Today there is important news from the Pokrovsk direction.
Here Ukrainians are targeting all the major and minor ammunition depots from Donetsk city all the way to the front line at Pokrovsk.
With shortages of ammunition for Russian soldiers fighting on the contact line, Ukrainian units are able to expertly exploit these weaknesses and take the initiative.
Ukrainian strikes have crippled Russian supplies of weapons in the Pokrovsk direction with multiple confirmed hits against key ammunition depots throughout the region.
In Donetsk, a series of massive explosions rocked the city after Ukrainian long-range drones penetrated Russian defenses. Air defense systems were active beforehand, with smoke trails visible in the sky, but they failed to intercept the incoming strikes.
Footage from Russian soldiers captured the true scale of the destruction, with thick black smoke rising above a facility, followed by a colossal explosion that sent shockwaves through the area, knocking down the soldier who was filming.
Secondary blasts continued for hours, clear evidence of hundreds of tons of ammunition igniting and cooking off.
In at least two different parts of Donetsk, separate plumes of smoke confirmed that multiple storage sites had been struck, leaving no doubt that Ukrainian intelligence and precision targeting had hit their mark.
Salidov was not spared either, and another geolocated video, taken by Russian personnel, showed a local base and warehouse engulfed in flames, with ammunition exploding uncontrollably.
In the background, a shaken soldier muttered that hell has broken loose, summing up the chaos that unfolded as the depot erupted.
Salidov has long been used as a central logistics hub due to its size and relative concealment opportunities for Russian soldiers in the Pokrovsk direction. Now it has become a death trap for Russian stockpiles due to its proximity to the front line of around 20 km.
Ukrainian forces struck precisely, underscoring that there are no secure places in the Pokrovsk rear, despite the Russian command believing they had relative safety due to the available buildings.
The Donetsk-Yasinovato-Khorlivka rail triangle, combined with the Avdiivka-Oharetina road corridor, has always been the lifeline for Russia’s offensive toward Pokrovsk.
By hitting depots within this network, Ukrainian units force Russia to disperse munitions into smaller caches and rely on last-minute convoys that are far easier to intercept.
With Salidov now burning, Russia has no safe ammunition hub south of Pokrovsk, meaning supplies must take longer, more fuel-intensive roads, often through poor road conditions, and exposed to drones and artillery.
Every strike on Yasinovato or Donetsk is immediately felt on the front lines of the Donetsk-Khorlivka rail triangle. Due to immediate rationing of shells, weaker counter-battery fire, along with slower and less coordinated assaults.
Ukrainian drones, which are constantly scanning the area, direct fire on convoys, repair depots, and ammunition caches, ensuring that Russia’s logistic flow remains fragile as supplies are rerouted.
This vulnerability directly translates into opportunities for the Ukrainians on the battlefield. When Russian units cannot sustain sufficient fire support, Ukrainian troops gain windows to rotate, reinforce, or counter-attack with less risk.
Analysts estimate that the recent strikes in Donetsk alone destroyed several hundred tons of shells, a loss that cannot be quickly replenished, given Russia’s already stretched industrial base and vulnerable supply chain.
These disruptions mirror earlier Ukrainian successes on Pokrovsk’s southern flank during the spring and summer, where Russian forces were starved of not only ammunition, but even food and water. water, causing a collapse after weeks of futile assaults.
Now on the northeastern flank near Dobropillia, Russian units find themselves in the same position, and every passing day without resupply weakens their foothold and makes them easier prey for Ukrainian counterattacks.
Overall, the recent strikes on Donetsk and Selidov are not isolated incidents, but part of a sustained Ukrainian campaign.
The Ukrainian tactic is simple but brutally effective – destroy the depots, force dispersal, harass convoys and let the front lines dry out.
Even when Russian forces managed to achieve a breakthrough towards Dobropillia, these gains collapsed within days because their logistics network could not sustain them.
Ukrainian defenders, reinforced and well-supplied, pushed back, cleared villages and reclaimed swathes of territory, while Russian soldiers were left undersupplied, demoralized, and vulnerable.
With every ammunition depot destroyed, the balance shifts further in favor of the Ukrainians and allows them to strike back.
In our regular frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.
The new NATO-backed Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) program is already delivering results, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his evening address.
