Russia-Ukraine war: Iran condemns Caspian Sea attack; Kyiv and Moscow trade drone and missile blows

The two foreign ministers met on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York even though relations have been frozen since the invasion. What we know on day 1,677The foreign ministers of Russia and Germany met in New York on the sidelines of the ⁠UN general assembly, ⁠in the first such ​talks since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. But Russia’s top diplomat dismissed Germany’s calls to ease off its “dangerous path of escalation” toward Europe, instead accusing Germany of being Ukraine’s main sponsor and seeking to be a leading military power in Europe. “Does Berlin understand what this could lead to?” the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, asked in his speech at the gathering of world leaders on Saturday. “Didn’t they learn the lessons of world war two?”German foreign minister, Johann ‌Wadephul, used the talks to call on Russia “to abandon the dangerous path of escalation vis-a-vis Germany, Europe, and Nato”, according to a delegation source. Wadephul said incidents such as the attempted drone attack in Leipzig would not shake Germany’s resolve to support Ukraine, according to sources.Relations between Moscow and Berlin have been frozen since the Russian invasion, and tensions escalated further after the drone incident at Leipzig airport. In a sign of the continued frostiness, Lavrov told a press conference on Saturday “nothing new” came from the talks with his German counterpart.“I told him that frankly … you could just have called me and said: ‘read my statement’,” Lavrov said. “He simply reiterated his official public position condemning Russia … you can judge for yourself whether that counts as dialogue or not.”Still, the ​ministers discussed bilateral ties and the war in Ukraine, officials from ‌both sides said. Wadephul urged Lavrov to do “everything possible to reach an agreement on grain exports via the Black Sea”, a German ‌delegation source said.In a sign of the sensitivities around meeting the Russian foreign minister, Wadephul notified his European allies of the meeting afterwards in a message seen by Reuters. “I used this opportunity to reiterate our position on Russia’s war of aggression ⁠against Ukraine and to call for an immediate and complete ceasefire, most pressingly with a focus on grain ​exports, and the energy infrastructure,” he wrote.After the meeting Lavrov addressed world leaders at the assembly, where he defended Russia’s war in Ukraine and lobbed barbs at the west — including Germany – and criticised the militarisation of Japan. He made clear that Russia will veto any attempt by Germany and Japan for permanent seats on the UN security council. The two nations fought Russia, Britain and the US in the second world war. Writing on her personal Telegram channel, Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, said that “tens of diplomats” had come to meet Lavrov to “shake his hand and thank Russia”.An overwhelming majority of general assembly member nations have repeatedly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Wadephul noted in his own address to the assembly Saturday. “Russia’s war targets the lives of millions of innocent people, the existence of the Ukrainian state and culture and the European peace order,” he said, urging Russia to negotiating toward ending the fighting.The talks came amid an intensifying aerial war and as Donald Trump said he hoped the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, would “settle” with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. With frontline positions largely unchanged since last year, Russia has hammered Ukraine with cruise and ballistic missiles, powerful glide bombs and jet-powered drones in recent months, while Ukraine’s long-range drones have targeted Russian oil refineries and businesses.“It is essential that our partners not forget: Russia is escalating every single day,” Zelenskyy wrote on Saturday. “If the Russians have chosen to make their strikes even more brutal, the world must choose stronger responses to keep the war from spreading further.”Ukrainian officials said Russian attacks killed four people on Saturday, as Russian authorities said a Ukrainian drone attack killed three.Residents of Kyiv are preparing for power cuts, drone attacks and a bitter cold winter by stocking up on generators, food and “dry showers”, as the Ukrainian capital becomes a frontline city.And Russia has opened a new front in its campaign against Ukraine, hitting several datacentres and internet providers in Kyiv this week in an apparent attempt to weaken the digital backbone of the economy. Continue reading...

