Daily Briefing

Key Takeaways

• Ukraine launched its largest-ever drone campaign — 645 UAVs across 13 Russian regions — while simultaneously striking six oil refineries (including Perm and Ilsky), the Azov Opto-Mechanical defense plant, and a Pantsir-S2 air defense system deep inside Russia.
• Russian strikes on Kyiv (Sept 25–26) killed 7 and injured 57 in the capital; KAB strikes on Sumy city killed at least 12 including three children; Zaporizhzhia Oblast absorbed 978 strikes in a single day.
• Germany's FM Wadephul met Russia's Lavrov at UNGA — the first Russia-Germany foreign ministerial contact since January 2022 — while Trump again pressed Zelensky to travel to Moscow for direct talks, a request Zelensky rejected.
• The US is obligating a $400M aid package before the Sept 30 fiscal deadline but has excluded Patriot interceptor missiles; separately, Ukraine is negotiating licenses to domestically produce PAC-2 and PAC-3 missiles.
• Zelensky disclosed Russia plans a $12B drone spend in 2027 and called on Trump to enforce the Lindsey Graham sanctions law targeting countries buying Russian energy, including China, India, and Turkey.