Kremlin troops advance into Ukraine’s embattled industrial heartland as close to 100 Russian drones target critical infrastructure and Putin continues to drag his feet over peace talks
Russian forces launched almost 100 drones on Ukrainian civilian targets overnight as ground forces broke into an eighth region of Ukraine.
As Kremlin robot planes targeted the regions of Sumy, leaving much of it without electricity, its troops advanced into villages in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region. Moscow has launched a major push into Ukraine’s eastern industrial landscape amid mounting pressure to strike a ceasefire deal with Kyiv.
Drone explosions focused on energy infrastructure, timed to cripple Ukrainian infrastructure ahead of the cooler weather. The overnight attack was believed to be in revenge for recent Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia’s critical infrastructure including a major attack on a gas processing plant.
Targets included energy and gas transmission facilities in the Sumy, Poltava, Donetsk, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions. In Sumy, around 1 a.m., drones damaged equipment at a key substation, leaving a large part of the city and industrial consumers without electricity.
In attacks on the Poltava region, Russian forces carried out a concentrated strike on gas transmission infrastructure, causing severe damage. Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on Russian oil refineries and exporting infrastructure, striking the most important sector of President Vladimir Putin ’s economy as the US tries to broker a peace deal.
The attacks disrupted Moscow’s oil processing and exports, created gasoline shortages in some parts of Russia and came in response to Moscow’s frontline advances. Ukraine’s campaign to cripple Kremlin oil and gas production with relentless strikes chalked up another huge win against Vladimir Putin with a strike on a processing plant.
The attack on Sunday, using long-range robotic aircraft set off fiery explosions at a major gas processing plant near St. Petersburg. Some Russian troops have entered the villages of Novoheorhiivka and Zaporizke in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, a major Ukrainian industrial centre.
And Ukraine is pushing on with mass production of its deadly new Flamingo cruise missile – named because under its original design it was in the colour pink. It is a Ukrainian ground-launched missile developed by defence firm Fire Point and was announced on 18 August 2025. It is fitted with a 2,540 lb warhead and has a range of 1,900 miles). Kyiv hopes to be producing 250 a-month by early next year.
Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed earlier this month that its forces had taken the two villages. But the Russians have not entrenched or built fortifications there, and fighting is continuing in the villages.
Ukrainian troops are under severe strain as they try to hold back Russia’s bigger army. As Ukraine celebrated its Independence Day in Sunday its defiant President Volodynyr Zelensky declared: “We need a just peace, a peace where our future will be decided only by us.”
He insisted that Ukraine was “not a victim, it is a fighter”. And he continued: “Ukraine has not yet won, but it has certainly not lost.”
The front line, where tens of thousands of troops on both sides have been killed, snakes along roughly 620 miles of eastern and south-eastern Ukraine, which borders Russia. Russian forces are already in the Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.
Russia illegally seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014, and now occupies about a fifth of Ukraine. Western leaders say Putin is dragging his feet in peace efforts and avoiding serious negotiations while Russian troops move deeper into Ukraine.
Mr Trump said on Friday he expects to decide on next steps in two weeks if direct talks are not scheduled. Ukraine has accepted US proposals for a summit with Mr Putin and a ceasefire.
Russia has also baulked at US and Western plans to establish post-war security guarantees for Ukraine. The possible security guarantees being worked out by Western officials could include the deployment of European troops in Ukraine.