Russia Attacks Ukraine: 10 Dead, Drone Hits Ship
A Russian missile and drone attack overnight hit the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa regions. At least 10 people were killed, and a drone struck a civilian ship in the Black Sea, killing its captain.
Russia carried out one of its largest attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks overnight between September 16 and 17, just days after United States President Donald Trump announced that Kyiv and Moscow had reportedly agreed to stop striking each other’s energy infrastructure. For Belgrade, this is not a distant chapter of the war. Serbia depends on the stability of the region’s energy market, its path toward the European Union has for years been measured partly by its willingness to align foreign policy with sanctions against Moscow, and any escalation in the east of the continent is felt almost immediately in the energy prices Serbian households pay.
According to Ukraine’s air force, the attack was carried out with ballistic and cruise missiles, including Oniks missiles and “Banderol” cruise missiles, alongside 157 drones and decoys. The main targets were the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa regions, and the assault continued into Thursday morning, when Russia struck the Zaporizhstal steel plant, owned by Metinvest, Ukraine’s largest steel producer, with two ballistic missiles.
The Numbers Differ From Source to Source
Ukrainian and American sources do not fully agree on the scale of the attack. The Kyiv Independent, citing Ukrainian authorities, reports that at least 10 people were killed and at least 75 wounded across Ukraine. According to the same outlet, Ukrainian air defenses shot down or jammed 124 of the 157 Russian drones, along with seven of the ten “Banderol” missiles.
The Associated Press, whose report was carried by the American outlet KSAT, gives a different picture: it states that at least 19 people were wounded in the attack on Kyiv and the wider area around the capital, while Ukraine’s air force reported a total of 131 Russian targets destroyed or jammed over the course of the night. It is worth noting that, according to the agency’s own report, that figure of 19 wounded refers exclusively to Kyiv and its surroundings, not to Odesa. Odesa is mentioned separately in the same report, with seven wounded, a number not included in the 19.
According to figures cited by the Kyiv Independent, 20 people were wounded in Kyiv itself, including a 10 year old girl and a 12 year old boy, with more than 10 locations hit across the city. In the wider Kyiv region, 33 buildings were damaged, including one educational facility. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, five people were killed and seven wounded. In the Donetsk region, two people died and five were wounded. In the Kherson and Sumy regions, one person was killed in each, with 14 wounded in each as well. In the Zaporizhzhia region, five people were wounded, and in the Kirovohrad region at least four, after Russian strikes hit the center of Kropyvnytskyi.
Attack on a Civilian Ship in the Black Sea
Part of the assault played out at sea. On Thursday morning, a Russian drone struck a civilian cargo ship sailing under the Tanzanian flag. The ship’s captain was killed, three crew members were wounded, and the vessel’s superstructure and deck were damaged. Odesa’s regional chief, Oleh Kiper, accused Russia of deliberately targeting Ukrainian ports and civilian merchant vessels. In Odesa itself, seven people were wounded, including two children, apartments on floors 14 through 16 of a residential building were damaged, and one private house was completely destroyed.
Ukraine’s Response: A Refinery in Yaroslavl and an Airfield in Rostov
Ukraine did not stay passive. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces struck an oil refinery in Yaroslavl and a military airfield in the Rostov region that same night, in an operation that, according to him, involved Ukraine’s Security Service, special operations forces, military intelligence and the Foreign Intelligence Service. At the airfield in Rostov, one An-12 aircraft, two An-26 aircraft and three helicopters were damaged. Ukrainian forces had also earlier reportedly struck two S-400 launchers in Russia’s Bryansk region.
Is an Energy Ceasefire Still Possible?
The attack comes just days after Trump claimed on social media that Kyiv and Moscow had agreed to stop striking energy facilities, a claim Srpske Novine covered in the article “Trump: Kyiv and Moscow to Stop Striking Energy Infrastructure.” Zelensky disputed that claim, saying Ukraine would agree to halt attacks on energy infrastructure only if Russia stopped striking Ukrainian energy facilities. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv was ready for a ceasefire covering both energy infrastructure and the Black Sea, but that there was still no sign Russia was ready to do the same.
“I believe that reaching a ceasefire could be one of the key outcomes of that meeting. It could be a ceasefire covering both the energy sector and the Black Sea, in exactly that combination,” Sybiha said, announcing a planned meeting between Zelensky and Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly this month.
The attack was felt beyond Ukraine’s borders as well. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said a powerful explosion was heard near the Polish border during the drone strikes on western Ukraine, prompting Poland’s air force to scramble fighter jets. For neighboring countries, including Serbia, which watches for any sign that the war could spread onto NATO territory, it is a reminder that the security margin remains thin, while the answer to whether an energy ceasefire will actually take hold is expected only at the meeting between the Ukrainian and American presidents later this month.
