Here is how things stand on Wednesday, September 17 :
Fighting
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia had launched more than 3,500 drones and nearly 190 missiles against Ukraine so far in September, describing the onslaught as an “aerial terror” operation.
- Russian forces carried out a large attack on Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, killing a 41-year-old man, injuring at least 18 people and triggering several fires, regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said.
- One person was killed in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region, and two people were injured in the city of Kharkiv in the northeast of the country, while several other Ukrainian cities in central, southern, and eastern areas came under attack from a wave of more than 100 Russian drones.
- The Russian Ministry of Defence said that its drones hit a gas distribution station serving the Ukrainian military in the Sumy region of northeast Ukraine. Moscow described the facility as a gas intake, storage and distribution point used by Ukrainian combat forces and rear area support units.
- Ukraine’s military said it struck the Saratov oil refinery during an overnight attack on Russia’s Saratov region. There were explosions and a fire in the area of the facility following the attack, the General Staff said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to infrastructure.
- The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said its team at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine reported shelling taking place at a location about 400 metres (1,312 feet) from the facility’s off-site diesel fuel storage area. Black smoke was also observed rising from three nearby locations, though there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to the site.
- Russia’s state-owned oil pipeline company Transneft warned producers they may have to cut output after Ukraine’s drone attacks on critical export ports and refineries, the Reuters news agency reported, citing three industry sources. Transneft said the report was part of the West’s “information war” against Russia.
Military
- United States President Donald Trump’s administration’s first military aid packages for Ukraine have been approved, and could soon be shipped as Washington resumes sending weapons to Kyiv. This time, US arms are being sent under a new financial agreement with allies, Reuters reported, adding that the US has approved as many as two $500m worth of weapon shipments.
- Poland will decide on submarine procurement this week, which will lead to the purchase of the first new submarines by the end of the year, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said. Poland aims to acquire three new submarines under its “Orka” programme to boost military capabilities in response to what it sees as a growing threat from Russia.
- Russia and Belarus rehearsed the launch of Russian tactical nuclear weapons as part of joint war games, which began on Friday, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said. The exercises, which concluded on Tuesday, also featured Russia’s Oreshnik hypersonic missile, which was used for the first time last year in Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to the Nizhny Novgorod region to observe the conclusion of the drills, state television reported. Soldiers from India, Iran, Bangladesh, as well as Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mali also participated in the drills.
- The Pentagon confirmed that US military officials observed the war games, accepting an invitation for the first time since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Politics and diplomacy
- Trump called to congratulate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his birthday and thanked him for efforts to help stop Russia’s war in Ukraine, amid tensions over contentious US tariffs.
-
US-funded research conducted by Yale’s School of Public Health identified more than 210 sites where thousands of Ukrainian children have been taken for military training, drone manufacturing and forced re-education by Russia, as part of a large-scale deportation programme.
-
Canadian Minister of Transport Chrystia Freeland will leave cabinet and take on a new role as Canada’s special representative for Ukrainian reconstruction, Prime Minister Mark Carney said. Freeland, who is of Ukrainian descent, helped drive Canada’s policy towards Russia, including the imposition of a raft of sanctions.
- Russia hopes a new round of talks can be scheduled with US officials later this year to clear up issues in relations between Moscow and Washington, Sergey Ryabkov, a deputy foreign minister, told Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.
Sanctions
- The European Commission will propose speeding up the phase-out of Russian fossil imports, according to its president, Ursula von der Leyen, after a call with Trump. The bloc had previously intended to end buying Russian oil and gas by January 1, 2028.
Economy
- Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called his country’s draft 2026 budget, now in preparation, a “wartime” budget and said that social spending, including support for veterans of the war in Ukraine, must not be sacrificed to balance the finances. Russia’s current combined spending on defence and national security is estimated to reach $204bn in 2025, the highest since the Cold War.
Regional security
- A Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea plans to take his fight against extradition from Italy to the country’s highest court after a lower Italian court ordered his transfer to Germany.
