Published On 13 Sep 2025
Here is how things stand on Saturday, September 13:
Fighting
- An early morning Russian attack on Friday killed three people in northern Ukraine’s Sumy region, a regional official reported.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow’s attempts to advance in the Sumy area had failed with heavy losses, and Russian operations in the region were being “completely foiled by our forces”.
- A Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s northwestern port of Primorsk has, for the first time, forced the suspension of loading at the key western oil terminal, according to two industry sources and Ukraine’s military.
- An attempted Ukrainian attack at the Smolensk nuclear power station in western Russia was carried out overnight, but the drone was downed and no damage or casualties were reported, officials said.
Regional security
- The number of Polish airspace violations by Russian drones this week may be higher than previously reported, with further analysis revealing that there may have been 21 incursions over Poland, the country’s defence chief said.
- Polish Secretary of State Marcin Bosacki urged the United Nations Security Council to issue a strong response to Russia over drones violating Poland’s airspace.
- More than 40 nations, including the United States, participated in a joint statement at the UN for stronger international action over Russia’s drone incursion into Polish airspace.
- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk contradicted US President Donald Trump’s assessment that the incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace may have been a mistake.
- Writing on X, Tusk said: “We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake. But it wasn’t. And we know it.”
- NATO is preparing a new operation, dubbed Eastern Sentry, to add military equipment from France, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom to its existing air and ground-based defences on its eastern European flank bordering Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, NATO Supreme Commander General Alexus Grynkewich said.
- Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal said he met with US presidential envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv. The pair discussed “the possibility of Ukraine’s Defence Forces receiving new Patriot systems and ammunition for them”, he wrote on X.
- Russian and Belarusian armed forces kicked off their large-scale, joint military exercises known as “Zapad 2025” on Friday, as German forces in neighbouring Lithuania led their own military drills.
Military aid
- President Zelenskyy said that many details on post-war security guarantees for Ukraine were already on paper as US special envoy Kellogg and national security advisers from Britain, Germany, France and Italy are in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Sanctions
- Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers discussed the possibility of imposing sanctions and trade measures, such as tariffs, on countries they consider to be “enabling” Russia’s war on Ukraine, while exploring other mechanisms to further increase financial support to Ukraine.
- Japan, the UK and New Zealand imposed new sanctions on Russia, including lowering the price cap on Russian oil and enforcing sanctions against companies linked to Russia’s weapons industry, including a producer of the Iskander missiles, as well as shadow naval fleet operators and suppliers.
- The European Union could phase out use of Russian gas within six to 12 months by replacing it with US liquefied natural gas, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told the Reuters news agency on Friday.
Politics and diplomacy
- US President Donald Trump said his patience with Putin is “running out and running out fast”, but blamed the “tremendous hatred between [Putin] and Zelenskyy” for the prolonging of the war.
- President Zelenskyy said his country’s allies should encourage China to use its leverage with Russia to halt Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan emphasised that diplomacy is the only viable path to ending the Ukraine-Russia war and that the US must change its stance from neutrality, which had left a leadership gap.
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to join President Trump on a state visit to the UK, where he and British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper are due to discuss US-British cooperation on “ending the Russia-Ukraine war”, the US State Department said.
- Denmark is launching a 375-million-euro ($439m) programme to support Ukraine’s integration with the EU, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.
Economy
- Russia’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate on Friday to 17 percent as growth has slowed and spending on the war against Ukraine increases the budget deficit.
Peace talks
- Russia said peace talks with Ukraine were on “pause” as the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.
Charity
- Britain’s Prince Harry arrived in Kyiv on Friday with a team from his Invictus Games Foundation to detail his charity’s plans to help rehabilitate wounded Ukrainian soldiers, his office said in a statement.