The program allows Ukraine to acquire American weapons and equipment, with costs collectively covered by NATO allies. This approach speeds up deliveries and shares the financial burden among partner countries.
PURL currently covers missiles for Patriot and HIMARS systems, as well as other advanced arms. Zelenskyy said the program will be further expanded in October.
Media reported on Thursday that the first shipment of weapons acquired through PURL had already arrived in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy also outlined initial proposals for controlled exports of Ukrainian weapons, including naval drones. The goal is to provide allies with technology Ukraine has successfully used to defend its own waters.
He said the exports would help strengthen maritime security in the Black Sea and create opportunities for long-term defense contracts.
Ukrainian military officials say Russian forces are attempting to infiltrate Kupiansk while disguised as civilians.
Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast has become one of the war’s most contested frontline cities in recent months.
Small sabotage and reconnaissance teams, usually two to five soldiers, move through the city trying to avoid detection, according to Viktor Trehubov, spokesperson for the operational-strategic formation “Dnipro,” RFE/RL reports.
“They attempt to use their numbers to slip through Ukrainian positions and later occupy buildings,” Trehubov said.
Ukrainian forces reportedly destroy Russian units before they can reach residential areas, to prevent them from establishing a foothold in the city.
Trehubov added that Russian troops continue to strike Kupiansk with artillery, drones, and other weapons.
Kupiansk has seen repeated attacks in recent months. Russian forces regularly target the city’s infrastructure and military positions. Ukrainian authorities say civilians remain under constant threat from shelling and infiltration attempts.
Russian forces have been conducting a year-long assault to capture the city, which serves as a critical logistics center and potential launching point for further attacks toward Kharkiv.
The city now lies 90% destroyed with fewer than 1,700 civilians remaining from its original population, as Russian forces strike it daily with glide bombs, artillery, and drones.
The ISW warns that Russian advances near Kupiansk may soon threaten the city’s main supply route, as Moscow pursues a strategy of gradual encirclement rather than frontal assault.
The UN Security Council will meet on 22 September in response to a Russian airspace violation over Estonia, the Estonian Foreign Ministry said.
Tallinn said three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered Estonian airspace on 19 September and remained there for around 12 minutes. NATO said Italian F-35 jets scrambled to respond to the incursion.
It is the first time Estonia has requested an emergency meeting of the Security Council since joining the UN 34 years ago.
“By openly violating Estonian airspace, Russia undermines principles vital to the security of all UN member states,” Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said on X. “When such actions are committed by a permanent member of the Security Council, they must be addressed by that very body.”
Tsahkna called the incursion “a breach of the UN Charter” and “part of a broader pattern of escalation,” noting that 19 Russian drones recently entered Polish airspace while another remained in Romanian airspace for an hour.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Ukraine has requested a platform to speak at the meeting.
“We support friendly Estonia in calling for a strong and united response to Russia’s continued destabilization of international peace and security,” Sybiha added.
Estonia has also requested consultations under Article 4 of the NATO Treaty. NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said the North Atlantic Council will meet early next week to discuss the incident.
In response to Russia’s blatant, reckless, and flagrant violation of @NATO airspace over Estonia on Friday—when armed MiG-31 fighter jets intruded into our territory for 12 minutes—the @UN Security Council will convene tomorrow, September 22, to address this breach of territorial… pic.twitter.com/ZOQpO9W7sR
— Estonian MFA|
#StandWithUkraine (@MFAestonia) September 21, 2025
On Friday three Russian fighter aircraft entered Estonia’s airspace without permission
NATO scrambled two German Eurofighter jets on 21 September in response to a Russian military aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea, German news agency DPA reported, citing the German Air Force.
The encounter comes amid a pattern of increased Russian military activity near NATO’s eastern borders.
The plane, which had no flight plan or radio contact, was in international airspace and appeared to be an Il-20M reconnaissance aircraft.
Additional aircraft are on standby to protect NATO’s eastern flank amid recent airspace violations by Russia.
On 19 September, Russian MiG-31 jets entered Estonian airspace for around 12 minutes and two other Russian aircraft flew over Poland’s Petrobaltic oil platform in the Baltic Sea.
Earlier this month, Russian drones also entered Polish and Romanian airspace.
