Silence Is Complicity: The World Must Act Now to Stop Russia’s Engineered Starvation in Oleshky

It’s a common Russian practice. If Russian cutthroats can’t bomb, or strafe Ukrainians or others into submission, if they can’t occupy Ukrainian towns, rape and kill the inhabitants into surrender, then they’ll starve the residents into capitulation. They did that in 1932-33. Moscow is doing that again now.

This harrowing accompanying visual triptych serves as an undeniable testament to the calculated and systematic brutality of the Russian occupation in Ukraine, where the deliberate weaponization of starvation is being employed as a primary instrument of control and terror. By mirroring the chilling historical resonance of the Holodomor – the Soviet Russian-engineered famine that killed 7-10 million Ukrainians – the image graphically illustrates how modern Russian forces are actively engineering another humanitarian catastrophe, trapping thousands of civilians in a militarized death trap. From the immediate, intimate horror of a starving family held at gunpoint in their own home, to the sprawling, mine-encircled landscape of a city forced into a desperate queue for subsistence, the narrative is clear: Oleshky is not merely a casualty of war, but the calculated target of a state-sponsored policy of isolation and deprivation, designed to break the spirit of a people by denying them the very necessities of life.

The town, located on the Black Sea approximately 947 kilometers (about 588 miles), with a typical driving time of around 11 hours and 38 minutes under normal conditions, is currently the center of a mounting humanitarian catastrophe.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha recently emphasized to the UN Security Council that Russia is actively “turning humanitarian access itself into an instrument of pressure,” using deprivation and isolation to tighten control over the occupied territory as winter approaches.

The Situation in Oleshky

The Blockade: Oleshky has been under Russian occupation since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022 and suffered severe devastation following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in 2023. Regular commercial or volunteer food and medical deliveries have been completely blocked since May 26, with the last grocery shops having closed months prior.

Severe Hunger: Around 2,000 to 3,500 civilians—predominantly elderly residents, individuals with limited mobility, and roughly 50 children—remain trapped in the city. With local garden supplies exhausted and growing seasons ending, remaining residents are facing acute starvation, with reports indicating people have resorted to foraging or subsisting on whatever minimal scraps they can find.

Danger and Isolation: Access roads into the town are heavily mined, and active Russian drone surveillance targets movement, making both humanitarian delivery and civilian evacuation nearly impossible. Attempts by volunteers or vehicles to bring supplies have frequently come under fatal attack. The city has also been largely stripped of functioning utilities, electricity, and medical care.

International and Official Response

Ukrainian leadership, including Sybiha, has issued urgent appeals to the international community, emphasizing that trapped residents “will not survive on statements of concern alone” and calling for immediate, unhindered humanitarian access and evacuation corridors.

Human rights organizations and international figures, including the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, have echoed these alarms, demanding localized ceasefires to allow food and medicine to reach the remaining population.

Human rights monitors, Ukrainian officials, and international bodies have increasingly characterized the unfolding crisis in Oleshky not just as a byproduct of war, but as a premeditated, man-made humanitarian blockade and a deliberate weaponization of deprivation.

The situation aligns with a pattern of coercive tactics seen in other occupied areas, characterized by several deliberate factors:

Blocking Aid and Lifelines: Regular commercial and volunteer food and medicine deliveries have been entirely cut off. Attempts by humanitarian convoys or volunteers to bring supplies have been repeatedly blocked, blown up by mines, or targeted by drones.

Denying Safe Evacuation: While thousands of civilians—primarily vulnerable elderly residents and remaining children—are trapped without electricity, gas, or running water, occupying forces have consistently refused to coordinate or approve safe humanitarian corridors to let them leave, leaving desperate residents to risk their lives walking through mined fields.

Weaponized Isolation: Ukrainian leadership and international advocates (including voices at the UN and the Council of Europe) have emphasized that the civilian population is effectively being used as human shields or subjected to intentional neglect, leaving them to face acute starvation as winter approaches.

International agencies are pressing for immediate global intervention, warning that statements of concern are no longer enough to save the remaining population from catastrophe.
According to estimates from Ukrainian officials and the Oleshky City Military Administration:

Directly in the city of Oleshky: Around 2,000 residents remain trapped.

Across the wider Oleshky community and surrounding settlements: The total is approximately 6,000 people, which includes nearly 200 children.

