Closing summary
Here is a wrap-up of today’s key events:
A Russian aerial bombardment on Ukraine has, according to officials, killed at least four people and injured dozens of others in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as a “vile and brutal” attack.
Ukraine’s military said that Russia had launched 595 drones and 48 missiles overnight and its air defences shot down the overwhelming majority of both.
The main targets were Kyiv, where all of the deaths were reported to have occurred, and the regions of Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv and Odesa.
A falling concrete slab crushed and killed a 12-year-old girl. A nurse and a patient died when Kyiv’s cardiology institute took a direct hit. Another person was found dead under debris at a residential block, officials said (you can read more in this story).
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian attack caused widespread damage to a cardiology clinic, factories and residential buildings. The Ukrainian leader renewed calls on the international community to act decisively to cut off Russia’s energy revenues that fund its full-scale invasion.
“This is how Russia is making its real position known. Moscow wants to continue to fight and kill and deserves only the harshest pressure in the world,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. “The Kremlin benefits from continuing this war and terror as long as there are energy funds and a shadow navy.”
Neighbouring Poland closed its airspace near two southeastern cities and its air force scrambled jets in response until the danger had passed.
Russia claimed it had hit military targets during the overnight strike on Ukraine.
Denmark will ban all civilian drone flights across the country this week to ensure security as Copenhagen hosts an EU summit gathering heads of government, the transport ministry said in a statement.
The statement came after Denmark’s army confirmed this morning that drones were observed over Danish military sites overnight for the second straight day.
Moldovans have begun voting in a pivotal parliamentary election that will decide whether Moldova, a small country wedged between Ukraine and Romania, stays on its path towards EU membership or drifts back into Moscow’s orbit, amid widespread reports of Russian meddling.
Thanks for following along today. We are now closing this blog. You can read all our Ukraine coverage here.
Updated
After the massive Russian aerial assault on his country, Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a round of calls with allies, including Nato chief Mark Rutte, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Store on Sunday, AFP is reporting.
Denmark bans all civilian drone flights this week due to EU summit, transport ministry says
Denmark will ban all civilian drone flights across the country this week to ensure security as Copenhagen hosts an EU summit gathering heads of government and officials on Wednesday and Thursday, the transport ministry said on Sunday afternoon.
“Denmark will host EU leaders in the coming week, where we will have extra focus on security. Therefore, from Monday to Friday, we will close the Danish airspace to all civilian drone flights,” transport minister Thomas Danielsen said.
“In this way, we remove the risk that enemy drones can be confused with legal drones and vice versa,” he added.
A violation of the ban can result in a fine or imprisonment for up to two years, the ministry said.
Justice minister Peter Hummelgaard said in the same statement the purpose of the ban was to simplify the work of police and other authorities. “The police are on heightened alert, and our authorities must use their forces where necessary to take care of Danes and our guests.”
The statement comes after Danish authorities sighted yet more drones at several military facilities overnight (see post at 11.48 for more details).
While there has been no official confirmation of who is behind the incursions, Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen has linked them to Russia’s efforts to destabilise Europe.
Updated
Moldova heads to polls in pivotal vote that could steer it closer to EU or Russia
Pjotr Sauer is a Russian affairs reporter for the Guardian
Moldovans have begun voting in a pivotal parliamentary election that will decide whether the country of 2.4 million stays on its path towards EU membership or drifts back into Moscow’s orbit, amid widespread reports of Russian meddling.
The president, Maia Sandu, and her pro-western Action and Solidarity party (PAS) face a stiff challenge in Sunday’s election from an alliance of Soviet-nostalgic, pro-Russian parties led in part by the former president Igor Dodon, whom Sandu defeated in 2020.
Polls suggest PAS is likely to remain the largest party but could lose its parliamentary majority, potentially limiting Sandu’s efforts to push through changes required for EU accession.
Polling stations in the impoverished country, wedged between Ukraine and Romania, opened at 7am (5am BST) and will close at 9pm, with results expected late on Sunday.