Three pieces of “drone-like” wreckage were discovered on 21 September in two voivodeships across Poland. According to local police, the objects were found in remote forested areas and secured by law enforcement, with military and prosecutorial services notified.
Masovian voivodeship police reported two separate discoveries of suspected drone wreckage in different counties on 21 September.
In Białobrzegi County, a man spotted remnants of “an object resembling a drone” in a forest near the village of Biała Góra shortly after 9:00. The nearest housing was approximately 6 kilometers away. The police secured the site and the debris, and notified the Military Gendarmerie and the Prosecutor’s Office in Grójec.
Later the same morning, in Siedlce County, another suspected drone crash site was found. According to Masovian voivodeship police, mushroom pickers came across “parts of an object resembling a drone.” in a wooded area near the village of Wodynie, roughly 1 kilometer from the nearest homes. Law enforcement again secured the site and informed both the Military Gendarmerie and the Prosecutor’s Office in Siedlce.
Also on 21 September, police in Lublin voivodeship confirmed that mushroom pickers discovered another “object resembling a drone lying on the ground.” This object was found at about 10:00 in a forest near the village of Sulmice, Zamość County, within Skierbieszów municipality. The debris was located about 1.5 kilometers from the nearest buildings. Local police reported that the area and the remains were secured and that other agencies were informed, including the Military Gendarmerie and the Prosecutor’s Office in Zamość.
It remains unclear whether the wreckage found on 21 September is related to the Russian drone incursion into Poland on 10 September or if the objects entered Polish territory during separate, undetected events.
Since then, suspected drone wreckage has been found repeatedly. On 17 and 20 September, Polish authorities reported additional discoveries. On 19 September, missile debris was recovered that may have originated from efforts to shoot down Russian drones.
Austrian energy group OMV has fired an executive over alleged ties to Russian intelligence after meetings with a Russian diplomat suspected of being an FSB agent, Reuters reported, citing news magazine Profil.
Austria’s energy sector, given the country’s historical ties to Russian gas and Vienna’s role as a diplomatic hub, has become a particularly attractive target for Russian intelligence seeking influence over European energy markets.
The executive, temporarily seconded to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), reportedly had access to sensitive information on both OMV and Adnoc, which are planning a $60 billion merger of their polyolefin businesses.
OMV confirmed the termination and said it is cooperating with authorities.
Austria’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian diplomat to Vienna, requesting a waiver of diplomatic immunity amid pending criminal proceedings. Authorities said the diplomat would otherwise be considered persona non grata.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, European law enforcement agencies have reported a significant escalation in Russian spy activities. These include recruitment of local citizens as “proxies” and the targeting of companies with access to sensitive infrastructure data.
Recent arrests across the UK, Germany, and other EU nations have revealed coordinated networks. These networks use diplomatic cover, social media recruitment, and corporate infiltration to gather intelligence and conduct sabotage operations.
Russian forces shelled the city of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk Oblast on 21 September, killing one civilian, according to Serhii Horbunov, Head of the Kostiantynivka City Military Administration. He said the victim died in their own home after sustaining fatal injuries during artillery fire.
Kostiantynivka is a frontline city in Donetsk region, around 20 kilometers west of occupied Bakhmut and close to ongoing heavy fighting. It remains under Ukrainian control but is regularly targeted by Russian artillery and airstrikes.
Authorities reported that a second person was wounded when an FPV drone struck a car, damaging the vehicle. Two more residents were injured during shelling and sought medical care at a hospital in the nearby city of Druzhkivka.
Earlier strikes with Smerch multiple launch rocket systems damaged the facades of several apartment buildings, a shop and a shopping center, while an airstrike with a guided FAB-250 bomb hit another residential building. No casualties were reported from those attacks.
Police from the nearby Kramatorsk district are documenting the damage and investigating the shelling as a war crime.
Geolocated footage and Russian source acknowledgments indicate recent territorial advances by both Ukrainian and Russian forces across multiple axes. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported several localized movements in its 20 September assessment.
ISW reported that Ukrainian forces recently advanced in northern Sumy Oblast. Geolocated footage published on 20 September shows movement northeast of Kindrativka, north of Sumy City.
In Donetsk Oblast, ISW assessed that Ukrainian forces recently advanced in the Pokrovsk direction. Russian milbloggers acknowledged on 19 and 20 September that Ukrainian troops reached the northern outskirts of Novotoretske and moved west of Boikivka, both northeast of Pokrovsk. ISW noted that such admissions likely indicate confirmed Ukrainian gains.
ISW stated that Russian forces recently advanced in northern Kharkiv Oblast. Geolocated footage published on 20 September shows Russian troops at the Vovchansk Oil Extraction Plant in western Vovchansk, northeast of Kharkiv City.
Additional Russian advances were recorded in Donetsk Oblast. In the Lyman direction, geolocated footage published on 20 September shows Russian movement within eastern Shandryholove, northwest of Lyman. Further footage from 19 September indicates Russian forces advanced in western Novoekonomichne, northeast of Pokrovsk.
ISW also assessed Russian gains in the Velykomykhailivka direction. Geolocated footage published on 20 September shows Russian servicemembers raising flags in multiple locations in Berezove, south of Velykomykhailivka. ISW stated this likely indicates the seizure of Berezove, Dniptopetrovsk Oblast next to DOnetsk Oblast. The Russian Ministry of Defense credited elements of the 36th Motorized Rifle Brigade (29th Combined Arms Army, Eastern Military District) with the operation.
It comes as the UK sent fighter jets to Poland in a warning to Putin to stay out of Nato territory after repeated incursions
© AFP/Getty
A Ukrainian drone unit released video footage of the destruction of a heavily armored Russian engineering vehicle, marking only the third confirmed loss of this type since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022. The report does not mention the exact date or location of the attack.
Ukrainian drones continue targeting Russian equipment and disrupting supply routes behind the frontlines. Military engineering vehicles like the IMR-3M play a key role in clearing minefields and obstacles, as well as preparing positions for advancing infantry. The IMR-3M remains rarely deployed, and Russia has never publicly disclosed how many of these vehicles were produced.
On 21 September, Ukrainian military drone unit Nemesis, part of the 412th Separate Regiment of Unmanned Systems Forces, shared a video clip showing the destruction of a Russian IMR-3M military engineering vehicle. Footage shows that the drone pilot hit the IMR-3M while it was in motion, dropping a munition directly onto the moving vehicle. Later, two more munition drops finished off the immobilized and burning vehicle.
According to Militarnyi, such vehicles are in high demand at the front due to their ability to support assault operations by preparing the path for other units. However, confirmed battlefield losses of IMR-3Ms remain extremely limited.
Since 2022, it is only the third such vehicle that has been visually confirmed as destroyed. The previous confirmed kill occurred over a year ago.
In contrast, Russia’s earlier IMR-2M model has suffered far greater losses — at least 49 destroyed or damaged since the full-scale invasion began, according to Oryx Blog equipment losses tracker.
Russian sources often refer to the IMR-3M as a “terminator on tracks.” Built on the chassis of a T-72 tank, it was adopted by Russian army engineering units in 1999. It’s heavily armored and features radiation shielding, allowing it to operate in high-risk zones, including those affected by nuclear strikes.
Its equipment includes a universal bulldozer blade for clearing, grading, and obstacle removal; a telescopic boom mounted on a full-rotation turret that can be outfitted with a bucket, gripper, or other engineering tools; and a mine-clearing system equipped with a blade and electromagnetic mine trawl, capable of neutralizing both contact and magnetic mines, including anti-track and underbelly varieties.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that over 132,000 foreign-made components were discovered in Russian drones and missiles launched at Ukraine over the past week. He urged partners to shut down all supply routes and sanction loopholes allowing these parts to reach Moscow.
In a Telegram post, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is defending itself from Russian air attacks almost daily. According to him, in the past week alone, Russian forces launched more than 1,500 attack drones, over 1,280 guided aviation bombs, and 50 missiles of various types.
“These technologies help Russia produce weapons on a massive scale,” Zelenskyy said, adding that it’s all used for “terror against our people.”
He warned that if Russia is not stopped, this threat will soon extend beyond Ukraine — to Europe and the Pacific region.
He called strong sanctions the key tool to stop the flow of foreign technologies into Russian arms production. That includes blocking all supply routes, cracking down on sanction circumvention, and applying pressure on countries and individual companies that enable the flow of parts.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine counts on the European Union’s 19th sanctions package to be truly painful and wants the United States to join those measures.