Before the full-scale invasion, the city itself had a population of roughly 24,000, with around 40,000 in the broader municipality. Those remaining are predominantly elderly residents, people with limited mobility, and families who have been unable to escape due to heavily mined surroundings, active combat, and relentless drone surveillance.

The phrase “weaponization of starvation” (or engineered famine) is precisely how Ukrainian leadership, human rights advocates, and international observers are describing the crisis in Oleshky and the surrounding occupied left-bank areas.

Under international humanitarian law—specifically Article 54 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions—using the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is explicitly prohibited and classified as a war crime.

The situation in Oleshky fits this legal and historical definition because the deprivation is not an accidental byproduct of combat; it is being enforced through deliberate structural conditions:

Complete Isolation: Regular commercial and humanitarian supply lines have been blocked. With local garden yields exhausted as summer ends, residents have been left with no baseline access to food, water, or medicine.

Turning Relief into a Hazard: Delivery trucks or volunteer convoys attempting to reach the town have been targeted by landmines or active drone strikes.

Denying Evacuation: Civilians—largely vulnerable, elderly residents who cannot easily leave on their own—are effectively being held hostage. Safe humanitarian corridors proposed by Ukraine and backed by bodies like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have been continuously blocked or refused, forcing some desperate residents to risk their lives walking through heavily mined fields just to escape.

While specific, exact headcounts of the Russian military personnel occupying or surrounding the immediate perimeter of Oleshky are not publicly detailed in official operational reports, the area is heavily militarized.

The town is held by Russian occupation forces who use the left-bank region of the Dnipro River to maintain positions, manage active frontline logistics, and conduct drone surveillance and artillery strikes. Rather than being surrounded by an external siege in the traditional sense, Oleshky is sealed from the inside out by occupying forces: access routes are heavily mined, entry and exit are strictly blocked, and movement is heavily restricted by active drone monitoring.

Diplomatic and humanitarian channels are actively mobilizing to break the blockade and secure safe passage for the trapped residents of Oleshky.

International and Diplomatic Pressure—Global Forums: Ukrainian leadership—including Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha—has taken the crisis to high-profile international platforms, briefing the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and the OSCE Permanent Council to demand immediate global pressure on Moscow.

Institutional Appeals: The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O'Flaherty, along with religious authorities like the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches, have issued urgent appeals for local ceasefires and strict adherence to international humanitarian law, which obligates an occupying power to provide or facilitate food and medical care.

Not the first. While the scale and specific conditions of the blockade in Oleshky—alongside neighboring left-bank communities in the Kherson region like Hola Prystan, Stara Zburyivka, and Nova Zburyivka—represent an extreme localized crisis, similar patterns of engineered deprivation, siege tactics, and the cutting off of humanitarian lifelines have been documented across multiple occupied areas since the full-scale invasion began:

Mariupol (2022): The most devastating precedent of mass civilian deprivation under siege. Russian forces completely surrounded the city, systematically destroying critical infrastructure, cutting off electricity, water, gas, and communications, and repeatedly blocking or shelling humanitarian evacuation and relief corridors. This resulted in tens of thousands of civilian casualties and acute humanitarian suffering before the city fell.

Siege and Isolation of Frontline Settlements in Donbas and Luhansk (2014–Present): Throughout the war in eastern Ukraine, smaller towns and villages near the shifting frontline—particularly during intense phases of fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts—frequently experienced prolonged cutoffs from stable food, water, and medical supplies due to intense shelling, mined approaches, and restrictions imposed by occupation authorities.

Kherson and Southern Regional Occupations (2022): During the initial months of the 2022 invasion and subsequent occupation of parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, Russian forces frequently blocked Ukrainian humanitarian convoys, restricted commercial food trucks, and weaponized access to humanitarian aid to pressure local populations into submission or forced integration.

International monitors and human rights organizations view these recurring tactics not as isolated logistics failures, but as a deliberate coercive strategy used by occupying forces to subdue civilian populations and exert control over captured territory.

Global Action Needed

Humanitarian Readiness vs. Russian Obstruction

Ready Organizations: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations, and various independent volunteer networks have established preparedness frameworks, logistics, and rosters for organized civilian evacuations and emergency food drops.

The Barrier: While Ukrainian authorities have pushed through necessary procedural steps for evacuation corridors, occupying forces have repeatedly failed to guarantee safe access, blocked humanitarian missions, and targeted volunteer vehicles—leaving thousands still trapped as winter approaches.

Would you like to draft a specific call-to-action piece or editorial for your readers highlighting these international demands?

