Overview
- Ukrainian officials reported that on 23–24 September Russia carried out concentrated aviation strikes and waves of loitering attack drones, using hundreds of guided bombs and thousands of kamikaze drones.
- Ukraine says its air defences intercepted high‑value weapons, including four Zircon missiles, three ballistic rockets and hundreds of drones, but Kyiv warns current stocks of interceptors are insufficient.
- Ground combat remained intense with hundreds of daily clashes focused on the Kostyantynivka, Lyman and Pokrovsk directions as Ukrainian forces repelled multiple Russian assaults.
- The strikes killed and wounded civilians in Kyiv, Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, damaged homes, hospitals and a data centre, and caused new power outages across eight oblasts that threaten services ahead of winter.
- Delegations at the UN pressed for an energy‑focused pause and discussed new air‑defence programs such as FREYJA, while UN officials warned civilian casualties so far this year already exceed 2025 totals, raising broader humanitarian and food‑security risks.