KYIV — Russia fired dozens of drones at Ukraine in a single day, Ukrainian officers stated on September 14, a day after Romania reported {that a} Russian drone entered its airspace and Ukraine struck two main Russian oil refineries as a part of Kyiv’s effort to blunt Moscow’s capacity to wage struggle.
Ukrainian air defenses shot down or neutralized 52 of the 58 Russian drones that had been detected, the air pressure stated, whereas six drones and an Iskander ballistic missile hit the bottom, in addition to particles from two of the downed drones. No casualties had been reported.
Separately, a 54-year-old man was killed in an artillery strike within the Kherson area and a 60-year-old man was wounded when a drone fired by Russian forces on the bottom hit a minibus within the Zaporizhzhya area, officers stated. Russia baselessly claims each areas as its personal, together with Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea.
The second evening of comparatively gentle air assaults got here as Russia and Ukraine’s northern neighbor Belarus carried out large-scale army drills and amid persevering with uncertainty over whether or not the United States will impose new sanctions on Russia over the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which started in February 2022.
Russia has ceaselessly fired a whole lot of projectiles at Ukraine on earlier nights, typically killing and wounding civilians. The largest barrage got here on September 7, when Ukraine stated Russia fired greater than 800 drones and missiles in an assault that targeted primarily on Kyiv, the place three individuals together with an toddler had been killed.
Heavy combating continues alongside the entrance in japanese and southern Ukraine and significantly within the Donetsk area, the place Russian forces have been searching for to regulate the town of Pokrovsk for months and at the moment are urgent on Kupyansk, a Kharkiv area metropolis that Ukraine took again in a counteroffensive within the fall of 2022.
A sustained lull in drone and missile assaults, if it happens, might sign an effort by Russia to get the United States to place extra blame on Ukraine for the dearth of success of efforts by US President Donald Trump to dealer an finish to the largest struggle in Europe since 1945.
The Russian Defense Ministry stated on September 14 that Russia shot down 361 Ukrainian drones over the earlier 24 hours.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose new, harder sanctions on Russia, which has rejected requires a cease-fire, however up to now has not executed so. In a social media submit on September 13, Trump stated he could be “able to do main sanctions on Russia when all NATO nations have agreed, and began, to do the identical factor, and when all NATO nations cease shopping for oil from Russia.”
He stated NATO nations ought to impose tariffs of 50-One hundred pc on imports from China.
The European Union has drastically lowered imports of Russian oil and gasoline because the begin of the full-scale invasion and plans to part them out by 2028 however deliveries proceed, primarily to NATO members Hungary and Slovakia. Turkey, additionally a NATO member, has been the third-largest purchaser of Russian oil since 2023, in response to the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
US Lawmakers Promote Sanctions Bill
Two Republican US lawmakers who’re searching for the passage of a invoice to impose new sanctions on Russia stated on September 13 that they are going to push to get their draft legislation related to laws that should move to maintain the federal authorities working when the brand new fiscal 12 months begins on October 1.
“This week, we can be urging our colleagues, on either side of the aisle, to hitch us in advancing this laws and standing with freedom in opposition to tyranny,” Senator Lindsey Graham and Representative Brian Fitzpatrick stated in an announcement.
“We firmly consider the mixture of sanctions and tariffs, together with the sale of high-end American weapons to Ukraine, is the important thing to bringing [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to the desk for a simply and honorable peace,” they stated.
Ukraine Targeting Russian Energy Facilities
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that strikes on power amenities, a few of them deep inside Russia, had been a part of an effort to do “all the pieces attainable…to scale back Russia’s capacity to struggle.”
“Our deep strikes will intensify,” Zelenskyy stated in his nightly video handle.
Officials in Russia’s Bashkortostan area stated on September 13 {that a} hearth broke out at one of many nation’s largest oil amenities, close to the regional capital, Ufa, when particles from two Ukrainian drones fell on the positioning.
“Both downed drones fell on the grounds of the enterprise,” regional head Radiy Khabirov wrote on Telegram. Ufa is about 1,400 kilometers from the entrance traces in Ukraine.
Three hours later, Aleksandr Drozdenko, governor of the Leningrad area in Russia’s northwest, stated the large Kirishi oil refinery was additionally hit by falling particles from Ukrainian drones, sparking a hearth early on September 14.
Ukraine’s General Staff stated Ukrainian drone forces struck the refinery and injury was being assessed. Kirishi refines about 17.7 million metric tons of Russian crude a 12 months (355,000 barrels per day), or 6.4 p.c of the nation’s whole.
Russian officers additionally stated a Ukrainian drone strike hit an “industrial enterprise” within the Perm area close to the Ural Mountains, greater than 1,500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. Details weren’t instantly accessible.
Reuters reported that Ukrainian strikes as of the tip of August had disabled 17 p.c of the Russian oil refining trade, threatening to accentuate gasoline shortages and trigger a serious hit to the Kremlin’s price range from misplaced income.
Russian Drones In Romanian Airspace
Romania’s Defense Ministry stated the NATO nation’s airspace had been violated by a drone throughout a Russian assault on infrastructure in Ukraine.
Defense Minister Ionut Mosteanu advised RFE/RL the drone handed by Romanian airspace and into Ukrainian territory. He stated two Romanian F-16 jets initially scrambled following the alert. The planes had been later changed by two German Eurofighter Typhoon jets.
On September 10, at the very least 19 Russian drones entered Polish airspace, severely elevating tensions between NATO and Moscow. On September 12, the Western army alliance stated it launched Eastern Sentry, a mission to bolster defenses of allied nations close to Russia.
Late on September 13, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X that Polish and different air sources had been again in motion.
“Due to the specter of Russian drones working over Ukraine close to the Polish border, a preventive operation of the air forces, each Polish and allied, has begun. Ground-based air protection techniques have reached a state of highest readiness,” he wrote.