The world is watching a chilling history repeat itself in real-time. In the occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky, thousands of civilians—predominantly the elderly, the infirm, and families unable to flee—are being systematically starved by Russian occupation forces. This is not a tragedy of war; it is a war crime.

For months, the Russian military has enforced a ruthless blockade, cutting off all regular food, water, and medical supplies. Attempts by humanitarian organizations and brave volunteers to deliver aid have been met with landmines and lethal drone strikes. Safe evacuation corridors, guaranteed under international law, have been repeatedly denied, turning the city into a militarized death trap as winter sets in.

This deliberate weaponization of hunger is a tactic designed to break the indomitable will of the Ukrainian people, echoing the horrors of the Holodomor. We cannot afford to be passive observers while this catastrophe unfolds.

We call upon our readers, international leaders, and humanitarian bodies to take immediate and decisive action:

Demand Unhindered Access: Immediate pressure must be applied to Russia to open safe humanitarian corridors for the delivery of food, water, and medicine. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations must be granted immediate, guaranteed access to Oleshky.

Enforce International Law: The systematic starvation of civilians is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions. Governments worldwide must unequivocally condemn these actions as war crimes and hold Russian leadership accountable through sanctions and international tribunals.

Support Evacuation Efforts: Safe passage must be secured for all civilians wishing to leave the occupied territories. The international community must provide the logistical and financial support necessary for large-scale evacuation operations.

Oleshky cannot be allowed to become a forgotten graveyard. The time for statements of concern has passed. The time for urgent, life-saving action is now. Raise your voice. Demand intervention. Save Oleshky. Don’t Repeat Holodomor 1932-33

 

Russian Cutthroats Again Target Civilian Bus; Five Killed on the Spot

On September 16, 2026, a Russian FPV kamikaze drone directly targeted a scheduled civilian passenger bus in the Nikopol district of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

The attack resulted in a heavy toll:

Casualties: Five people were killed instantly at the scene, and at least seven others sustained injuries of varying severity.

Aftermath: Emergency services rushed survivors to local hospitals for urgent medical care, while photographs of the vehicle showed the cabin completely gutted and charred by the blast.

Official Response: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and regional authorities strongly condemned the strike, emphasizing that targeting a conventional civilian transit route carried “no military logic” and stood as another deliberate atrocity against non-combatants.

The Nikopol district, sitting near the southern frontline, has frequently faced hazardous conditions due to regular artillery and FPV drone targeting of local civilian transport and infrastructure.

As has been Russia’s practice in recent months, over the past two days, Ukraine has faced a relentless and intensive wave of aerial assaults, marked by massive drone barrages and strikes targeting multiple regions and urban centers.

Massive Drone Waves: Russian forces launched 173 attack and decoy drones (including Shaheds, Gerberas, and jet-powered UAVs) overnight into September 26. Ukrainian air defenses intercepted and suppressed 134 of these targets, though strikes and falling debris were reported across numerous locations.

Impact on Kyiv: The capital has endured consecutive days of heavy strikes, resulting in residential fires, structural damage across multiple districts (including Solomianskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, and Obolonskyi), and damage to commercial and civic infrastructure, such as a shopping mall area and a preschool. A pharmaceutical facility was also struck in Darnytsia.

Regional Casualties and Damage

Donetsk Oblast: Shelling and attacks resulted in two deaths in Druzhkivka, alongside multiple injuries across the region.

Zaporizhzhia Oblast: Strikes in and around the city of Zaporizhzhia killed two women and left several others injured.

Sumy & Kherson Oblasts: Drone and guided-bomb attacks in Sumy Oblast killed an elderly resident and injured several others—including young children—while widespread strikes across dozens of settlements in Kherson Oblast caused further casualties and infrastructure damage.

Kharkiv & Dnipropetrovsk Oblasts: Regional centers and districts like Nikopol faced ongoing shelling and drone activity, causing multiple injuries and localized structural destruction.

In parallel with these developments, recent analyses from monitors like the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) have noted an intensified Russian campaign targeting Ukrainian data centers and digital infrastructure to disrupt civilian and economic continuity amid ongoing frontline friction. 

More Bloody Russian Drove Waves across Ukraine

No amount of discussions, negotiations, or conferences will keep the Russian cutthroats from bombing and launching deadly drones against Ukraine and Ukrainians. It has indeed been another devastating morning on September 25 across Ukraine following the latest intensive mass drone and missile attacks.

