Zelenskyy calls for a European air defence system as Russian strike wounds 20

In this photo provided by the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, rescuers work on a site of a house destroyed by a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. (Zaporizhzhia regional military administration via AP)

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces bombarded the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia with rockets overnight, wounding 20 people, including four children, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday as he urged European leaders to make the continent safe by building an ambitious air defence umbrella.

With the war grinding on since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor more than 3 1/2 years ago, there has been no let-up in Russian strikes on civilian areas of Ukraine and its army’s push on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.

A settlement to end the war appears to be no closer despite months of U.S.-led peace efforts. U.S. President Donald Trump’s ultimatums and deadlines for Putin to engage with proposals to stop the fighting have passed without obvious consequences.

Just over the past two weeks, Zelenskyy said on Telegram, Russia has launched more than 3,500 drones, more than 2,500 powerful glide bombs and almost 200 missiles at targets inside Ukraine.

Russian glide bombs, usually dropped by jets at high altitude and far behind the front line, and drone swarms are a major challenge for Ukrainian defences. Glide bombs aren’t very accurate, but they leave big craters, and Ukraine has no effective countermeasure against them.

Russian drones also recently landed on Polish soil, prompting NATO to beef up the alliance’s European air defences as tensions with Moscow mounted.

“Now is the time to implement the joint protection of our European skies with a multilayered air defence system. All the technologies for this are available,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram. “We need investments and desire, we need strong actions and decisions from all our partners.”

Trump, heading to the United Kingdom for a state visit, told reporters in Washington that “Zelenskyy is going to have to make a deal” to end the war, though he didn’t elaborate on what he meant. The American president has blamed both sides for the fighting, though Ukraine is defending itself from invasion.

Trump also repeated his insistence that Europe must stop buying oil from Russia. Trump said Saturday he believes the war would end if all NATO countries stopped buying crude from Russia and placed tariffs on China of 50% to 100% for its purchases of Russian petroleum.

In Zaporizhzhia, the Russian barrage struck more than 20 apartment buildings, starting fires, regional head Ivan Fedorov said on national television.

“We hadn’t yet recovered from enemy strikes on Aug. 30. We are currently repairing those buildings, those windows, but now the enemy has added more work for our municipal workers,” Fedorov said.

Russia also hit a civilian logistics center in the Kyiv region, Zelenskyy said. He also posted on Telegram a video of a Russian drone striking the northeastern city of Kharkiv, where officials said that four people were wounded as the National Pharmaceutical University in the city center was hit.

Zelenskyy repeated his appeal for countries to tighten their economic sanctions on Russia.

“The only reason Russia can allow all this is that it doesn’t feel any pain,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. “Until Russia experiences truly severe losses — above all economic ones — it will avoid genuine diplomacy and an end to the war.”

In response to Russia’s attacks, Ukraine has developed its own long-range drones that have hit deep inside Russia, damaging installations vital for Russia’s war effort.

Recent strikes have included oil refineries, depots and terminals. Russia remains the world’s second-largest oil exporter, but a seasonal rise in demand and sustained Ukrainian drone strikes have caused gasoline shortages in recent weeks.

Ukraine’s General Staff said Tuesday that the armed forces struck an oil refinery in the Saratov region of western Russia during the night. Explosions and a fire were reported at the facility, the General Staff said on its Facebook page.

Aamer Madhani contributed to this report from Washington