Defense Minister: Ukraine needs to develop its air defense system

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defenses had shot down drones approaching the capital, later reporting that the total number intercepted had risen to 76.

"Our shared European home is not the place for 'Russian houses' promoting war propaganda," Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.

A 2-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl were killed by a Russian drone strike the evening of Sept. 19, regional authorities said.

Ukraine continues to grow its deep-strike campaign against Russian oil facilities, military infrastructure, logistics hubs, and weapons production sites.

Raybird systems have logged more than 350,000 combat hours since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian drone manufacturer Skyeton said.

The unexplained drone activity comes as NATO officials warn that hybrid attacks are increasingly aimed at undermining public confidence and cohesion within the alliance.

Such attacks have been labeled the "human safari," Russia's longstanding practice of training its drone operators on civilians before sending them to fight in eastern Ukraine.

"Leaving occupied territory is not easy. For some, it means years of waiting; for others, it means deciding to leave behind a home where they have spent their entire lives," Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said.

Some of the Yemeni nationals Russia plans to recruit for the war against Ukraine were born in 2006 and 2007, the Foreign Intelligence Service said.

The Kyiv Independent's Nick Allard and Asami Terajima travel to Kharkiv Oblast to meet reconnaissance soldiers from Ukraine's 60th Mechanized Brigade, part of the 3rd Army Corps, and witness the training required to perform one of the army's most dangerous roles.

Meanwhile, the Black Sea resort of Sochi temporarily closed access to beaches and the waterfront over the threat of a Ukrainian sea drone attack, the city's Mayor Andrey Proshunin said on Sept. 19.

The package includes S-300 Clone and GAM-67 missiles, radar systems for countering drones, range-extended laser-guided air defense systems, counter-drone radars, mobile launcher modification kits, all of which were requested by Kyiv.

Ukrainian forces downed 138 out of the 174 drones, including Shahed-type attack drones, launched by Russia overnight, the Air Force reported.

The number includes 1,520 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.