Overnight and into the morning hours, Russian forces launched a massive barrage involving nearly 300 attack drones – including newer jet-powered models – and missile strikes targeting many regions.

Kyiv & Capital Region: The capital faced heavy waves of drone strikes and debris impacts. A residential building in Kyiv’s Pecherskyi district was hit, resulting in the death of a 14-year-old boy and injuring more than 20 others, with additional damage reported in the Solomianskyi and Podilskyi districts.

Kharkiv Oblast: A particularly brutal missile strike hit an agricultural facility and vegetable storage unit where workers were sorting produce in the village of Stara Hnylytsia (Chuhuiv district), killing six people and injuring 14 others.

Casualties Nationwide: Regional authorities report that ongoing attacks over the past 24 hours have killed at least 10 people and injured over 60 others, with casualties and infrastructural damage also recorded across Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, and Odesa oblasts.

This is another grim reminder of the relentless reality that accompanies every effort to preserve and protect Ukrainian culture, history, and voice right now. 

Zelenskyy Updates His Plan to visit Moscow.

During the UN General Assembly session in New York, a correspondent from Russian state media (Vesti) repeatedly shouted out and pestered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with provocations, asking when he planned to visit Moscow.  

After initially walking past, Zelenskyy turned back slightly, muttered into his hand, and delivered that exact sharp, unfiltered response in Russian: "Na raketi, blyad!" (На ракеті, блядь! / "On a missile, fuck!")  

It predictably sparked a massive wave of memes and commentary online across both Ukrainian and international channels.

Stay tuned for commemorative postal stamps.

Church in Kramatorsk Destroyed as Russia Continues Strikes across Ukraine

Despite claims and beliefs to the contrary, Russia is continuing its murderous and destructive path across Ukraine.

On the evening of September 22, 2026, Russian forces launched a series of heavy airstrikes on residential areas in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, utilizing multiple guided aerial bombs (including FAB-250/KAB-250 and KAB-500 bombs fitted with UMPK modules). The town is located in eastern Ukraine, some 336 miles east of Kyiv.

The local 25-year-old Church of St. John the Baptist of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, located in the older part of the city, suffered heavy direct destruction.

According to reports from the UOC Information and Education Department and local volunteers, the blast wave and impact severely compromised the structure. The walls, roof, and dome sustained critical structural failures, the internal metal frame was heavily twisted and deformed, and the surrounding grounds were left buried under deep layers of debris.

The wider barrage across Kramatorsk hit residential zones heavily, damaging around 10 multi-story apartment buildings, dozens of private homes, a bank, a shop, and civilian vehicles. Across the city and the broader Donetsk region, the attacks resulted in multiple civilian casualties, leaving at least one person dead and several others wounded in Kramatorsk alone, alongside extensive regional infrastructure damage.

Photos and video documentation showing heavy structural blow to the church’s dome and framework, as well as the wreckage across the surrounding neighborhood, have circulated widely via the National Police of Ukraine, local media, and regional emergency service updates.

Documentation from Ukrainian authorities, international human rights monitors, and organizations like the Institute for Religious Freedom (IRF) shows that Russian demonic cutthroats have damaged or destroyed more than 700 religious sites across Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

Between 700 and 740 churches, prayer houses, mosques, synagogues, and other sacred buildings have sustained varying degrees of damage. Of that total, approximately 200 structures have been leveled or burned down entirely beyond repair.

The heaviest concentrations of targeted or collateral destruction are in the front-line and heavily contested eastern and southern regions—particularly Donetsk (where Kramatorsk is located), Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson and Kyiv oblasts.

While the majority of the impacted buildings belong to various Orthodox communities (including both the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and communities formerly or currently tied to the Moscow Patriarchate), the destruction has heavily hit Protestant and evangelical prayer houses (Baptists, Pentecostals, and Adventists), as well as Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Halls, Catholic churches, mosques, and synagogues.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on September 22 that Russia is preparing to launch a new large-scale strike against Ukraine. In the past, Zelenskyy’s observations have proved to be painfully accurate.

Zelenskyy’s comments followed a meeting about security and air defense support with UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“We currently have intelligence information indicating that Russia is preparing a new mass attack against Ukraine,” he said on social media after the meeting.

Zelenskyy did not provide additional details on the expected Russian attack or the contents of the intelligence reports. His warning comes after he told the press Ukraine was ready to agree to a total halt on energy attacks as part of a US-brokered ceasefire with Russia — if Russia agrees to the same terms.

