On a single Tuesday, multiple Ukrainian cities across the country endured a massive combined barrage of Russian missiles, drones and glide bombs that left at least 10 civilians dead, marking a sharp intensification of hostilities four years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has revealed alarming new details of growing military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, warning that Pyongyang is not only supplying advanced weaponry to Moscow but also preparing to deploy additional troops to support the invasion.
The deadliest assault of the day targeted the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, where Zelenskyy confirmed Russian forces used ballistic missiles supplied directly by North Korea to strike a local steel plant operated by leading Ukrainian mining and metals firm Metinvest. Seven workers at the facility were killed and another 21 were wounded as staff attempted to reach bomb shelters following incoming missile warnings. The attack damaged the plant’s blast furnace and key industrial infrastructure, forcing a full shutdown of operations at the site that employs thousands of workers.
Further civilian casualties were recorded in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, where Russian drone and artillery strikes killed three people, including a 15-year-old boy. In the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, overnight strikes hit multiple targets, including the grounds of a children’s hospital. While all children and medical staff were sheltering underground and no injuries were reported, the attack left two large craters and shattered windows across the facility. A separate strike on a Kyiv warehouse sparked a blaze that spread across 1,200 square meters before emergency crews contained it.
In addition to the already delivered ballistic missiles, Zelenskyy announced late Monday that North Korea is preparing to send more troops to bolster Russia’s war effort. The two countries signed a formal strategic partnership agreement in 2024 that includes pledges of mutual military assistance if either faces an act of aggression, and Pyongyang has already shipped thousands of troops and vast stockpiles of weapons to support Moscow’s invasion. Military analysts note that the direct battlefield engagement with Russia is allowing North Korea to refine its own military capabilities, a development Zelenskyy warns will embolden Pyongyang to threaten neighboring countries in East Asia.
Kyiv also warned that Russia is pursuing a broad campaign to escalate the war beyond new external support. Ukrainian officials say Moscow has dramatically scaled up domestic production of ballistic missiles, and is seeking to exploit a critical shortage of Patriot air defense interceptors in Ukraine — the primary system capable of shooting down the incoming weapons. Russia is also preparing a new wave of troop mobilization to support a fresh offensive along the 1,250-kilometer front line that stretches across eastern and southern Ukraine, Zelenskyy added.
“Every step Russia takes — increasing ballistic missile production, bringing in North Korean equipment, preparing for mobilization — all of this shows that Moscow is preparing not for peace, but for escalation,” Zelenskyy stated in a social media address.
In an unusual move, Ukraine’s air force did not disclose the total number of missiles Russia launched in the overnight attack in its daily operational update, and it remains unclear whether the omission was deliberate. Ukrainian officials declined immediate comment on the redacted report.
Diplomatic efforts led by the United States to broker a ceasefire have stalled in recent months, as Washington’s frustration with the lack of progress has grown and U.S. foreign policy attention has shifted to the ongoing conflict in Iran.
Domestically, Russia’s Supreme Court ordered the removal of Yabloko, the last remaining major Russian political party openly opposed to the war in Ukraine, from all ballots ahead of the country’s September 18-20 parliamentary elections. The move has been widely interpreted as clear sign that President Vladimir Putin remains committed to continuing the invasion rather than pursuing negotiations.
The Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War echoed this assessment in a Monday analysis, noting: “The Kremlin will not enter serious negotiations or make meaningful compromises on its demands as long as Putin believes that he has a viable military path to achieving his full objectives. Ukraine’s Patriot shortages offer Russia an opportunity to cause very serious damage to Ukraine over the coming winter and will therefore contribute to delaying meaningful negotiations and protracting the war.”
In its official statement on the strikes, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed it targeted what it described as “military industrial facilities and transport and logistics centers” in Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, using ground-based precision weapons. Russian officials claimed the strike hit a storage site housing Ukrainian drones in Kyiv and the targeted metallurgical plant in Zaporizhzhia.
Ukrainian air force officials reported that Russia used a mix of Zircon anti-ship missiles and Iskander ballistic missiles in the strikes on Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, alongside launching more than 120 long-range attack drones across all regions of Ukraine.
As cross-border strikes continue, Ukraine carried out retaliatory attacks on Russian territory overnight. The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defense systems intercepted nearly 400 Ukrainian drones across 14 Russian regions and the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula.
One of the targeted sites was a logistics facility belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest e-commerce retailer, in the Voronezh region bordering Ukraine. The facility caught fire after the attack, but the company reported that the blaze was quickly extinguished and most stored goods remained undamaged. Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Wildberries warehouses alongside Russian energy infrastructure as part of a stated strategy to increase domestic pressure on Putin to enter peace talks.
Ukrainian forces also struck a large oil refinery in the Russian city of Orsk, located in the Orenburg region roughly 1,500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border near Kazakhstan. The refinery, which has an annual crude processing capacity of 44 million barrels and produces gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel, caught fire after the strike. Ukrainian military officials say assessments of the extent of damage are still ongoing.
In a new update on the humanitarian toll of the conflict, the United Nations reported Monday that more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians detained by Russian forces since the start of the invasion remain in arbitrary detention, with many held incommunicado in violation of international law. Claudia Fuentes Julio, U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, told an informal U.N. Security Council briefing that widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment of both civilian detainees and Ukrainian prisoners of war continues, including widespread acts of sexual violence.
This report was contributed to by Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations.