Ukraine War News Today - Top Stories and Breaking Updates from Kyiv Post

The incident occurred amid heightened tensions following the incursion of 19 Russian drones into Polish airspace, prompting NATO to launch the “Eastern Sentry” initiative to bolster its eastern flank.

A drone flying over sensitive government sites in Warsaw was neutralized by Poland’s State Protection Service (SOP), Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Monday, Sept. 15.

“Just now, the State Protection Service neutralized a drone operating over government buildings (Parkowa Street) and the Belweder Palace,” Tusk wrote in a post on X.

A US delegation visited key mineral sites in Ukraine as both nations advance a joint investment fund aimed at boosting postwar recovery and critical resource development.

A high-level US delegation toured titanium and rare earth sites in central Ukraine to assess sites that could become starter projects for the new Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund, Economy Minister Oleksiy Sobolev said on Sept. 15.

Representatives from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) visited the Birzulivsky Mining and Processing Plant and the Likarivske deposit in the Kirovohrad region, key hubs for titanium ore and future zirconium extraction which are being considered as potential projects for the Fund.

Russia is turning to barter transactions with increasing frequency in order to bypass Western sanctions as pressure on its economy mounts, Reuters has reported.

Moscow has turned to bartering in order to circumvent Western sanctions as Russia’s economy shows signs of increasing strain, Reuters reported on Sept. 15.

Identifying eight transactions of goods-in-kind based on trade sources, public statements from customs services and company statements, Reuters wrote that the return of bartering “shows just how far the war in Ukraine has distorted trading relationships” for Russia.

Ukraine plans to limit diesel fuel imports from India starting Oct. 1 – all shipments must undergo lab testing to prevent fuel of Russian origin from entering the market.

Ukraine will limit diesel imports from India starting Oct. 1, 2025, with all shipments required to undergo sampling and laboratory testing.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) sent this requirement to the Energy Customs on Monday, Sept. 15.

The surprise visit by US officers is seen as the latest sign of warming ties between Washington and Minsk after a series of high-level visits and gestures of goodwill from both sides.

US military officers made a surprise visit to observe joint war games between Russia and Belarus on Monday and were encouraged by Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin to look at “whatever is of interest to you.”

In a video released on Telegram by the Belarusian Defense Ministry, two uniformed US officers thank Khrenin for the invitation in Russian and shake his hand.

Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.

• Russian Ground Forces (RGF) likely seized between 450 and 500 sq km of Ukrainian territory in August 2025, a moderate decrease from the approximately 500-550 sq km taken in July 2025, and the approximately 550-600 sq km taken in June 2025. This follows month on month increases from March 2025 to June 2025.
• It is likely that counter attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the vicinity of Pokrovsk, Kupiansk and Sumy contributed to the moderate reduction in the rate of Russian territorial gains in August 2025.
• RGF continue to use modified tactics, having moved from utilising mass to achieve territorial gain, to attacking with small infantry assault groups supported by artillery, glide bombs, and uncrewed aerial systems. This has likely contributed to the reported reduction in Russian monthly casualty {killed and wounded) rates, whilst high operational tempo is maintained across the frontline, and steady territorial gains continue to be made.
• Despite month on month decreases in Russia’s recorded casualty rates since March 2025, Russia’s significant losses continue. Russia has likely sustained approximately 300,000 casualties in the conflict so far in 2025, and approximately 1,080,000 casualties since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

After the latest Russian drone incursions into NATO airspace, Kremlin hawk Medvedev said a no-fly zone over Ukraine means war, while spokesman Peskov said it’s de facto war already.

Is NATO at war with Russia? That depends on who you ask in the Kremlin.

While the usually more hawkish Dmitry Medvedev – Russia’s former prime minister and current Security Council deputy chairman – said on Monday a theoretical no-fly zone over Ukraine means war, the Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the two are de facto at war already.

China is pressuring Poland to reopen its border with Belarus after the closure froze a €25B rail freight link to the EU, just as Trump urges Europe to raise tariffs on Beijing.