The outcome will be closely watched in Brussels and other European capitals, where fears are high that Moscow could gain a foothold in a strategically vital region as it intensifies its hybrid war across the continent.
Casting her ballot in Chișinău, Sandu warned voters of the stakes. “Moldova, our dear home, is in danger and it needs the help of each one of you. You can save it today with your vote. Tomorrow may be too late,” she said. “The fate of our country must be decided by your vote, not by bought votes.”
You can read the full story here:
Guardian foreign correspondent Luke Harding is in Kyiv. Here is his report on the overnight strikes on Ukraine.
Kyiv has experienced one of its worst bombardments since the start of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with at least four people killed in what Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as a “vile and brutal” attack.
Russia launched about 500 drones and more than 40 missiles, Ukraine’s president said, in a bombardment that lasted more than 12 hours over Saturday night and into Sunday morning. The main targets were the Ukrainian capital and the Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv and Odesa regions.
Zelenskyy said the onslaught was the “virtual culmination” of last week’s UN general assembly meeting, at which Donald Trump express support for Ukraine. The US president called on allies to stop all Russian oil imports and promised Ukraine would “strike back”.
“This is how Russia is making its real position known. Moscow wants to continue to fight and kill and deserves only the harshest pressure in the world,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
“The Kremlin benefits from continuing this war and terror as long as there are energy funds and a shadow navy.”
Kyiv echoed with the sound of anti-aircraft fire early on Sunday as waves of drones arrived in a grey dawn sky. Residents scrambled to take cover as air raid sirens blared. A missile struck a row of houses in the Petropavlivska Borshchahivka district, sheering off several upper floors.
A falling concrete slab crushed and killed a 12-year-old girl. A nurse and patient also died when Kyiv’s cardiology institute suffered a direct hit. Another person was found dead buried under debris at a residential block, officials said.
“At 6am there was a huge explosion. Everything started falling on our heads,” Lolita Isakova, 24, said. “We started to run in panic. My neighbour was covered in blood. He was looking for his wife and daughter. Everyone was screaming. We could hear booms.
“Russia is a terrorist state. Fuck them.”
The Kremlin has dismissed threats by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Kremlin officials should know where the bomb shelters were. Zelenskyy suggested to Axios that the centres of Russian power, like the Kremlin, were potential targets, saying that Kremlin officials “have to know where the bomb shelters are.”
“Zelenskyy is trying to demonstrate to the Europeans, who now act as the breadwinners, that he is such a brave soldier,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television in comments reported by Reuters.
When asked directly by state television’s Kremlin correspondent Pavel Zarubin how the Kremlin would perceive an attack on the centre of Russian power, Peskov said that “it’s better not to even talk about it.”
Russian aerial bombardment on Ukraine involved nearly 600 drones, Ukrainian air force says
We have an update on the details surrounding the huge overnight Russian attack on Ukraine that is reported to have killed at least 4 people and injured dozens of others.
Ukraine’s air force said in an update that Russia fired a total of 595 exploding drones and decoys and 48 missiles.
Of those, air defences shot down or jammed 566 drones and 45 missiles.
Here is a video of the aftermath of the wave of Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine:
Updated
More drones observed over Danish military sites overnight for the second straight day, army says
Nato yesterday vowed to upgrade its mission in the Baltic Sea after Denmark’s armed forces said unidentified drones were seen near the country’s military installations overnight into Saturday.
This morning, Denmark’s army said that more drones were observed over Danish military sites overnight into Sunday.
“The Armed Forces can confirm that drones have been observed at several of the Armed Forces’ locations during the night. Several capacities were deployed,” the military said in a statement early on Sunday, without providing any more details.
There have been several suspicious drone incursions near airports and critical infrastructure this week.
Copenhagen Airport, the Nordic region’s busiest, closed for several hours late on Monday as several large drones were seen in its airspace, while possible drone sightings also temporarily shuttered Oslo airport in Norway.
Five smaller Danish airports, both civilian and military, were shut temporarily in the following days.
