Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Russian forces are preparing a new massive attack on Ukraine, even as his delegation pressed allies at the United Nations General Assembly for stronger air defences. The warning, published on Tuesday, came hours after Russian missiles and drones pounded industrial sites across southeastern and central Ukraine, killing at least three people and cutting power to nearly 100,000 households in the north.
Overnight strikes hit industry and power
According to Ukrainian officials, the overnight barrage included Oniks anti-ship and ballistic missiles, four cruise missiles and 212 drones. Industrial enterprises were struck in Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih and Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha reported three people killed and six injured in Dnipro, with a business and warehouse premises badly damaged. In the northern Chernihiv region, an attack on an energy facility left nearly 100,000 consumers without power, while the Poltava region suffered what its governor called a "massive" attack on an industrial enterprise and a critical infrastructure facility.
The strikes fit a broader pattern. With front-line positions in Donetsk largely stalled more than four and a half years into the full-scale invasion, Moscow has increasingly aimed at Ukraine's economic backbone. "Russia deliberately targets businesses, farms, warehouses, railways, energy facilities and residential buildings," Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said on Telegram. Western officials estimate the war has killed more than 500,000 Russian troops, while Ukrainian military casualties are estimated at over 500,000, including up to 140,000 deaths — losses that have pushed both sides to strike at each other's war economies from the air.
New tactics make the threat harder to stop
Zelensky's warning is grounded in a visible shift in Russian air tactics. In recent weeks Russian forces have moved from large overnight raids to constant barrages throughout the day, and in recent months they have deployed jet-powered drones that fly at higher altitudes and are harder for air defences to intercept — disrupting business, government and everyday life on a much bigger scale than before. That evolution suggests the next "massive attack" may not arrive as a single night of strikes, but as a sustained campaign designed to grind Ukraine's defences down.
That is why air defence dominates Zelensky's diplomacy. Writing about his meeting with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, he said Ukraine was in constant communication with its allies about securing new anti-aircraft systems — and ruled out any talk of easing sanctions "when Ukrainians live every day under the threat of missile and drone attacks."
The energy ceasefire question
While in New York, Zelensky also discussed with US President Donald Trump a potential bilateral ceasefire on energy-related targets. Trump has publicly urged Kyiv to halt its strikes on Russian oil refineries, arguing they contribute to global fuel shortages and higher prices — a crunch worsened, he noted, by reduced oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Zelensky has offered a trade: Ukraine will stop its long-range strikes if Russia ends its attacks on energy infrastructure. Kyiv says its forces have damaged two more Russian oil refineries in the latest campaign.
Whether Moscow would accept such a deal is doubtful. Interviewed in New York by the Wall Street Journal, Zelensky offered a blunt assessment of Vladimir Putin: the Russian leader is "neither winning nor losing" the war but feels no pressure to negotiate. "He doesn't feel that he has to stop," Zelensky said — a line that reads less as analysis than as the case for the defences and sanctions Ukraine is demanding.
More than four and a half years into the full-scale invasion, the war's centre of gravity has shifted. Territorial gains have slowed to a crawl — Russian troops are advancing only slowly through eastern Donetsk, while Ukrainian long-range strikes now reach oil targets up to 3,000 kilometres from the border. The decisive front is increasingly in the sky: an attritional air campaign against the industry, grids and ports that keep Ukraine alive. If the intelligence Zelensky cites is correct, the coming days will test whether his allies can deliver the air defences he is asking for before the next wave arrives.
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