Ukraine believes that turning on Starlink over Russian territory would help it target missile launchers. What we know on day 1,675Finnish President Alexander Stubb has said he pleaded with SpaceX owner Elon Musk to expand Starlink satellite internet coverage for Ukraine so it can strike Russian ballistic missile launchers located inside ⁠Russian territory. Ukraine ⁠has an acute shortage ​of air defences to repel Russian ballistic missiles and Kyiv believes that turning on Starlink over Russian territory would help it target the launchers that fire the missiles. Musk switched on the Starlink satellite internet service over ‌Ukraine shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. It has become the lifeblood of Ukraine’s battlefield communications and a tool for piloting drones, but it does not work over Russian territory.Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met with senior Wall Street executives on ​the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York, ⁠as Kyiv seeks to attract investments to help finance the country’s rebuilding efforts. The meeting focused mainly ⁠on areas such as helping Ukraine get through the winter and supporting its economy, the Ukrainian ⁠government said. Ukraine faces a brutal winter as stepped-up Russian strikes on ​its infrastructure and key ‌export industries deepen ‌the country’s budget crisis. The daily cost of the war ‌grew to about $190m this year. The meeting, attended by more than two dozen US companies, was facilitated by US banking giant Citigroup and the US chamber of commerce.Russia could launch a limited military attack against a Nato country in the coming months, Danish intelligence said, in one of the starkest warnings yet by western security services. In a report published on Thursday, the Danish defence intelligence service warned of a “low but growing risk” that Russia could launch long-range strikes on Nato infrastructure supporting Ukraine, or carry out a limited incursion into a neighbouring country with a small number of troops, potentially operating without insignia. The report came hours after a fire at a Starlink satellite station in central Poland that local authorities described as an “act of sabotage”.Nato is capable of handling sabotage and drone incidents in Europe and has good action plans in place to deal with them, the alliance’s secretary general said after the warning from Danish intelligence. Secretary-general Mark Rutte said he believes the rising number of hybrid incidents in Nato countries shows that Russian President Vladimir Putin is losing the war in Ukraine. He said that citizens of the 32 Nato countries can remain calm. “Putin is in a bad place,” Rutte said. “He is not winning the war in Ukraine.”Russian drone and missile strikes on Kyiv and Ukraine’s north-east killed eight people on ⁠Thursday in attacks that included ⁠a maternity hospital and a ​farm, officials said. Two people died ⁠in the assault on Kyiv, Zelenskyy said. “As people were sleeping, flashes from explosions lit up the sky,” the president said on Telegram. Police said nine homes, a post office, ​warehouses and dozens of cars were also damaged in Kyiv. A separate ‌Russian attack on a vegetable storage ‌facility at a farm in a village of the north-eastern Kharkiv region killed six people and injured a further 12, prosecutors said.⁠Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey ⁠had ⁠stepped up ​efforts to re-establish the Black ⁠Sea grain corridor. “We have now increased ⁠our efforts to ​re-establish ‌the grain corridor. ‌We are also ‌accelerating our diplomatic steps for this,” Erdogan told a group of Turkish journalists ‌in New York. Erdogan said ⁠he had discussed ​the ​issue again ​with Zelenskyy ‌and received ​a ​positive response. Continue reading...