The closure of the Polish-Belarusian border has frozen a key route for Chinese exports to the European Union, prompting Beijing to put pressure on Warsaw to reopen it and restore the freight link, which is worth €25 billion a year.

Poland took the decision to close its frontier with Moscow-allied Belarus ahead of joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises, codenamed Zapad 2025, which started on Friday.

At YES 2025, President Volodymyr Zelensky and global leaders called for stronger sanctions, modern weapons, and support for Ukraine to win the war – and no concessions to Russia.

Kyiv hosted the annual Yalta European Strategy (YES) 2025 conference on Sept. 12-13, titled “How to End the War?”

Over 800 politicians, diplomats, business leaders, Ukrainian servicemen, veterans, and experts from over 30 countries gathered to discuss Ukraine’s path to victory and lasting peace.

Russia’s Baltic Sea city in Russia’s second-most-important region saw Ukraine’s special forces set shadow tankers and an oil refinery ablaze, then ambush a fuel train within 72 hours.

Ukraine’s avowed campaign to destroy all Russian oil production capacity zeroed in on President Vladimir Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg over the weekend. Punishing drone attacks hit an oil refinery, sanctioned oil tankers and the seaport in which they were tied up along with a fuel train in a daring behind-the-lines commando raid.

Starting late on Friday night operators from Ukraine’s 14th Unmanned Aircraft Regiment kicked off one of the most massive swarm air raids of the entire war, over the next four hours launching 220-230 long-range drones at targets across Russia. Approximately 30 kamikaze drones headed for Russia’s northwestern Leningrad region, and shortly after midnight dived one after the other on the Primorsk oil-pumping station.

Trump calls on NATO allies to stop buying Russian oil and back new sanctions, tying them to joint action — and urges bloc-wide tariffs on China.

US President Donald Trump has called on Nato countries to step up the economic pressure on Russia, and made new US sanctions contingent on their doing so. All allies must stop buying oil from Russia, Trump demanded on his online platform Truth Social. He also urged Nato countries to impose high tariffs on China as a bloc. Are his demands justified?

Wait for the next letter

Rzeczpospolita (Poland) doubts that Trump’s new plan will come to anything:

Excluded from most international sporting events, Russia was allowed to enter a team in this year’s “world cup of grave-digging” in the southern Hungarian city of Szekszárd.

The eighteenth iteration of the Hungarian Association of Cemetery Operators and Servicers (MTFE) annual international grave-digging competition was held last weekend in the Hungarian city of Szekszárd, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Budapest.

The city has hosted the event since 2016, which saw more than 20 two-man teams taking on the challenge this year. For the first time, a Russian pair – employees of Siberia’s Novosibirsk crematorium – took part alongside shovel-wielding Hungarians, and entries from Serbia and Croatia.

Russia has used the widely-banned weapons “extensively” since the first day of the war, it said, adding that Ukraine too had deployed them and faced accusations of using them in Russia.

Cluster munitions have killed or injured more than 1,200 civilians in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, a monitor said Monday, decrying “troubling setbacks” in global efforts to eradicate the weapons.

Since Russia expanded the invasion of its western neighbour in February 2022, Ukraine has registered the highest number of recorded annual cluster munition casualties worldwide, the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) said in its annual report.

Ukraine’s latest attack drones are equipped with terminal guidance technology that enables a drone or missile to hit its target automatically in the final stage of its flight.

Two Ukrainian defence firms announced Monday they have begun mass production of first-person-view (FPV) strike drones fitted with onboard terminal guidance, a step forward that company leaders said will sharply raise battlefield effectiveness at little extra cost.

Terminal guidance technology allows a drone or missile hit its target automatically in the final stage of its flight. 

Ukraine’s cyber warfare forces hit Russia’s election systems on Sept. 14, while Kyiv slammed sham votes in occupied Crimea and call them “ null and void”

Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) says its cyber specialists carried out a sweeping attack that paralyzed the digital resources of Russia’s Central Election Commission during nationwide voting on Sept. 14, including elections being staged in occupied Ukrainian territories.

A source in HUR told Kyiv Post that the operation aimed to disrupt online voting in what Kyiv called “illegal elections” held by Moscow in the annexed regions of Ukraine.