“Thank you to everyone already helping,” he added.
Ukrainian military intelligence has released video footage confirming the destruction of a Russian Mi-8 helicopter during a drone operation in occupied Crimea. The attack also targeted two other helicopters and a Nebo-U air defense radar system, according to a 21 September report.
Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) stated that its special unit Prymary targeted three Russian Mi-8 helicopters and a Nebo-U radar in an undated drone attack on the occupied peninsula. The agency published a video showing the strikes, and the wreckage of “one of the destroyed” Mi-8 helicopters.
“The Mi-8 helicopters and the Nebo-U radar in Crimea are the latest results of the Prymary unit’s raid,” the HUR noted.
It added that the air fleet of Russian occupiers in occupied Crimea “once again shrank” following the “successful combat work” of the unit.
As noted by Militarnyi, the Nebo-U radar is capable of detecting fighter-type targets flying at altitudes up to 20 kilometers and at distances of up to 400 kilometers. Although it does not belong to individual missile systems, it plays a key role in Russia’s layered air defense network by transmitting target data to defense command posts.
Drone operators from both the HUR and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) have successfully penetrated Russian air defenses multiple times. In July and early August, the agencies struck the Saky airfield twice, damaging up to six Russian fighter jets.
Additional attacks by the Prymary unit included strikes on Mi-8 helicopters at the Hvardiiske airbase. At Kirovske airfield, transport helicopters Mi-8 and Mi-26 as well as the Mi-28 attack helicopter were damaged, with satellite imagery later confirming these impacts.
Other recent targets included Russian command posts, barracks, depots, railway facilities, and satellite communication centers. At the end of August and early September, at least three missile strikes hit key Russian military and logistical nodes: a Black Sea Fleet communication hub, artillery warehouses of the Russian Dnipro grouping, and FSB hovercraft and barracks.
At the beginning of September, jet-powered drones struck a space communication center. Separately, loitering drones repeatedly targeted electric substations that power Russian rail logistics in Crimea.
Today, there is important news from the Sumy direction in the northeastern Ukraine.
Here, the Ukrainian tactic of cutting off and starving out Russian positions before eliminating them is paying off with the continued capture of village after village. Now, the last Russian stronghold in this sector is about to fall, with hundreds of enemy soldiers being left to either die or surrender.
Ukrainian forces in Sumy successfully exploit methodical maneuver warfare, pressing forward settlement by settlement to turn Russian positions into manageable targets. Rather than trading lives in costly frontal fights, Ukrainian commanders isolate enemy detachments, sever their supply lines, and then tighten the noose until those positions become untenable. Relentless air and drone strikes have exposed Russian units, leaving many undersupplied and unrotated for several weeks.
By bypassing strongpoints and collapsing salients piece by piece, Ukraine has been able to push north of Kindrativka and even probe back into Kursk while turning both sides of the border into a flexible battlefield.
Help us tell the stories that need to be heard. YOUR SUPPORT = OUR VOICEAnother push north from Andriivka led to Oleksiivka being cut off on three sides and the Russians there facing an increasingly dangerous situation.
The encirclement is the result of coordinated Ukrainian maneuver, constant fire control, and persistent pressure, with Ukrainian units now executing flanking attacks to close lateral routes. At the same time, Ukrainian drone units pummel Russian concentrations and roads in the area with hundreds of strikes. This denies the Russians any possibility of moving freely and degrades all reinforcement efforts. With only a single usable road into Oleksiivka, bringing supplies, evacuating casualties, or rotating troops has become effectively impossible, as anyone attempting the approach is detected and struck long before it reaches the outer edge of the settlement.
Russian soldiers on the ground now openly warn that Oleksiivka is heading for the same fate as Kindrativka unless the Russian command abandons the position rather than bury more troops there, as they report that the semi-encirclement is rapidly turning into a slaughter.