Russia Hammers Kiev In Rare Daytime Attacks; Kremlin 'Appreciates' US G20 Invite At a moment Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is still in New York City Thursday, attending meetings on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, his capital of Kiev has been rocked by fresh Russian strikes, which killed at least two people and wounded over 40 more. The attacks began in the daytime on Wednesday, and appear to have persisted into Thursday. A missile alert first went out to city residents Wednesday, after which AFP journalists observed hearing over 20 blasts. "Explosions in Kyiv. The capital is under ballistic missile attack. Remain in shelters!" Mayor Vitaly Klitschko wrote on Telegram. Getty ImagesAnd Zelensky himself wrote: "Once again, the main targets of (the Russian) attack were Kyiv and civilian infrastructure – residential buildings, a maternity hospital, energy facilities and logistics. Two people are already known to have been killed." On Wednesday in addressing the UN assembly, Zelensky warned Western partners that they must not let up the sanctions and isolation pressure on Putin, in order to starve Russia's military machine. Zelensky on Thursday reiterated further on X that "Russia will not end this war without pressure. As people were sleeping, flashes from explosions lit up the sky. Once again, the main targets of their strike were Kyiv and civilian infrastructure, residential buildings, a maternity hospital, energy infrastructure, and logistics." Other deadly overnight attacks occurred beyond the capital area. A Russian strike on a farm in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region killed six people, local officials said. Meanwhile efforts at getting the warring sides back to the peace table have still appeared stalled. But the Kremlin on Wednesday said it received an invitation from the United States for Putin to attend the December G20 summit in Miami. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow and Putin are "grateful for and appreciative of this invitation." He said, "We will make a decision and work through it via diplomatic channels." Washington confirmed that indeed the invitation was extended, no doubt to the consternation of European officials. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has explained: "We've invited President Putin to the G20. We think it's an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president but with other world leaders. We hope that's an invitation he'll accept." So far the Kremlin has signaled that Putin is unlikely to be in Miami. We wrote at the start of the week: Both the Kremlin and the White House had recently signaled mutual openness to the idea of President Putin actually attending the G20 Miami Summit which is set for December 14-15. Some reports have recently expressed optimism that some kind of grand Ukraine peace deal could emerge from such an engagement. However, Bloomberg has poured cold water on this, reporting Monday that "Vladimir Putin is set to travel to China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit hosted by President Xi Jinping but is likely to skip the Group of 20 in the U.S. with Donald Trump." He's previously also stated that he would only meet with Zelensky if a deal had been finalized and was ready to sign. An aerial attack on Kyiv is still underway, with an impact reported on non-residential infrastructure, city authorities said. Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that a drone crashed into a garage complex in Obolonskyi district, sending emergency crews to the scene. pic.twitter.com/Fuw3M9Kv8o — KyivPost (@KyivPost) September 24, 2026 Trump and Putin last talked face-to-face in August 2025. But since then the war has only escalated, particularly given Ukraine's long-range strikes on Russian territory and its energy infrastructure, and industrial and retailer sites - with the help of targeting intelligence provided by NATO countries. Tyler Durden Thu, 09/24/2026 - 13:15

Zelensky Ready For Reciprocal Energy Ceasefire Ahead Of UN Speech Major Russian drone attacks pummeled the Ukrainian capital overnight, resulting in two people killed and at least 23 wounded, also unleashing large-scale fires and damage, with plumes of black smoke seen hovering over the city. Other locations came under attack, which has been a nightly phenomenon, including in southeast Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia and the Black Sea port of Odesa - the latter where the captain of a cargo ship was tragically killed. Prior drone assault on Kiev from earlier in the war, via Reuters.Also, the country's rail system continues to be under threat, with Ukrainian Railways chief Oleksandr Pertsovsky saying the rail network in the capital area was "under fire" - for which he urged "maximum" vigilance from passengers. Amid ongoing Russian attacks on Ukrainian exports and imports, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday: "The recent attacks on commercial vessels in the Black Sea are unacceptable, regardless of who is responsible." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is meanwhile readying to address to UN General Assembly in New York, with the speech set for the late afternoon session on Wednesday. He's expected to push Western and global partners to hold the line against Putin, and pledge more support - especially missiles and air defense systems - headed into winter. Zelensky had forewarned in a Tuesday Telegram post that Russia was planning "a new massive attack" against Ukraine. According to some of the latest from New York in the context of the UNGA: Zelenskyy said Ukraine is ready for an “energy ceasefire” with Russia, provided Moscow stops attacks on critical infrastructure. Ukraine’s president also urged Trump to organize a trilateral meeting with Putin, saying the leaders should move “as quickly as possible” to end the war. Zelenskyy also called on Trump to engage Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying he has influence over Putin, as Kyiv braces for another winter of attacks on its energy infrastructure. It was only on Monday that President Trump again sought to publicly pressure Zelensky to halt long-range drone strikes on Russia's refineries, in a bid to calm rising diesel prices especially while the parallel Strait of Hormuz crisis persists. Russian jet-powered drones have bombed central Kyiv throughout today, largely targeting the neighborhood around the main railway station. The city is shrouded in smoke and the air smells heavy and toxic. At least one person has been killed and many others wounded. Fires are still… pic.twitter.com/HfFK28zeJN — Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) September 23, 2026 In a phone call, Zelensky was pressed by Trump over the strikes as Washington wants "Russian supplies to be able to reach the global market to provide relief." But now, after the Tuesday Trump meeting: “We are ready for an energy ceasefire if the Russians do not strike our energy infrastructure,” he said. According to him, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will convey Kyiv’s proposal to Moscow. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York City on Wednesday. Writing later on US social media platform X, Zelenskyy elaborated on the discussions, noting that the leaders discussed "how to end the war." 🇺🇦🇷🇺 Zelensky says Ukrainian lives matter more than energy prices, so he won't stop hitting Russian refineries just to bring diesel down. That's what he says he told Trump after POTUS blamed Kyiv for the price spike. He acknowledged Ukraine's strikes do move the market, but… — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) September 23, 2026 Recent efforts to "force" an energy ceasefire in Ukraine have fallen short, given once they are proclaimed it typically takes less than 48 hours for each side to break it. Refineries even in the Moscow area have lately come under major drone barrage, inflicting severe damage. Tyler Durden Wed, 09/23/2026 - 09:15

Meeting on sidelines of UN general assembly, Ukrainian leader says Kyiv open to deal not to attack energy targets if Russia agrees. What we know on day 1,673Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed with Donald Trump on Tuesday efforts to end the 4-year-old war with Russia, ⁠including a potential bilateral ceasefire ​on energy-related targets. “We are ready for any kind of format of energy ceasefire” if Russia agrees to “not attack our energy system,” Zelenskyy told journalists after meeting with Trump at the UN headquarters in New York. The Ukrainian leader expressed hope the “American side will find a way … to bring them to any kind of negotiations.” Zelenskyy said that he also was ready to meet the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, ​at a trilateral meeting with Trump.Trump insisted he was working with both sides to end the war, despite little evidence of Putin being open to any settlement. “It’s going to happen, I think, more quickly than people understand,” Trump said in his UN speech. Efforts led by Washington to broker a deal to end the hostilities, which have raged since Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, have stalled in recent months as the US has shifted focus to its war against Iran.Zelenskyy claimed the war with Russia would end if Trump applied more pressure on Putin, and if China and India stop buying oil from Russia. “It’s enough to stop them, they will not have enough money,” Zelenskyy told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. Zelenskyy said Russia’s energy sales to China, India and Turkey were propping up Russia’s economy. During the same interview, Zelenskyy said that Trump on Tuesday did not ask him to stop bombing Russian oil refineries. However, he acknowledged the issue has been raised before by American partners over concerns of rising energy prices.Zelenskyy also met with the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, in New York, who said he lobbied Trump ​to press for a Ukraine-Russia energy ceasefire in his meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart. Burnham promised further financial support to Kyiv for infrastructure.Putin is becoming “increasingly cavalier, dangerous and risk accepting,” as his war in Ukraine drags on and as he seeks to divide western allies, Nato’s deputy commander in Europe said Tuesday. Air Chief Marshal Sir John Stringer spoke to The Associated Press at a security conference in Estonia amid warnings from some European leaders that Moscow is planning to test Nato’s collective defence pact with bolder attacks that have already included sabotage and espionage. Stringer warned that Nato members need to be aware of the “febrile environment” and be careful in their response because Putin would like to provoke the alliance into an “overreaction”.Officials in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which border Russia, have been more cautious about the prospect of a serious escalation. “Ukraine is fighting. Russia is absorbed in Ukraine. We do not observe any buildup near our borders. And from that part, I think that most would agree that the perspective of direct military attack is not correct,” Latvian president Edgars Rinkevics told reporters on the sidelines of the UN meeting. European countries have already faced multiple incursions of Russian drones – and several missiles – as well as a campaign of covert Russian disruption which began after the war.Ukraine has continued to press the US for more Patriot interceptors to defend against Russia’s ballistic missiles, but is yet to get any confirmation, Zelenskyy told reporters. “They are positive to help us, but I didn’t get the very concrete answer,” he said. Defence experts say the US has been experiencing a global shortage of Patriot interceptors because many have been expended to defend against Iranian attacks on US and allied bases in Middle East. Zelenskyy spoke of the urgency of needing the weapons, which can shoot down Russia’s more advanced ballistic missiles. The shortage in Ukraine has left Kyiv and other cities increasingly exposed to devastating attacks. Continue reading...

