Russia launches a large-scale attack on Ukraine, killing 3 and wounding dozens

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, a rescue worker puts out a fire of a residential house damaged by a Russian strike on Dnipro, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched a large-scale missile and drone attack targeting regions across Ukraine early Saturday, killing at least three people and wounding dozens more, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attacks took place across nine regions, including Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Kyiv, Odesa, Sumy and Kharkiv.

“The enemy’s target was our infrastructure, residential areas and civilian enterprises,” he said, adding that a missile equipped with cluster munitions struck a multistory building in the city of Dnipro.

“Each such strike is not a military necessity but a deliberate strategy by Russia to intimidate civilians and destroy our infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said in a statement on his official Telegram account.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian drones overnight slammed into an energy facility in Samara, southwestern Russia, according to the local governor and Ukraine’s General Staff.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday said its forces intercepted 149 Ukrainian drones during the night.

Zelenskyy said he expects to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly next week. He also said the first ladies of Ukraine and the United States would likely hold separate talks focused on humanitarian issues involving children.

At least 30 people were wounded in the attack in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, local Gov. Serhii Lysak said. Several high-rise buildings and homes were damaged in the eastern city of Dnipro.

In the Kyiv region, local authorities reported strikes in the areas of Bucha, Boryspil and Obukhiv. A home and cars were damaged. In the western region of Lviv, Gov. Maxim Kozytsky said two cruise missiles were shot down.

Russia launched 619 drones and missiles, Ukraine’s air force said, of which 552 drones, two ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles were shot down or neutralized.

`We expect sanctions’

Zelenskyy said that Ukraine and its partners have laid the groundwork for long-term security guarantees and that he hopes to gauge how close they are to finalizing such commitments during next week’s meetings in New York.

He said European nations are prepared to move forward with a framework if the United States remains closely engaged. He noted that discussions have taken place at multiple levels, including among military leadership and general staffs from both Europe and the U.S.

“I would like to receive signals for myself on how close we are to understanding that the security guarantees from all partners will be the kind we need,” Zelenskyy said.

He said sanctions against Russia must remain on the table if peace efforts stall, and that he plans to press the issue in talks with Trump.

“If the war continues and there is no movement toward peace, we expect sanctions,” he said, adding that Trump is looking for strong steps from Europe.

Ukraine targets Russia’s oil sector

Ukraine on Saturday claimed its drones struck the Novokuibyshevsk Refinery, a major producer of jet fuel that is operated by Russian oil major Rosneft. It said the strike resulted in explosions and a fire.

Samara’s regional governor, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, said unspecified fuel and energy facilities were targeted. He later reported that four people had died in the attack, but did not immediately say who they were or describe any damage.

Ukraine’s General Staff also said a second Russian oil refinery was hit overnight, in the city of Saratov. The city lies in a region of the same name, southwest of Samara.

Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels published videos of what they said was a strike near of the Saratov refinery. They show blasts and a fiery glow against the night sky, with air sirens wailing in the background.

Local Gov. Roman Busargin did not immediately comment on claims that the refinery was hit. He said a woman was hospitalized following nighttime drone strikes on Saratov, and residential buildings were damaged.

Ukrainian drones also struck Russian pumping stations of the Kuibyshev-Tikhoretsk oil pipeline, an intelligence official told The Associated Press on Saturday. They spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose sensitive information.

The pipeline leads to the export terminal in the port of Novorossiysk.

Explosions were recorded several stations in various regions of Volgograd and Samara, according to the intelligence official.

Ukraine “continues its successful work on introducing drone sanctions against Russian refineries and oil pumping stations. It is this infrastructure that brings petrodollar surpluses to the Russian budget, which fuels the war against Ukraine. Work on blocking these money flows will continue,” they told AP.

Russia denies violating Estonia’s airspace

Russia’s Defense Ministry denied its aircraft violated Estonia’s airspace, after Tallinn reported three fighter jets crossed into its territory on Friday without permission and remained there for 12 minutes.

The incident, described by Estonia’s top diplomat as an “unprecedentedly brazen” incursion, happened just over a week after NATO planes downed Russian drones over Poland, heightening fears that Moscow’s war on Ukraine could spill over.

In a statement early Saturday, Moscow stressed its fighter jets had kept to neutral Baltic Sea waters more than 3 kilometres (1.8 miles) from Estonia’s Vaindloo Island in the Gulf of Finland.

“On Sept. 19, three MiG-31 fighter jets completed a scheduled flight from Karelia to an airfield in the Kaliningrad region,” it said, referencing the Russian enclave sandwiched between Polish and Lithuanian territory. Estonia, Poland and Lithuania belong to NATO.

“The flight was conducted in strict compliance with international airspace regulations and did not violate the borders of other states, as confirmed through objective monitoring,” the statement said without providing details about the monitoring operation.

On Friday, Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had summoned a Russian diplomat to lodge an official protest over the airspace violation. Officials said Tallinn also moved “to start consultations among the allies” under NATO’s Article 4, which states that parties would confer whenever the territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened.

On Saturday, Poland’s Operational Command said Polish and allied aircraft were deployed again overnight in response to Russian long-range airstrikes in neighboring Ukraine. In a later post on X, the Operational Command described the deployment as “preventive” and “aimed at securing the airspace in areas adjacent to the threatened zone.”

Last week, fellow NATO member Romania said it deployed two F-16 jets to intercept a drone that briefly entered its airspace.

Hanna Arhirova, The Associated Press