Ukrainian soldiers service their tanks in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine, on Aug. 8, 2025. (Fermin Torrano/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Russia has lost 1,089,060 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on Sept. 8.
The number includes 910 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
According to the report, Russia has also lost 11,168 tanks, 23,258 armored fighting vehicles, 61,135 vehicles and fuel tanks, 32,545 artillery systems, 1,481 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,217 air defense systems, 422 airplanes, 341 helicopters, 57,278 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.
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HUR claimed that an explosion rocked a guarded military base on the airfield in occupied Melitopol, destroying a Soviet-era UAZ-452 van and at least four operators who were allegedly inside the vehicle.
Bomb threats were also reported at polling stations for the Moldovan diaspora in Belgium, Italy, Romania, Spain, and the U.S., Moldova’s Foreign Ministry said on Sept. 28, in what officials described as "the Russian Federation's assault on the electoral process in the Republic of Moldova."
The new sightings come after several media outlets reported unidentified drones being detected in the airspace of Denmark, Lithuania, and Finland on Sept. 27.
In the latest episode of Ukraine This Week, the Kyiv Independent’s Anna Belokur covers U.S. President Donald Trump’s shift in rhetoric after meeting President Volodymyr Zelensky in New York, including his support for NATO allies shooting down Russian jets entering the alliance's airspace.
In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian missile struck a high-rise building. At least 38 people in the city have been injured, including three children. In Kyiv, four victims have been hospitalized.
All eyes in the EU, Ukraine, and Russia are on Chisinau today as Moldova began parliamentary elections that could leave the landlocked country U-turning from its path to join the bloc one day and build closer ties with Moscow.
Moldovans head to the polls on Sept. 28 for a pivotal parliamentary vote that could potentially derail Chisinau from its path to accession in the European Union.
The incidents come as Russian drones and military aircraft have increasingly entered NATO airspace, prompting heightened alert and readiness across the alliance.
Ukraine is planning both a "Mega Deal" — a major agreement on the purchase of American weapons — and a "Drone Deal," to sell Ukrainian unmanned systems to the U.S., Zelensky said.
Moscow immediately demanded a "repeat round of voting" after failing to garner the support needed to return to the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) 36-member council.
The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, a military police force, later said its investigation found no drone on radar and concluded the object was likely a balloon.
Similar reassurances were heard before. Moscow repeatedly denied planning to invade Ukraine, but on Feb. 24, 2022, Russian forces launched air strikes and a ground assault from multiple directions — from Belarus toward Kyiv, from Crimea in the south, and from occupied Donetsk Oblast toward Kharkiv.
