Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,314

Here is how things stand on Tuesday, September 30 :

Fighting

• Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said his forces are prevailing in what he described as a “righteous battle” in Ukraine. “Our fighters and commanders go on the attack, and the entire country, all of Russia, is waging this righteous battle and working hard,” he said.
• President Putin signed a decree ordering the conscription of 135,000 men for military service, the official government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports. Russian men aged 18 to 30 are to be drafted between October 1 and December 31.
• Ukraine’s military said it shot down a Russian helicopter using a remote-controlled drone near the village of Kotlyarivka in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk.
• A Russian drone attack on Monday night killed a family of four – including two young children – in the northeastern Sumy region, Oleh Hryhorov, the head of the regional military administration, wrote on the Telegram platform.
• Ukraine has recaptured more than 170 square kilometres (66 square miles) of territory near the eastern town of Dobropillia in recent counteroffensives, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding that Russian forces had lost nearly 3,200 soldiers in the operation.
• Popular Ukrainian war blog DeepState said Ukrainian forces had given up the village of Poltavka, east of Dobropillia in Donetsk.

• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defence system intercepted four HIMARS rockets and three Neptune missiles fired by Ukrainian forces over the past 24 hours.
• The ministry also said Russian forces struck Ukrainian aviation repair enterprises and several temporary Ukrainian military bases, and took control of the Shandriglovo and Zarichne settlements, both northeast of the city of Sloviansk, in the Donetsk region.
• Moscow’s air defence forces intercepted and shot down 78 Ukrainian drones in the Russian regions of Bryansk, Belgorod, Voronezh, Moscow and Kursk from Sunday night to early Monday, Russia’s Defence Ministry said.
• A fire ignited by a Ukrainian drone attack killed a child and his grandmother in a town outside Moscow, regional authorities said.
• The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported 136 combat clashes with Russian troops over the past 24 hours up to Monday.
• Ukrainian air defence forces reported shooting down and suppressing 23 drones in northern and eastern Ukraine and recorded nine drones hitting targets at eight locations.
• The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine has now been without offsite power for six days after recent attacks near the site that each of Russia and Ukraine blamed on the other.

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Regional security

• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Europe “is not at war … but no longer at peace” with Russia. Russia’s war is “a war against our democracy and a war against our freedom”, Merz said, adding that Moscow intended to undermine unity in the European Union.
• Germany is ready to protect the Baltic region and will respond to Russia’s threats in a united and responsible manner, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said, describing Russia as the most significant and direct threat to NATO.
• Lithuania’s Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene said Russia’s recent violations of Lithuania’s airspace showed that NATO had to move from “air policing missions” to “genuine air defence”.
• A drone defence system to be built on the EU’s eastern flank is also intended to develop offensive capabilities, the European Commission has proposed in a concept that became public on Monday.

• Poland wants to see cooperation between the EU and Ukraine on developing drone technologies, Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said.
• Ukraine has proposed building a joint air defence shield with allies to protect against threats from Russia, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “Ukraine proposes to Poland and all our partners to build a joint, fully reliable shield against Russian aerial threats,” he said in an address to the Warsaw Security Forum delivered via videolink.
• Four NATO and EU countries bordering Russia plan to build concrete bunkers and anti-drone nets at vital energy facilities under a plan to protect their power grids following Russian drone incursions.
• Russia’s state spending on national defence is set to fall slightly in 2026, according to draft budget materials submitted to parliament, but sources said it could be increased if needed. The documents show planned defence spending of 13 trillion roubles ($157bn) in 2026, down from this year’s post-Soviet high of 13.5 trillion roubles ($162bn).
• New drone fragments were found in the eastern Romanian county of Tulcea, neighbouring Ukraine, the country’s Defence Minister Ionut Mosteanu said. “We just found another drone, another Russian drone that fell down on our territory in the Danube Delta. And this is a common thing for the last three and a half years,” the minister said.

Military aid

• Russia said its military was analysing whether or not the US would sell Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine for strikes deep into Russia, a step that Russian officials say could trigger a steep escalation. “It would be a game changer, it would significantly enhance the range that Ukraine can strike,” said Dalibor Rohac, a senior fellow at The American Enterprise Institute.

Politics and diplomacy

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• President Putin signed a law to pull Russia out of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture, a landmark agreement that aims to strengthen the rights of people deprived of their liberty, such as prisoners.
• Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Ukraine was not a sovereign country, as he rejected accusations that Hungarian reconnaissance drones violated Ukrainian airspace. “Ukraine is not a sovereign country, Ukraine is financed by us, the West gives it funds, weapons,” Orban said.
• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X that Orban was “intoxicated by Russian propaganda”.
• Hungary said it was blocking access to 12 Ukrainian news sites after a similar move by Kyiv. Earlier this month, Ukraine blocked eight Hungarian-language portals, among them a popular pro-government news site, origo.hu, over pro-Russian content.
• The Council of Europe awarded its 2025 human rights prize to Ukrainian journalist and rights activist Maksym Butkevych, who joined the Ukrainian army and was released last year after being captured by Russian forces.
• Moldova’s pro-European governing party of President Maia Sandu – the Party of Action and Solidarity – won a resounding victory over its Russian-leaning rival – the Patriotic Bloc – in a key parliamentary election, results on Monday showed.

Economy

• Russia-controlled Crimea has frozen fuel prices and imposed petrol rationing in response to shortages resulting from a spate of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries. Motorists in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, are to be limited to buying 30 litres (8 gallons) of fuel at a time, the Russian-occupied region’s governor Sergei Aksyonov said.
• British Treasury chief Rachel Reeves said the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and Trump’s tariff war have caused “harsh global headwinds”, and hard economic choices loom when she sets out the UK’s budget in November.

Sanctions

• The International Paralympic Committee’s decision to lift the temporary suspension of Russia and Belarus from its games is a “bold step” but “many will argue it is premature” while Moscow continues to wage war, former IOC executive Terence Burn said.