Russia and Ukraine traded deadly long-range blows overnight, as Moscow unleashed one of its largest drone barrages in weeks and Kyiv answered by striking an oil refinery deep inside Russian territory. The exchange, reported on Saturday, September 26, underlines how the war's aerial dimension is intensifying even as front-line advances stall more than four and a half years into Russia's full-scale invasion.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched 173 attack drones against Ukraine overnight. By 7:30 in the morning, air defences had shot down or neutralised 134 of them — Shahed and Gerber types among them — but strikes were still recorded at 19 locations across the country, and the human cost was heavy.
A night of terror across Ukraine
In Zaporizhzhia, two women were killed when they were trapped beneath the rubble of their destroyed home, the regional military administration said. Regional governor Ivan Fedorov reported seven more people injured and 86 separate reports of damage to infrastructure, homes and vehicles.
In the Donetsk region, governor Vadym Filashkin confirmed two people killed and eight injured, and said 1,121 residents had been evacuated from front-line areas. In Kherson, regional military administration head Oleksandr Prokudin reported one person killed and three injured, with five private homes damaged in strikes on residential neighbourhoods and critical infrastructure.
In the northern Sumy region, a 69-year-old man was killed in a drone strike, and ten more people were wounded in a guided aerial bomb attack. A separate Russian attack on the city of Sumy killed two more people, local officials said.
The capital was not spared. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said five residents were injured in overnight strikes on the city. In the Boryspil district of the Kyiv region, a Russian drone attack caused a fire at a warehouse that injured two people, while drones struck several districts inside the capital itself, injuring four and damaging residential and office buildings.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia had even carried out a "double strike" on a logistics facility used by the fast-food chain McDonald's, sharing footage of the aftermath. "Relentless attacks disrupt Ukrainians' daily lives, damage businesses, threaten jobs, and undermine international investment," he said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky listed "numerous strikes on residential homes" in Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia and the Odesa, Sumy and Kharkiv regions. "It is essential that our partners not forget: Russia is escalating every single day," he wrote on Saturday morning. "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."
Ukraine answers at Ilsky
Ukraine's response reached deep into Russia. Zelensky said the country's long-range strike forces had new results to show: "Last night, the Ilsky Oil Refinery in the Krasnodar region was hit," he announced, adding that Ukraine's long-range capabilities had been effective elsewhere as well.
The strike was confirmed from the Russian side. Krasnodar regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram that a Ukrainian attack had sparked fires at two industrial sites, killing three people and wounding two. Russian media outlets later reported that a local oil refinery had been targeted.
The Ilsky strike fits a deliberate Ukrainian strategy: degrading the refineries that fund and fuel Russia's war machine. Days earlier, Zelensky used an address at the United Nations to appeal for sanctions and trade bans that would starve Moscow of revenue. With diplomacy showing no sign of ending the war, Kyiv's drones are doing the economic damage themselves — one refinery at a time.
Putin denies plans to confront Europe
As the strikes unfolded, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters in Saint Petersburg that Moscow was "not preparing for any kind of hostilities with Europe." "There is no real motive to escalate the situation with Europe, no matter what anyone says, no matter who says it, including in the Baltic states," he claimed.
The remarks come amid growing European alarm over suspected Russian hybrid attacks, including a surge of drone incursions that has rattled the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on NATO's eastern flank. For Ukraine's allies, Putin's denials carry little weight against the nightly evidence over Ukrainian cities — and the latest exchange will only sharpen calls for tighter sanctions and stronger air defences.
Moscow shows no sign of relenting; Kyiv shows no sign of backing down. The aerial war that both sides are now waging in earnest may yet decide how — and when — this conflict ends.
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