Here is how things stand on Wednesday, September 10:

Fighting

• A Russian air strike killed 24 elderly Ukrainians who were collecting pensions in eastern Ukraine’s Yarova village, about 24km (15 miles) from the city of Sloviansk.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Kyiv’s allies to quickly boost supplies of air defence weapons to Ukraine and emphasised that Moscow interpreted a lack of stronger international sanctions on Russia as permission to continue its war.
• Ukraine’s air defence units were trying to repel a Russian drone attack on Kyiv early on Wednesday, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said on the Telegram messaging app.
• A man in Sochi, Russia, died as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack overnight, the region’s governor said.
• Russia’s air defence units destroyed 31 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian state-owned RIA news agency reports.
• Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries and export facilities have shut down at least 17 percent of Russia’s oil processing capacity, or 1.1 million barrels per day, according to calculations by the Reuters news agency.

Regional security

• Poland’s air force has reportedly shot down hostile aerial objects, described as drones, that entered Polish airspace during a Russian overnight attack on Ukraine.
• Polish and allied NATO aircraft, ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems were in the “highest state of readiness” in the early hours of Wednesday after Ukraine’s air force warned that Russian drones had entered Polish airspace.
• If the drones are confirmed to be from Russia, the incident would mark the first time that Poland, a NATO member, has directly engaged Russian assets in its airspace since the Ukraine war started in 2022.
• Poland is closing its two remaining border crossings with Belarus at midnight on Thursday until there is “no more threat to Polish citizens”, as the Russia-led “Zapad” military exercises with Belarusian forces take place in Belarus.
• Russia and Belarus’s large-scale military exercises start on Friday and have raised security concerns in Poland, as well as neighbouring NATO member states Lithuania and Latvia.
• The Zapad-2025 exercises will include drills on the possible use of nuclear weapons and the deployment of the Russian-made, intermediate-range, hypersonic Oreshnik missile, according to the Belarusian defence minister.
• Lithuania, which conducted military drills earlier this month with Poland and other allied troops, is set to reinforce its border with Belarus and Russia due to the military exercises.
• Poland also arrested a suspected Belarusian spy and will expel a diplomat from the Belarus embassy who “supported the aggressive action of the Belarusian state against Poland”, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on the X platform.

Advertisement

Military aid

• Ukraine’s Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal said Kyiv wanted its allies to allocate $60bn in 2026 to “protect Europe and Ukraine”, speaking at a meeting of the Ramstein group of countries that have supported Ukraine in its war with Russia.
• Ukraine is at risk of running short of air defence weapons after a US Defense Department review of military aid resulted in slower deliveries of supplies to Kyiv.
• Germany delivered the first launchers of two Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, while Germany’s defence minister said his country would boost its support for the procurement of long-range drones as part of contracts with Ukrainian defence companies worth 300 million euros ($351m).
• Poland will receive 43.7 billion euros ($51.3bn) under a European Union programme to boost defence capabilities in the country, which is already the biggest spender on its armed forces relative to the size of its economy among NATO members.

Peace talks

• US President Donald Trump said he will hold a call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin this week or early next week, amid efforts by Washington to reach a peace deal in Ukraine.

Politics and diplomacy

• Serious crimes committed by Russia’s returning soldiers have caused alarm, with sources close to the Kremlin saying President Vladimir Putin views the prospect of an army returning from war en masse as a potential risk to society and his political system.

Aid

• Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko submitted an official letter requesting a new loan programme from the International Monetary Fund, which would add to the country’s existing IMF loan programme worth $15.6bn.