Kaja Kallas says sanctions vital as bloc scrambles to reach deal on extension; UN sounds warning for civilians on both sides of war as winter approaches. What we know on day 1,672The EU’s top diplomat has urged member countries to maintain sanctions targeting Russia, as Moscow’s forces continued their attacks on Ukraine, killing at least five people. “Sanctions are a core pillar of our response to Russia’s war”, Kaja Kallas told reporters in New York after a meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers. Officials aimed to close talks on a rollover of Russia sanctions soon and have the extension take place swiftly, she said. “We need to have this stability,” with sanctions remaining in place for a longer time, Kallas added on the sidelines of the UN general assembly. She stressed the EU’s position has not changed: “That’s why we are also working on a new package of sanctions.”Discussions on the sanctions are ongoing as some EU member states sought to remove certain individuals from the bloc’s blacklist. EU countries failed on Monday to finalise a deal that involved lifting sanctions on Russian oligarchs Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman. Ukrainian foreign minister Andriy Sybiga denounced the move to remove them as “unacceptable” and said it would send Moscow the “wrong signal”. Negotiations are set to continue in Brussels in efforts to extend sanctions on almost 3,000 other individuals and entities over the war as the bloc scrambles to reach a deal ahead of late Tuesday’s deadline.Russian forces continued their attacks on different ⁠Ukrainian regions along the 1,200km frontline on ⁠Monday, killing ​at least five people, regional officials said. Prosecutors in ⁠north-eastern Kharkiv region said a drone strike on the town of ⁠Lozova killed one person and ​injured three. Farther south ‌in Dnipropetrovsk region, ‌a drone killed a car driver ‌in Nikopol. In the Donetsk ‌region, a Russian ​strike badly damaged an apartment building in the strategic Kramatorsk, killing one person, while another person was killed in ⁠a nearby village. A sustained attack ​on ​a village in ​Mykolaiv region killed a ​three-year-old ​child. The attacks could not be independently verified. Russian also bombarded Zaporizhzhia overnight to Monday, hitting apartment blocks, a university and a shopping mall, among other sites, and wounding five people, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.Donald Trump is expected to press the Ukrainian president on an energy ceasefire during a face-to-face meeting this week, on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, Andrew Roth reports. It comes as world diesel prices have soared due to the war in Iran as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine. Ukraine stepped up its attacks on Russia’s energy sector over the weekend, and the US president said the whole world was suffering due to an energy shortage he said was being exacerbated by the Ukraine war.Russia’s new parliament will include 49 deputies who have taken part in the war against Ukraine, officials said after a landslide victory by the ruling United Russia party in widely criticised elections. Luke Harding reports that the pro-Kremlin party won a record 355 seats in the country’s 450-seat Duma lower house of parliament, according to preliminary figures, further consolidating Vladimir Putin’s grip on power.Escalating infrastructure attacks by both Russia and Ukraine are leaving civilians increasingly vulnerable as winter approaches, UN investigators have warned, expressing fear of a repeat of last winter’s suffering. In a fresh update, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine warned the attacks raised concerns that already difficult living conditions could worsen dramatically with the arrival of winter, as was the case last year. Last winter, Russian forces “continued to launch systematic waves of attacks against Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure as temperatures plunged to minus 20C”, it said in a statement. “Millions of civilians endured prolonged power outages, shortages or lengthy absence of heating.” Continue reading...