This past week in the Russia-Ukraine war was marked by heavy fighting, escalating drone and missile attacks, modest territorial changes, and a striking diplomatic turn as US President Donald Trump declared that Ukraine could “win back all its territory” following a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
On the battlefield, Russia continued its grinding offensive, but with noticeably reduced momentum. Independent monitoring indicates that Russian forces captured about 28 square miles of territory this week—a nearly 70 percent decline compared to the previous week, when gains reached over 90 square miles. While Russia reported new advances around Muravka and Novoivanivka, Ukrainian commanders said many of those assaults were repelled, and pointed instead to counter-moves near Pokrovsk and Dobropillia, where Kyiv’s forces claim to have clawed back positions.
Yet the territorial map tells only part of the story. Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults in weeks on September 20, firing forty missiles and deploying nearly six hundred drones across multiple Ukrainian regions. Air raid sirens sounded from Dnipro to Chernihiv, with power substations and rail links in Poltava among the targets. Ukrainian air defenses intercepted the majority of the projectiles, but not all: three people were killed and dozens more injured. The scale of the attack underscored Moscow’s continued reliance on long-range bombardment to exhaust Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and sap morale.
Kyiv struck back not only on the front lines, but also deep inside Russian territory. Ukrainian drones hit refineries in Saratov and Samara, as well as the Salavat petrochemical complex in Bashkortostan, sparking fires and forcing temporary shutdowns. These operations are part of an expanding Ukrainian strategy to disrupt Russia’s war economy by targeting oil and energy facilities, a tactic that has begun to rattle domestic markets and expose vulnerabilities far from the battlefield. Moscow has unveiled plans to raise its value-added tax from 20 to 22 percent in 2026, a move intended to shore up revenues for defense spending and veterans’ programs. While Kremlin officials have insisted the economy remains stable, the twin pressures of mounting costs and recurrent Ukrainian strikes on energy assets have fueled doubts about the sustainability of Russia’s war effort over the long term.
Diplomatically, the most striking development came in New York, where Trump and Zelensky held a one-hour meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Emerging from that encounter, Trump declared that Ukraine could “fight and win all of Ukraine back in its original form”—a sharp break from his earlier hints that territorial compromise might be unavoidable. Asked by reporters whether he supported NATO members shooting down Russian aircraft if they entered allied airspace, Trump replied simply: “Yes, I do.” His comments injected both encouragement and uncertainty into the debate over Western strategy, signaling a willingness to adopt more assertive positions even as critics warned of escalation risks.
Zelensky welcomed what he called a “big shift” and pressed both Washington and Beijing to intensify pressure on Moscow. In interviews, he stressed that China holds enormous leverage over Russia’s economic survival and must not remain passive. “Without China, Putin’s Russia is nothing,” he argued, calling on Beijing to use its influence to bring the war to an end. At the same time, he urged the United States to transform rhetorical support into concrete measures, noting that Moscow “always pays attention” to American power. Zelensky cautioned that war fatigue and shifting alliances were narrowing the window for a durable peace, and insisted that only a united international front could force Moscow into meaningful concessions.
The Kremlin, for its part, brushed aside Trump’s characterization of Russia as a “paper tiger” and sought to project confidence, but it did not hide its irritation with the new tone coming from Washington. Russian spokesmen reiterated that Ukraine’s hopes of retaking all occupied land were unrealistic, even as Ukrainian forces demonstrated they could blunt Russian advances and carry the war into Russia’s industrial heartland.
Compiled by Ana Dumbadze