In response, Nato said it would “conduct even more enhanced vigilance with new multi-domain assets in the Baltic Sea region”. The alliance said the new assets included “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms and at least one air-defence frigate”.
Russia is the prime suspect behind the recent drone incursions but there has been no definitive proof to back this up. Copenhagen is to host a EU summit gathering heads of government on Wednesday and Thursday, with security likely to be high on the agenda.
The US president, Donald Trump, said last Tuesday that he believed Ukraine could win back all territory lost to Russia, a dramatic shift from his repeated calls for Kyiv to make concessions to end the war.
Trump posted on social media soon after meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the UN general assembly gathering of world leaders.
“I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump wrote.
“With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option.”
The US president’s comments marked a sharp departure from his previous suggestions that Ukraine would never be able to reclaim all the territory that Russia has occupied since seizing the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
Russia controls 114,918 square km (44,370 square miles), or about 19% of Ukraine, and has taken 4,729 square km of Ukrainian territory in the past year, according to the DeepState map project.
Updated
In an address at the UN general assembly in New York on Saturday, Moscow’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned that “any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response” but insisted Russia has no intention of attacking EU or Nato member states.
In a wide-ranging speech, Lavrov said threats against Russia by western countries were becoming “increasingly common”.
“Russia has never had and does not have any such intentions” of attacking European or Nato countries, he said, after the alliance warned Russia last week it would use all means to defend against any further breaches of its airspace after the downing of Russian drones over Poland and Estonia’s report of an intrusion by Russian fighter jets (see post at 08.56 for more details).
“However, any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response. There should be no doubt about this among those in Nato and the EU,” Lavrov added.
Lavrov said that only the “politically blind” would expect Ukraine to one day return to the borders it had before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, an indirect response to Donald Trump’s assertion that Kyiv could retake all its occupied land from Russia.
Lavrov also singled out German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, referring to what he said was “militaristic rhetoric” and said Moscow was alarmed by remarks by politicians in EU and Nato capitals of a looming world war three as a “likely scenario.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Russia will expand its aggression beyond Ukraine if not stopped.
Updated
Kyiv region resident Mark Sergeev and his family were sleeping when a missile hit their apartment in the middle of the night.
“I still can’t believe that the children are alive. It’s such a blessing from God. They were right under the roof when it hit them. The roof was torn off right above my eldest son’s bed,” the 35-year-old told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Anna, 26, another victim of the Russian strikes, said her flat was covered in broken glass after it was hit.
“I was in shock, so I didn’t hear much … But I heard a rocket flying for a long time, and then there was just an explosion and the windows shattered,” she said.
Updated
Here is a statement from Russia’s defence ministry confirming Moscow carried out a massive overnight strike on Ukraine:
Last night, the armed forces of the Russian Federation launched a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, sea-based weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles against enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine used in the interests of the armed forces of Ukraine, as well as the infrastructure of military airfields.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences shot down 41 Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday.
Zaporizhzhia’s regional head, Ivan Fedorov, said at least 31 people were injured from the Russian attack in the region this morning.
Earlier, he said three children (aged 9, 11 and 12) were hospitalised as a result of the attack.
Writing on Telegram, Fedorov said:
Two boys – one with mine-explosive injuries, the other with carbon monoxide poisoning – are in serious condition.
Doctors assess the condition of the 9-year-old girl as average. She is still being examined.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images being sent to us over the newswires from Kyiv, where some residents have fled to metro stations for safety to escape the Russian attack:
Updated
Zelenskyy says 500 drones and over 40 missiles used in Russia's 'vile attack' on Ukraine
In a post to Telegram this morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched about 500 drones and over 40 missiles in the overnight attack on Ukraine, killing at least four people.
He said that the main targets were Kyiv, and the Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv and Odesa regions.
Zelenskyy said “civilian infrastructure facilities”, a rubber factory and apartment buildings were all damaged in the “brutal strikes” seen in the Russian attack.
Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram:
This vile attack came as a virtual culmination of the UN general assembly week, and this is how Russia is making its real position known.
