The war in Ukraine entered September with some of the heaviest fighting in recent weeks, as Russian and Ukrainian forces traded relentless drone and missile strikes while each side claimed gains on the battlefield.
Russian forces carried out 408 attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region in a single day, killing a 62-year-old man in the Polohy district, said Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov. In the western Khmelnytskyi region, another man was killed in an overnight strike, Governor Serhii Tiurin confirmed.
At least 35 people were wounded nationwide on Wednesday, including 14 in Donetsk and 14 in Kherson, local officials reported. A Russian drone strike in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region also cut power to nearly 30,000 households.
Ukraine responded with its own aerial campaign. A drone strike on Russia’s Kursk region killed a 52-year-old man in the village of Belitsa, regional governor Alexander Khinshtein said.
Moscow’s Defense Ministry reported shooting down 170 Ukrainian drones, five guided bombs, and two rockets over the past 24 hours. Kyiv countered with even higher figures, saying its air defenses destroyed 430 Russian drones and 21 missiles during the same period.
On the northeastern front, Russia claimed its troops had taken control of “about half” of Kupiansk, a strategically important city in the Kharkiv region. Ukraine’s 10th Army Corps rejected the statement, accusing Moscow of exaggerating progress for propaganda purposes. “All such attempts by the Russian occupiers…are doomed to fail,” the unit declared.
Even as fighting raged, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested he was willing to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Moscow, a proposal he linked to a request from US President Donald Trump. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha dismissed the idea, calling it a “knowingly unacceptable” ploy, noting that seven countries had already offered to host potential talks.
Putin said Moscow will continue its invasion of Ukraine by military means if no agreement is reached on a peace settlement.
“It seems to me that if common sense prevails, it will be possible to agree on an acceptable solution to end this conflict,” Putin said during a visit to Beijing on Wednesday. “If not, then we will have to resolve all our tasks militarily.”
His remarks came as US President Donald Trump issued a fresh warning, saying “you’ll see things happen” if Washington is dissatisfied with Putin’s decisions regarding the war. Trump added that he was awaiting a response from the Kremlin, while lamenting the continuing loss of lives in the region.
“He knows where I stand, and he’ll make a decision one way or another. Whatever his decision is, we’ll either be happy about it or unhappy about it, and if we’re unhappy about it, you’ll see things happen,” the US president said.
Beijing staged a striking display of both military might and diplomatic solidarity on September 3, as China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un appeared together in public for the first time.
The occasion marked the 80th anniversary of China’s victory over Japan in World War Two, with more than 50,000 spectators gathered in Tiananmen Square. The parade featured laser weapons, nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, and even robotic wolves—an arsenal certain to draw close scrutiny from Western defense analysts.
While leaders from 26 countries attended, almost all Western leaders declined the invitation. Inspecting thousands of troops from the roof of his state vehicle, Xi warned in his address that the world must “never return to the law of the jungle, where the strong prey on the weak.”
Following the parade, diplomacy took center stage. Putin and Kim held a two-and-a-half-hour meeting that ended with embraces and pledges of closer cooperation. Putin extended an invitation for Kim to visit Russia, after Kim Jong Un pledged “full support” for Russia, citing the defense treaty binding Pyongyang and Moscow.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced that European allies had finalized “preparatory work” on security guarantees for Ukraine, to be enacted once a peace agreement is reached. Macron met Zelensky in Paris ahead of a gathering of Kyiv’s staunchest supporters.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump promised during a White House meeting with Polish President Karol Nawrocki that the US would strengthen its troop presence in Poland to bolster NATO’s eastern flank.
Compiled by Ana Dumbadze