Instead, Russian officers have reacted with frantic redeployments in a bid to break the encirclement, as the exhausted 382nd Separate Infantry Battalion of the 810th Russian Naval Brigade was pushed into action at Kindrativka. Supposed to mount a counterattack and relieve the pocket at Oleksiivka, under normal strength, this formation would field roughly a thousand soldiers, but under current conditions, it only musters close to five hundred. Notably, a large number of these are reportedly newly mobilized, poorly trained, and badly equipped soldiers, thrown in just to bring the battalion up to a higher combat readiness on paper. Russian sources confirm all combat-effective reserves have been redeployed to Pokrovsk, leaving only second-tier and understrength units for the task of preventing a full-on collapse.
One Russian officer even reported they receive only older people, marginals, and simply not combat-ready recruits in poor physical condition. He added that to prevent desertion or the shooting of officers, they are constantly watched by military police and are only issued weapons right before combat missions, with ammunition limited to two magazines each.
The attempted rushed countermeasure to attack Kindrativka to relieve pressure at Oleksiivka was predictable and fated to fail. Replacements arrived under fire, becoming immediate targets for Ukrainian drone and artillery assets, with exhausted Russian units unable to form coherent assault echelons. Rather than rescuing the encircled formations, these hurried moves only dramatically increased Russian casualty counts.
The attempt to plug gaps with understrength battalions highlights an operational dilemma, with Russia’s concept of trading bodies for ground running straight into Ukraine’s deliberate tactics of isolation, starvation, and attrition.
Overall, with the Ukrainians maintaining pressure by holding fire control over the approaches, continuing daily drone strikes, and refusing to be lured into costly frontal battles, Oleksiivka’s fate will mirror earlier Russian collapses in the area. Ukraine’s advantage is decisive, with its troops being on the offensive and able to choose when and where to fight.
The fall of Oleksiivka would fracture the western part of Russia’s Sumy incursion, damage morale, and the remaining soldiers would either be captured or neutralized. This will jeopardize the nearby eastern salient and lead to repetition of the events with the same catastrophic outcome for Russia.
In our regular frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.
New findings shed light on how Russia systematically indoctrinates and militarizes thousands of Ukrainian children taken by force since the start of the full-scale invasion. Researchers have mapped 210 Russian and Russian-occupied facilities used to house, reeducate, and in some cases militarize the abducted Ukrainian minors.
Since Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014 — and even more aggressively after the full-scale assault began in 2022 — Moscow has abducted thousands of Ukrainian children, subjecting them to indoctrination aimed at instilling a Russian imperial mindset and hostility toward their homeland.
France24 reports that a new report by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, published on 16 September, identifies 210 sites in Russia or Russian-occupied territories used to detain Ukrainian children and teenagers forcibly removed from Ukraine. These include hotels in Krasnodar, monasteries in Rostov Oblast, military schools in occupied Donetsk Oblast, and facilities near Volgograd. In total, the network stretches over 5,630 kilometers — from Crimea’s Black Sea coast to Russia’s Pacific shore.
The program spans 59 administrative regions and occupied areas. According to the researchers, 23% of the identified facilities were either built or expanded after 2021, seemingly to accommodate the surge in forcibly relocated children. For example, two cadet training centers in the occupied Donbas were constructed and enlarged since that year.
While many of these sites existed prior to the full-scale invasion and serve other purposes, a significant portion has been repurposed or developed for this mass-scale operation. Some establishments act as transit points, like orphanages for children awaiting adoption. Others, such as military schools, serve as long-term indoctrination institutions.
More than 130 of the facilities identified by the Yale team impose “patriotic” education programs rooted in Russian propaganda. Children are made to sing the Russian national anthem, recite Russian poetry, and wear Russian clothes — all in Russian. In many cases, they are stripped of their Ukrainian identity, names, passports, and language.
This form of indoctrination was further detailed in a separate report released days earlier by the British NGO War Child UK. The group interviewed 200 Ukrainian children who had returned from Russia since 2022.
Helen Pattinson, CEO of War Child UK, said their testimonies reveal “a clear pattern of indoctrination.” She explained that the children are torn from their homes, stripped of their passports, and forbidden from speaking their native language. They are assigned new names and identification papers, made to sing the Russian national anthem, recite Russian poetry, and wear Russian clothing.
“They may even be adopted into a Russian family,” said Pattinson.
The report warns that this approach could create an entire generation of Ukrainian children devoid of their national identity. Nearly half of those interviewed by War Child UK exhibited signs of post-traumatic stress.
