and frequent drone attacks. Ukrainian authorities and international monitors, including the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission, have described the situation as desperate and have called for a humanitarian corridor to allow both aid deliveries and the safe evacuation of civilians. Russia has acknowledged problems with supplies but has not agreed to facilitate large-scale international assistance or evacuation.
Ukrainian officials warn that without urgent intervention, the remaining population faces an increasingly high risk of starvation as winter approaches.
Trump made final decision on granting Ukraine Patriot licenses - Zelensky
U.S. President Donald Trump has made a “final decision” to grant Ukraine licenses to produce Patriot air defense missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today. Zelensky said Trump informed him of the decision during their meeting in New York three days ago.
“At our meeting, President Trump stressed that he had made his final decision: Ukraine will receive licenses to produce Patriot missiles,” Zelensky told reporters. He did not say when production could begin or how much Ukraine would be able to produce. The White House has not commented.
The licensing issue had remained unresolved for months as Ukraine faced a shortage of Patriot interceptors, which are among the few systems capable of reliably countering Russian ballistic missiles. Trump had previously said in July that he agreed to the licenses but later walked back the announcement.