Here are the key events from day 1,340 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 26 Oct 2025
Here is how things stand on Sunday, October 26, 2025:
Fighting
- Russia launched a drone attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in the early hours of Sunday, striking residential buildings and wounding at least five people, including two children, according to officials.
- Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine overnight on Saturday killed at least two people and wounded 12 others, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on X. She accused Moscow of trying to “create a humanitarian catastrophe” in her country amid the winter season.
- The Russian attacks on Saturday targeted “critical infrastructure”, the energy grid, a railroad and residential areas in the Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Sumy and other regions, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha wrote in a separate post on X. “Russian terror can and should be stopped,” he said, as he called for “stronger sanctions” against Moscow.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that such attacks intensified Ukraine’s need for Patriot air defence systems. “America, Europe and the G7 countries can help ensure that such attacks no longer threaten lives,” he wrote.
- Ukraine’s Air Force, in a statement on Telegram, said it downed four of nine missiles and 50 of 62 drones launched in the Russian attacks across the country on Saturday.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence, meanwhile, said that its forces had downed 121 Ukrainian drones overnight, including seven that were flying towards Moscow.
- Separately, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said that Ukrainian forces struck a dam on a reservoir in the border area, causing damage. He warned that the strikes could risk flooding and advised residents of two border settlements to temporarily evacuate.
Politics and diplomacy
- United States President Donald Trump told reporters on board Air Force One, while heading to Asia, that he is “not going to be wasting” his time on meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin until he thinks a deal is in place to secure peace between Russia and Ukraine.
- The Reuters news agency, citing a US official and another person, reported that Trump’s administration is also preparing additional sanctions it could use to target key areas of Russia’s economy if Putin continues to delay ending the war.
- Reuters quoted the US official as saying that Washington would like to see European allies make the next big Russia move, which could be additional sanctions or tariffs.
- Zelenskyy has welcomed the latest US sanctions targeting two of Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, “a strong and much-needed message that aggression will not go unanswered”.
- In a separate statement on Telegram, Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine expects to receive up to 150 Swedish Gripen fighter jets starting next year, hailing the deal as necessary to defend the country.
- Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, however, said in an interview with the US cable broadcaster CNN, that Moscow, Washington and Kyiv are close to a diplomatic solution to end the three-year war.