Keith Kellogg said during a speech in Kyiv that Russia is losing the war, praised Ukraine’s military, and called it the global leader in drone warfare.

Russia is not winning the war against Ukraine, despite Kremlin claims, Gen. Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump’s special presidential envoy for Ukraine, said on Friday.

Speaking at the 21st Yalta European Strategy (YES) Annual Meeting in Kyiv, he said:

Putin’s dictatorship is a postmodern, digital one, says Alexander Morozov. And many Russians appear to be following their president into war out of inertia fed by resentment.

Many analysts have long been wondering what the Russian population thinks about the war in Ukraine and the Kremlin’s policies.

Kyiv Post interviewed Russian political scientist and political commentator Alexander Morozov, Member of the Council of the Free Russia Forum. He has lived in the Czech Republic since 2013. In 2023, the Russian authorities declared him a “foreign agent.” Morozov used to be teacher at Ruhr University (Bochum) and Charles University (Prague).

Stefan Korshak, Kyiv Post’s military correspondent, shares his perspective on recent developments in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Of all the developments this week, the most horrific and – I fear – the one most quickly forgotten was a Russian glide bomb that hit a group of pensioners in Yarova, a town in the Donetsk region, who had gathered together next to a government officer to get their pensions. Twenty-three of them were killed. This was on Tuesday, Sept. 9. The village is about 10 kilometers behind the front lines, so there are no bank terminals or reliable electricity, which is why people have to get their pensions in cash.

The killed included 5 men aged 50-79 and 14 women aged 38-72. Injured were taken to hospitals in the cities of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, and Lyman. Emergency response to the scene was “complicated” by Russian drones flying in to target ambulance crews. I can confirm that, 100 percent reliable sources.

An intercepted call reveals that Russian commanders refused to withdraw a seriously wounded soldier, “Dimka,” from the frontline to receive treatment.

Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) released a recently intercepted phone call in which a Russian woman describes the grim fate of a relative serving on the front line, once more underscoring Moscow’s reliance on brutal “meat assaults” and show complete disregard for its own wounded troops.

In the recording, a woman identified only as a relative of a Russian soldier called Dimka recounts how he was a member of an assault unit, was seriously wounded and given minimal treatment so he could be sent back to the front quickly.

A Russian drone violated NATO airspace on Saturday, prompting Romania to scramble F-16 fighter jets which tracked the unmanned aircraft for nearly an hour.

Russia’s embassy in Romania dismissed accusations that one of its drones entered Romanian airspace over the weekend, saying the incident was a “provocation” by Ukraine. Moscow’s Ambassador Vladimir Lipayev said Romania’s charge was “unfounded.”

In a statement late Sunday, the embassy claimed that “all the facts lead one to believe that it was a deliberate provocation by the Kyiv regime” and accused Bucharest of failing to provide convincing answers to Russia’s questions.

From a flyby and carriage ride with King Charles III to a grand banquet at historic Windsor Castle, Britain is pulling out all the stops to flatter Trump, who is fascinated with the monarchy.

Donald Trump will get the red carpet treatment this week on an unprecedented second UK state visit, as Britain counts on royal pomp and circumstance to woo the unpredictable US president.

From a flyby and carriage ride with King Charles III to a grand state banquet at historic Windsor Castle, Britain is pulling out all the stops to flatter Trump, who has long been fascinated with the monarchy.

On Sept. 15, a global Starlink outage hit over 50,000 users and disrupted frontline troops in Ukraine.

A worldwide outage of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet disrupted communications for users across several continents on Monday, including Ukrainian troops along the front line.

Monitoring site Downdetector reported more than 50,000 complaints in the United States alone after disruptions began shortly after 7 a.m. on Sept. 15. Similar outages were logged across Europe, Asia and other regions.

Moscow appears to be in short supply of its own, domestically supplied S-400s, and is reportedly considering buying back the two S-400 systems it sold to Turkey in 2017 for $2.5 billion.

