Kyiv has endured a third consecutive night of Russian air attacks, with at least one civilian killed and four injured overnight, as President Volodymyr Zelensky warned the country that Moscow is showing no sign of preparing to end its war against Ukraine.
A third night of fire over the capital
In Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi district, a Russian drone struck an uninhabited residential building at around 10 p.m., setting it ablaze before firefighters brought the fire under control. In the Solomianskyi district, a drone fell in an open area, its blast wave shattering windows and damaging the facade of a five-storey residential building. Fires also broke out at a warehouse and a car service centre after further drone strikes.
Early on Sunday morning, a woman and two 16-year-old children were injured when a strike hit a non-residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who said all three were hospitalised.
Ukraine's air defences reported downing 147 of the 170 attack drones — 76 of them jet-powered — that Russia launched across the country overnight, with strikes recorded at 18 locations. In the Odesa region, one civilian was killed and two injured, while a production facility, warehouse premises and trucks were damaged in a widespread fire.
"The Russians are not preparing to stop"
In his nightly address, Zelensky said Moscow's behaviour spoke louder than any diplomacy.
"Obviously, the Russians are not preparing to stop their war, at least for now. Putin always finds some lame excuse — not to meet, not to hold a trilateral, not to talk, not to end it, not to stop the killing… It has been the same with him for years — and all our partners feel it. He is looking for excuses to keep waging the war. It always sounds the same — and our recent meeting with the U.S. President showed that."
He said the United States now "sees the situation the same way" and called for enforcement of recently passed US legislation imposing tougher sanctions on Russia, as well as "other mechanisms of pressure" on Moscow.
The toll of the latest nights is stark. Analyst Alexander Kokcharov, who was in Kyiv from September 19 to 26, counted confirmed Russian strike effects in the city on seven of those eight days — including a ballistic missile attack — killing 11 civilians, among them a 14-year-old child, and injuring 129.
A week of escalation across Ukraine
The overnight bombardment was part of the heaviest week of Russian strikes in recent months. In a statement posted to Telegram on Sunday, Zelensky said Moscow had launched more than 2,200 attack drones, about 1,650 guided aerial bombs and 38 missiles — a significant share of them ballistic — at Ukraine this week alone.
Beyond the capital, the week's attacks spread across the country. Overnight strikes hit residential buildings, energy facilities and civilian infrastructure in the Odesa, Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Poltava, Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions. In Sumy city, Russian glide bombs killed two civilians and injured 23 people, including four children, damaging dozens of apartment buildings, two kindergartens and more than 20 vehicles. In the Zaporizhzhia region, three people were killed, and a Kyiv data centre was struck twice in a single morning, injuring three people including two children in the first strike.
Pressure grows on Russia's enablers
Zelensky used the weekend's carnage to widen his appeal beyond Ukraine's traditional partners. He called on China, India, Brazil and South Africa — the major G20 powers of the Global South — to take a stronger stance on Russia, saying each had influence over Moscow and could "help make peace a reality."
He also renewed his push for Washington to fully use the tools Congress has given it. "We ask President Trump to implement the Lindsey Graham Act against Russia and everyone who props up its war financially," Zelensky said, referring to the sanctions law signed by Trump a week ago that grants the US president sweeping authority to impose tariffs and sanctions on Russia, its energy sector and foreign governments that help Moscow evade restrictions.
Meanwhile, Germany's foreign minister met Russia's Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Saturday — the first meeting between the countries' foreign ministers since the full-scale invasion — telling Lavrov that "Russia must end its war of aggression against Ukraine," though the call found no response from the Russian side.
Zelensky has warned that Russian intelligence services are preparing to expand their activities beyond Ukraine, making air defence and sanctions pressure not just Ukraine's fight but a shared one. After three straight nights of fire over Kyiv, his message to partners is simple: the war will not end because anyone asked politely — it will end when Russia can no longer afford to wage it.