Here is how things stand on Monday, September 22:
Fighting
- A Ukrainian drone attack killed three people and injured 16 near the town of Foros on the Crimean Peninsula, the Russian-appointed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, wrote in a post on Telegram.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence said the attack involved “strike drones equipped with high-explosive payloads” in a resort area “where there are no military targets whatsoever”.
- Two people were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on a gas station in Pervomaisk, in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, occupied by Russia, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations for Luhansk said, according to the state news agency TASS.
- Anna Soroka, a Russian-appointed human rights commissioner for Luhansk, said Ukraine was deliberately targeting gas stations during a period of fuel shortages, according to TASS.
- TASS also reported that one person was killed in a Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Belgorod region and one person was killed and three were critically injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on Vasylivka in Russian-occupied Zaporizhia.
- Ukraine’s general staff said its forces attacked the Saratov oil refinery in Russia’s Saratov region on Saturday night, reportedly causing fires and explosions. Ukrainian forces also attacked the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery in Samara, where “the results of the damage are being clarified”, the general staff said in a statement shared on Facebook.
- In Ukraine, a man was killed and residential buildings and infrastructure were damaged by Russian shelling in Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, Serhii Horbunov, head of the city’s military administration, said on Sunday.
Regional security
- The German air force said it scrambled two Eurofighter jets to track a Russian reconnaissance aircraft, which allegedly entered neutral airspace over the Baltic Sea.
- The incident comes after Estonia, Poland, and Romania reported Russian jets or drones entering their airspace in recent weeks.
- Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday that the United Nations Security Council will convene an emergency session on Monday “in response to Russia’s brazen violation of Estonian airspace”.
- Two officials told the Reuters news agency that a planned NATO North Atlantic Council meeting to respond to the violation of Estonia’s airspace would take place on Tuesday.
- Asked on Sunday whether he would help defend European Union countries if Russia intensified hostilities, United States President Donald Trump told reporters: “Yeah, I would. I would.”
Politics and diplomacy
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that Ukraine is planning to meet Trump this week, amid a “very intense week” of diplomacy during the UN General Assembly in New York.
- French President Emmanuel Macron said European countries are complying with international law by using the proceeds from frozen Russian assets in European banks. However, he added that seizing the assets from Russia’s central bank could cause “total chaos”, in response to a question from CBS News about recent comments made by Trump.
- Russia’s RIA Novosti agency reported, quoting Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova, “If Moscow’s frozen assets are confiscated in Europe, there won’t be chaos, but rather very harsh countermeasures from Russia. And they know this.”
- Russian Colonel General Alexander Lapin, a senior commander who served in the first phase of the Ukraine war, has been dismissed from military service, Russian media outlet RBC reported on Sunday, citing an unidentified source.