In other war news, At least 10 civilians were killed and 53 others injured in Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day as a diesel locomotive was hit in western Ukraine, close to the Polish border, local authorities said on September 22-23.

Overall, over the past day, Russian forces launched 161 Shahed-type attack drones, including jet-powered versions, as well as Gebera, Parodiya decoy drones and Banderol drones, the Air Force said on September 23. Ukrainian air defenses shot down or suppressed 119 drones, while strikes were recorded at 18 locations. Debris from downed drones fell at eight locations, the Air Force said.

In Kyiv Oblast, Russian attacks over the past day damaged 18 facilities, injuring three people, including a 76-year-old man, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv Regional State Administration, said.

In Kyiv, Russian drones killed one person and injured at least seven more, damaging warehouses and gas stations in the early hours of Sept. 23, local authorities reported.

In southeastern Zaporizhzhia Oblast, two people were injured in a Russian attack on a shopping mall in Zaporizhzhia, and another person was killed as a Russian attack damaged his house in the rural settlement of Kushuhum, local authorities said.

Russian attacks on Dnipropetrovsk Oblast injured seven people over the past day, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha reported, according to the reports published on September 22-23.

PS – When President Zelenskyy referred to Vladimir Putin as “patient zero” during his address to the UN General Assembly, he used a medical epidemiological metaphor to describe the Russian dictator as the original source and spreader of a destructive global contagion—the disease of Russia’s latest war against Ukraine. 

Diplomatic Tensions and Deadly Russian Aerial Strikes on Ukraine Persist 

Recent headlines regarding Ukraine point to a wave of intensive developments on both the military and diplomatic fronts:

UN General Assembly & High-Level Diplomacy: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has traveled to New York for the UN General Assembly meetings, where he is holding high-stakes discussions with international leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, focusing on air defense, energy security, and potential frameworks for peace talks.  

Intensified Aerial and Drone Activity: The conflict has seen massive cross-border drone barrages. Recent reports highlighted large-scale retaliatory Ukrainian drone operations targeting infrastructure and areas near Moscow, alongside heavy Russian missile and drone strikes hitting various Ukrainian regions, impacting energy facilities, industrial sites, and civilian areas.  

International Sanctions and Policy Shifts: Western nations continue to adjust economic pressure. Recent legislative moves include sweeping sanctions measures passed in the US targeting actors supporting Russia's war effort, alongside ongoing European discussions regarding long-term sanctions frameworks.  

The aerial war has seen a dramatic escalation in mass drone and missile barrages from both sides, characterized by record-breaking strike packages and a heavy focus on infrastructure and urban centers.

Recent Large-Scale Russian Air Strikes on Ukraine. Massive Combined Barrage: Russian forces launched a massive aerial assault involving missiles of various types and 212 drones targeting regions across Ukraine. Ukrainian air defense forces reported intercepting or jamming a significant portion of these assets, though hits were still registered across multiple locations.  

Types of Munitions Used: The strikes have increasingly utilized a mix of ballistic and cruise missiles (such as Iskander-M and Kalibr variants) alongside large numbers of Shahed-type and jet-powered attack drones, which are designed to challenge and strain Ukrainian air defense response times.  

Civilian and Infrastructure Toll: Recent heavy overnight strikes on the Kyiv region and other areas have resulted in tragic civilian casualties, including children, alongside continued pressure on Ukraine’s energy grid and industrial sites as both sides brace for winter.  

Counter-Strikes and the Broader Air Campaign

This intensified Russian campaign comes amid an equally unprecedented escalation in long-range Ukrainian drone strikes inside Russian territory, including a massive wave targeting Moscow and regional oil refining infrastructure. While diplomatic talks and proposals for energy-infrastructure de-escalation have been floated internationally, both sides continue heavy aerial bombardments.  

Kyiv: The Ukrainian capital continues to face regular overnight and early morning drone and missile sweeps. Recent attacks have heavily impacted residential high-rises—such as the high-rise hit on September 9—along with infrastructure sites, triggering hours-long alerts and steady casualty counts in the capital region.  

Odesa: Odesa on the Black e has absorbed some of the heaviest multi-vector strikes, particularly targeting port infrastructure, maritime logistics, and high-density residential blocks. A missile strike earlier in the month heavily damaged upper floors of a 25-story building, alongside recurring hits near regional border and transit points.  

