Ukraine returns 36 POWs, including Azovstal defenders, from Russian captivity.

French President Emmanuel Macron claimed the Kremlin had been waiting to hold elections before launching another wave of mobilization.

One of the deadliest attacks struck northeastern Kharkiv Oblast. Six people — two men and four women — were killed, and 14 others were injured in Russian strikes on the village of Stara Hnylytsia in the Chuhuiv district, Kharkiv regional authorities reported.

Russia continued its relentless drone attacks on Kyiv on Sept. 25, striking a 16-story residential building in the central Pecherskyi district overnight, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring seven people.

Much of Ukraine's $27 billion budget deficit is related to defense spending, including the production of drones and missiles, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sept. 25.

Ahead of the U.S.-China summit, President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters on Sept. 22 that he hoped Trump would encourage Xi to use his influence with Russian President Vladimir Putin to move the peace process forward.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made the disclosure during a speech to the United Nations on Sept. 23, saying Ukraine had recently "sent two North Korean prisoners of war to the Republic of Korea" and that one of them had tried to kill himself after being captured.

The number includes 1,590 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.

Ukrainian forces struck a Russian oil refinery located about 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) from Ukraine's border with Russia and an electronic components factory overnight on Sept. 25, monitoring channels reported.

Sanctions and detentions have forced 107 shadow vessels to join the Russian flag registry since January 2025, leaving them with few other options as open ship registries tighten oversight, a CREA report said.

"We are sincerely grateful to the United States for its unwavering and strong support of efforts aimed at the return, rehabilitation, and full reintegration of Ukrainian children and young people," Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.

"We are shaken by this evil," President Volodymyr Zelensky said after a Ukrainian man killed a priest and injured four others in a knife attack at an abbey in Jaroslaw, Poland.

"It's an important decision, a very important one. We've achieved a result," President Zelensky said at a meeting with leaders of the Ukrainian community in the U.S.

Gawkowski said there were indications that the fire, which broke out at the station in Wola Krobowska, in Poland's Masovian Voivodeship, on the evening of Sept. 23, may have been an attempt to disrupt its operations.