KHERSON, UKRAINE - JUNE 21: A man looks at a residential building damaged by Russian shelling on June 21, 2025 in Kherson, Ukraine. (Photo by Olexandr Kornyakov via Getty Images)
Russian attacks on Kherson Oblast killed four people and injured five others between June 23 and 24, local officials reported.
Russian forces launched drone and artillery strikes on dozens of settlements across the region, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.
Twenty-nine settlements were affected, including the regional capital, Kherson, which shares the same name as the oblast.
The strikes damaged critical infrastructure and residential areas, including four private houses. A shop and several private vehicles were also reportedly damaged.
Kherson Oblast, located in southern Ukraine just north of Russian-occupied Crimea, has been repeatedly targeted by Russian forces since the start of the full-scale invasion.
Lucy Pakhnyuk is a North America-based news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked in international development, specializing in democracy, human rights, and governance across Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Her experience includes roles at international NGOs such as Internews, the National Democratic Institute, and Eurasia Foundation. She holds an M.A. in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The arson attack took place in Munich on Sept. 3, when several incendiary devices were thrown from a passing car onto a construction site near the headquarters of Rohde & Schwarz and Helsing.
The capital has been under near-continuous Russian attack for a second consecutive day. During the night and morning of Sept. 26 alone, air raid alerts were issued five times, some lasting several hours.
Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces said the strike on the oil refinery, located approximately 400 kilometers (250 miles) from where the Ukrainian drones were launched, was carried out by the 1st Separate Center of the Unmanned Systems Forces and the 414th Separate Brigade, known as "Madyar's Birds," along with other Ukrainian military units.
The invitation was announced on Sept. 23, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Putin had been invited to the summit as part of an effort to give him opportunities to engage with Trump and other world leaders.
The joint September mission follows a serious encounter on June 12, when Sweden was forced to scramble its Gripen jets twice in a single day to intercept Russian Su-24 Fencer and Su-34 Fullback strike aircraft operating aggressively close to Swedish airspace.
Putin said Russia had been prepared to return to talks after the Sept. 18-20 State Duma election, but claimed the attacks had changed Moscow’s calculus.
British companies are now invited to turn in proposals on how they envision using the "goldmine of battlefield data," the U.K. Defense Ministry said, adding that the selection would be made "in just a matter of weeks."
The Kyiv Independent’s Tania Myronyshena examines why Russia’s manpower advantage is under pressure, what a new mobilization campaign could look like, whether Russians could resist it, and how hundreds of thousands of additional troops could affect the war.
This story exists because readers chose to back it. Behind it is a newsroom that will not look away — and a community of people who make that possible. It's thanks to 35,000 members that our reporting stays free for everyone to read, and we can continue our reporting. Will you be one of them?
The Kyiv Independent Live in London: 
on Google