Kharkiv & Zaporizhzhia: These cities endure constant pounding from both close-range ordnance and newer jet-powered drones. Recent barrages in Zaporizhzhia and the surrounding region have damaged apartment complexes, industrial facilities like steel infrastructure, and local commercial areas, keeping rescue teams continuously active.

This afternoon, September 22, and into the evening, the air war saw another heavy escalation centered directly on fuel, energy, and industrial sites:

Kyiv Fuel and Infrastructure Strikes: Russian forces launched targeted strikes utilizing jet-powered drones against the capital, hitting fuel storage tanks and a non-residential building in the Obolonskyi district, alongside debris damage and injuries reported across the Pecherskyi and Dniprovskyi districts. Mayor Vitali Klitschko and emergency services confirmed multiple injuries and active fire-suppression efforts on the scene.  

The Broader Context: This followed a massive multi-wave overnight barrage that saw hundreds of drones and missiles fired across multiple regions—hitting industrial targets in Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, and Pavlohrad, and disabling power infrastructure in the north.  

Diplomatic Parallel: These strikes unfolded concurrently with high-level meetings in the U.S. between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump, where discussions touched heavily upon potential frameworks or moratoria targeting energy infrastructure.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly pressed Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt long-range drone and missile strikes targeting Russian oil refineries and fuel infrastructure.  

Trump raised this demand directly during a recent phone call, heavily emphasizing concerns over rising global diesel prices and fuel supply strains. This followed similar public and private warnings he delivered, arguing that the disruption to Russia's refining sector is tightening global markets.  

While Kyiv views these refinery strikes as a critical and legitimate military tactic to degrade the fuel supply driving Russia's war machine, the issue has become a major friction point in U.S.–Ukrainian talks alongside concurrent diplomatic discussions on energy infrastructure de-escalation.

During their meeting today at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Trump publicly and privately pressed the issue again.  

Ahead of their closed-door talks, Trump addressed reporters and explicitly pointed to the long-range drone strikes on Russian facilities, calling them "a serious hit on the Russians, but also a serious hit on the price of diesel" as global fuel costs surge.  Trump should urge Putin to stop bombing Ukraine and evacuate in order to reduce global stress and killings of unarmed Ukrainians.

While the two leaders discussed potential frameworks for an energy truce or mutual de-escalation, Kyiv maintains that any halt to its refinery operations would require a reciprocal end to Russian attacks on Ukraine's own critical power grid.

UN Business or not, Russia Continues to Strike Ukrainian Cities and Kill Unarmed Ukrainians 

Even though the bastion of global peace and goodwill began its 81st UN General Assembly session on Manhattan’s Eastside, half way around the world Russia continues to pound Ukrainian cities with aerial bombs, missiles and drones, killing Ukrainian men, women and children.

Since Sunday, September 20, Russia has maintained an intensive air campaign against Ukraine, highlighted by a massive, multi-wave missile and drone barrage overnight.

Key developments from the roundup include:

1. Massive Overnight Barrage (September 21–22)

 Scale of the Attack: Russian forces launched a complex strike involving various missile types (including Oniks anti-ship missiles, Iskander-M/S-400/KN-23 ballistic missiles, and Kalibr cruise missiles) alongside a massive swarm of 212 drones (including Shaheds, Gerberas, and jet-powered/decoy UAVs).  

Air Defense Response: Ukraine’s air defense forces reported intercepting or electronically jamming 186 aerial assets (including 177 drones and several specialized missile variants).  

Impact & Hits: Despite high interception rates, strikes and falling debris were recorded across 22 locations, primarily targeting industrial, energy, and logistical infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, and Kirovohrad oblasts. In Poltava, a Naftogaz/critical infrastructure facility was hit by multiple ballistic missiles.  

2. Focus on Logistics, Retail, and Warehousing

Odesa Region Hubs: Continuing a pattern of targeting supply chains, a Russian strike hit a major Silpo supermarket distribution center in Odesa. Additionally, warehouse facilities in Odesa Oblast—including a site associated with the WHO—sustained damage from ongoing strikes.  

Industrial Targets: Major industrial sites, businesses, and warehouses were directly struck in southeastern cities like Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, and Pavlohrad.  

3. Casualties and Regional Power Cuts

Casualties: Across the country, the recent wave of attacks has killed at least 8 people and injured dozens of others, with casualties reported in Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.  

Infrastructure & Power: Energy infrastructure strikes caused localized disruptions, including a major power outage affecting nearly 100,000 consumers in the northern Chernihiv region.