Moscow wants to continue to fight and kill and deserves only the harshest pressure in the world.
The Kremlin benefits from continuing this war and terror as long as there are energy funds and a shadow navy.
We will continue to strike back to deprive Russia of these opportunities to earn and force diplomacy.
Anyone who wants peace should support President Trump’s efforts and stop all Russian imports. The time for decisive action is long overdue, and we count on a strong response from the US, Europe, the G7, and the G20.
Updated
The EU has agreed to move forward with plans for a drone wall at the heart of its eastern defences as momentum grows for a €140bn loan to Ukraine based on Russian frozen assets.
After a meeting with ministers from 10 mostly central and eastern European member states plus Ukraine on Friday, the EU’s defence commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, said a drone wall to protect against incursions from the skies was an immediate priority and core element of the bloc’s eastern flank defences.
The issue has risen up the agenda after a spate of drone incursions in Denmark, Poland and Romania as well as the violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets while Russia continues its deadly bombardment of Ukraine.
Kubilius said it was urgent to have an effective detection system, including radars and acoustic sensors, as well as capabilities to intercept and destroy drones.
The commissioner acknowledged the potential mismatch in cost involved in drone defence.
He said:
If you are using air, and air missiles from your air fighter to shoot the drone, then you are using … [a] missile which costs 1m to kill the drone which costs 10,000.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin criticised the suggestion of shooting down Russian military planes over Europe as “reckless” and “irresponsible” after Donald Trump suggested alliance members should do so.
You can read more here:
Updated
Poland scrambles jets in response to Russia's attack on Kyiv
Poland’s military said it had scrambled fighter jets in its airspace and put ground-based air defence systems on high alert in response to the Russian strikes in Ukraine.
The moves were preventive and aimed at securing Polish airspace and protecting citizens, especially in areas adjacent to Ukraine, the military said.
Poland also closed the airspace near its south-eastern cities of Lublin and Rzeszow until at least 0400 GMT on Sunday.
Tensions have mounted on Nato’s eastern flank with Russia in recent weeks.
More than 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace on the night of 9-10 September, prompting Nato jets to down some of them and western officials to say Russia was testing the alliance’s readiness and resolve.
Estonia accused Russia of sending three fighter jets into its airspace last week, while Romania has come close to shooting down a drone.
The violations have prompted both Poland and Estonia to request this month that Nato open consultations under article 4 of the alliance’s treaty, which states that members will consult whenever the territory, political independence or security of any is threatened.
The talks do not automatically lead to any action, unlike Article 5 of the treaty, which states that Nato’s collective security guarantee, under which allies pledge that an attack on one member of the alliance constitutes an attack on them all.
Russia denied its planes entered Estonian airspace and said none of its drones targeted Poland.
Updated
At least four people killed after massive Russian attack on Kyiv, officials say
Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Kyiv came under heavy bombardment early on Sunday in what independent monitors said was one of the biggest Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
At least four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were killed in the attacks, according to Ukrainian officials.
Timur Tkachenko, head of the capital’s military administration, had said early reports pointed to “three fatalities”, “including a 12-year-old girl killed by Russians”.
Tkachenko has since revised the toll upwards to four, as a “body of the deceased has been found”. At least 10 people were also reported injured in the attack on Kyiv.
Drones hit several regions overnight, including the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, where at least 16 people, including three children, were injured, authorities said.
Russia launched another massive air attack on Ukrainian cities while people were sleeping.
— Andrii Sybiha 🇺🇦 (@andrii_sybiha) September 28, 2025
Again, hundreds of drones and missiles, destroying residential buildings and causing civilian casualties.
We must maximise the cost of further escalation for Russia.
Putin must know… pic.twitter.com/PteTPyV6pn
Ukraine’s foreign minister said hundreds of drones and missiles had been used in the widespread attacks across Ukraine.
“Russia launched another massive air attack on Ukrainian cities while people were sleeping,” Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister wrote in a post on X.
“Again, hundreds of drones and missiles, destroying residential buildings and causing civilian casualties,” he said.
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