In 39 of the sites documented by Yale, children receive combat-related training. These include weapons handling, grenade throwing, trench digging, demining, and even parachute training.
“They’ve been asked or forced to join paramilitary groups, shown how to throw a grenade, dig a trench, hold a gun or handle firearms, clear mines, and essentially trained to fight against their own country,” Pattinson added.
Others were involved in the production of military equipment, including drones and munitions, for Russian forces.
The scale and organization of this operation have drawn international condemnation. Ukrainian NGO Bring Kids Back estimates that at least 19,000 children have been taken by Russia since 2014. The International Criminal Court has charged Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, with war crimes for the illegal deportation of civilians.
Moscow disputes these accusations. It denies any deportation program, claiming instead to have “evacuated” children from combat zones.
Andreas Umland, a Russia-Ukraine expert at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, calls this a strategy of “demographic conquest.” He argues that Moscow aims not only to occupy Ukrainian territory, but to assimilate its population — starting with its most vulnerable.
Russia abducts Ukrainian children to “counteract the problem of demographic decline that Russia already had before the large-scale war, which is only partly solved by immigration from Central Asia and the Caucasus,” Umland explained.
The logic driving this strategy echoes Soviet-era practices, where the children are“seen as units to be made to function in a totalitarian society [. . .] and the fate of the individual child was unimportant”,” Umland said. “The higher goal used to be communism, now it’s the Russian Empire. It’s therefore the same utilitarian approach toward children.”
Overnight on 21 September, Russia hit Ukrainian rescue workers with the week’s second double-tap drone strike in Chernihiv Oblast. The second strike injured two firefighters after responding to a fire caused by the first drone attack, local authorities reported.
The State Emergency Service reported that Russian forces targeted firefighters in Nizhyn district, Chernihiv Oblast, while they were extinguishing flames at a critical infrastructure site. The fire had broken out during an initial overnight drone strike. As emergency crews arrived to contain it, Russian drones returned and launched a second strike, injuring two responders. They were hospitalized in moderate condition.
Viacheslav Chaus, head of Chernihiv Oblast, confirmed this was the second such incident in the oblast this week. He said Russia deliberately waits for first responders to arrive at the scene before launching follow-up attacks.
“Russia resorts to openly terrorist practices: it strikes, then strikes again once rescuers arrive to deal with the consequences,” Chaus said.
On 20 September, Russia launched another drone attack on Chernihiv city, injuring a 21-year-old local resident. The man was hospitalized in the neurology department. Infrastructure was also damaged during the strike.
This pattern of targeting emergency services is not new, adn Russia repeats it in its daily assaults. On 17 September — Ukraine’s official Rescuer Day — a Russian drone hit a fire station in Donetsk Oblast. The explosion blew out the garage gates and damaged the building’s façade.
On 18 September, Russian forces struck a State Emergency Service unit in Nizhyn, killing one rescuer and injuring two more. The following day, 19 September, Russia launched a repeated strike in Chernihiv Oblast targeting police and medics. Their service vehicles were damaged.
Realgold, a Ukrainian manufacturer, has unveiled domestically produced electric motors for FPV drones. The company showcased its products at Defense Tech Valley 2025 and detailed both its scaling capabilities and the legal obstacles hampering its competitiveness.
Ukrainian defense tech outlet Militarnyi reports that at the Defense Tech Valley 2025 exhibition, Realgold introduced several new models of electric motors for FPV drones, all manufactured in Ukraine. According to the company’s representative, the first production batch was completed in January 2025. Since then, monthly output has reached 10,000 units.
Help us tell the stories that need to be heard. YOUR SUPPORT = OUR VOICERealgold also stated that it is capable of scaling up to 100,000 motors per month “without significant investment,” provided there is adequate demand. However, the company is struggling to compete with Chinese manufacturers due to existing legal frameworks in Ukraine.
The Realgold representative told Militarnyi that foreign drone components imported for military use are exempt from VAT and customs duties. Ukrainian producers, on the other hand, must pay both, which increases the final cost of their products.
Realgold is gradually increasing the share of Ukrainian-made components in its products. At present, the company imports finished parts from China and conducts coil winding in Ukraine. However, it has already purchased the equipment needed to begin producing the components itself. This step is expected to begin by the end of 2025.
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