Russia has reportedly approached Turkey with a proposal to repurchase the S-400 air defense systems it sold to Ankara in 2019, amid inventory shortages and increasing demand from third countries, Turkish media outlet Nefes reported.

The news was first reported by Turkish outlet Nefes and has not been officially confirmed by Ankara, although Militarnyi, a Ukrainian news website specializing in military matters, said sources point to a “positive attitude” toward Moscow’s proposal among Turkish officials.  

The intrusion comes days after Poland said it had shot down Russian drones that had violated its airspace as Moscow launched a barrage against Ukraine.

Romania on Sunday protested the entry of a Russian drone into its airspace during an attack on neighbouring Ukraine, summoning Moscow’s ambassador to the foreign ministry over the incident.

The intrusion comes days after fellow NATO member Poland said it had shot down Russian drones that had violated its airspace as Moscow launched a barrage against Ukraine.

This weekend Trump said the US would put sanctions on Russia when NATO members stop buying oil from Russia. In August, NATO members imported nearly €1 billion worth of crude oil from Russia.

Last Saturday, US President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social that he will adopt major sanctions on Russia when NATO members stop buying Russian oil. NATO members are undermining their bargaining power over Russia by buying Russian oil according to Trump: “NATO’S commitment to WIN has been far less than 100%, and the purchase of Russian Oil, by some, has been shocking! It greatly weakens your negotiating position, and bargaining power, over Russia.”

Russia’s war against Ukraine is now dominated by drones. Apart from the air war, however, an arms race is now in full swing with ground robot technology.

In an old Soviet-era warehouse just miles from the front in Donetsk Oblast, sparks fly from a welding torch as Ukrainian engineers crouch over the metal frame of a ground robot. Known as an unmanned ground vehicle, or UGV, the machine is being outfitted for a frontline mission.

Oleksandr, the platoon commander of Ground Robotic Complexes with the Antares Battalion of the Rubizh Brigade, watched as his team worked. “We want the brigade to be recognized, and for people to understand this work matters – that it’s working everywhere,” he told me.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• A Russian drone entered Romanian airspace on the night of September 13, days after a Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace on the night of September 9 to 10.
• Poland authorized NATO reinforcements to deploy to Poland for Operation Eastern Sentry in response to the September 9 to 10 Russian drone incursion into Polish territory.
• Russian and Belarusian forces continued the Zapad-2025 joint military exercises.
• Ukraine continued its long-range drone strike and sabotage campaign against Russian oil, gas, railway, and military infrastructure in Russia and occupied Crimea on the night of September 13 to 14.
• The Kremlin is facing a massive budget deficit and may increase consumer taxes to compensate for the deficit rather than decreasing funding for its war machine, passing the economic costs off as a sacrifice that the Russian population must accept to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.
• Increasing the VAT could reverse any progress the Russian Central Bank may have made against inflation while also failing to address any of the issues that will likely arise from prematurely lowering the key interest rate.
• Russian forces advanced near Pokrovsk and in western Zaporizhia Oblast.

As Brussels condemns a new drone incursion in Romania, top diplomats and American lawmakers insist Russia’s actions are a deliberate attempt to divide the EU and NATO

WASHINGTON DC - European leaders on Sunday voiced strong condemnation after a Russian drone violated Romanian airspace over the weekend, the latest in a series of incursions that have heightened fears of a direct spillover of the war in Ukraine into NATO territory.

In a social media post on Sunday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the incident a “blatant violation of EU sovereignty and a serious threat to regional security.”

The US President escalates criticism of NATO allies over sanctions, while a top Democrat warns that trade war with China is “a separate issue” from Ukraine.

WASHINGTON DC – US President Donald Trump reiterated on Sunday that he is prepared to impose new sanctions on Russia – but with a significant caveat. Speaking to reporters, Trump made it clear that any action from the US would be contingent on a more robust response from European nations and NATO allies.

“Europe is buying oil from Russia. I don’t want them to buy oil,” Trump emphasized. “And the sanctions that they’re putting on are not tough enough. I’m willing to do sanctions, but they’re going to have to toughen up their sanctions commensurate with what I’m doing,” he added.