Theme: Drones

Japan’s Defense Ministry has estimated that its five-year defense plan beginning in fiscal 2027 will require about 80 trillion yen (about $507 billion), nearly twice the amount allocated under the current plan. The figure is preliminary: given funding constraints, the government is expected to review equipment procurement and other expenditures and adjust the total toward the upper end of the 70 trillion yen (about $443.5 billion) range. The new spending is likely to fund purchases such as large numbers of drones, according to a source familiar with the matter. The review is taking shape as a year-end deadline for revisions to three key security documents looms.

Turkish defense firm Baykar said two attack drones launched from a Bayraktar TB2 struck their targets during a flight test in northwestern Türkiye. The TB2 took off from the Kesan Flight Training and Test Center in Edirne province carrying 16 first-person-view (FPV) drones developed by Skydagger, released two of them over the test area and served as an airborne communications relay so that operators could guide the smaller drones to their targets. Baykar said it has signed export agreements with 36 countries for the TB2 and 16 for its Akinci combat drone, covering 39 countries across the two programs.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree announced three operations inside Saudi Arabia on Wednesday morning: the first with a drone against a radar facility on the Al-Qahmah Peninsula in the north of Jizan, in southern Saudi Arabia, the second with a ballistic missile against the Aqefa garrison in Najran, and the third against the border guard command and control building in Jizan, which resulted in deaths among Saudi soldiers and officers, according to the group.

Russia attacked overnight with 310 drones, including 81 jet-powered drones, according to Ukraine’s air force, which said it downed or suppressed 272 drones of various types. The attacks triggered power and water outages for hours across Kyiv and surrounding regions, and residents in the capital were urged to use public drinking water fountains before supplies were restored. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it shot down 709 Ukrainian drones the previous night. Retailer Ozon said a drone attack caused a fire at its logistics center in Adygeysk, in Russia’s Adygea region, but that there were no casualties.

Two explosive drones hit a Komala base in the Alana valley of Balisan, approximately 90 kilometers northeast of Erbil, at around 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday, according to Rudaw. Komala said the attack caused material damage but no casualties, and that Iran has carried out more than 1,000 attacks on the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, using drones and missiles. In a separate incident, a strike damaged a house in Tawella, in Halabja province, early in the morning on November 3.

Ukrainian drone strikes have killed three people in Russia’s Belgorod region, while attacks cut power to multiple cities in Ukraine and parts of Russian-occupied Crimea, according to officials. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s overnight attacks damaged power generation facilities and substations in nine regions, leaving emergency outages in many cities. Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed on Telegram that it hit two power stations in Ukraine’s Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions and said it downed 709 Ukrainian drones across 14 regions, Crimea and the Black and Azov seas. In southern Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack started a fire at a distribution facility of Ozon, in the town of Adygeysk in the Republic of Adygea, regional head Murat Kumpilov said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he hoped Trump would continue his peacemaking efforts after the Democratic victory and treated any changes in Congress as a domestic US matter: “President Trump continues to exercise his powers. We sincerely hope that he will also continue his peacemaking efforts.”

A strike against alleged members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Venezuela’s Apure state, near the Colombian border, had US intelligence and drone support, according to four US officials quoted by the New York Times. The operation took place last Friday, and a senior Venezuelan military officer confirmed the attack. Fundaredes, the first organization to raise the alarm, counted 23 dead and an undetermined number of wounded in the bombing of an ELN base used as a cocaine distribution center, based on testimony from survivors and local residents that the Times collected. Local reporters with Alianza Rebelde Investiga identified eight of the dead — including two Colombians and four Mexicans — using information from the morgue, the hospital and the San Fernando de Apure cemetery. Venezuelan authorities counted 19 dead in the operation so far, a lower toll than Fundaredes’. The attack came after the United States forcibly removed Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela’s government came under the control of an administration aligned with Donald Trump, according to Infobae, in a New York Times text.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said four oil tankers caught fire after hitting naval sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz. According to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, the IRGC said two of the vessels were still burning and that two additional tankers were intercepted trying to use a prohibited southern route in the strait. BBC Verify investigated the claims and has not found any evidence that four tankers were destroyed. In a separate incident, the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center said a tanker was struck by two unknown projectiles about 14 nautical miles (26 km) northeast of Limah, in Oman’s Musandam peninsula, on Tuesday evening, with no casualties reported. The IRGC also said it had shot down another US MQ-9 drone over the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil and gas shipments usually pass, has been effectively closed since the start of the Iran war, because of Iranian attacks on commercial vessels and the US naval blockade.

Denise Brown, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, said that there has been an intense pattern of drone strikes over the past couple of weeks against civilian infrastructure, with sources of energy and fuel apparently systematically targeted. At a hospital just outside Khartoum, the power went out and stopped treatment for 25 patients who needed dialysis; the hospital has no generator and no solar panels. Hundreds of aid trucks are stuck for lack of fuel, and there are queues kilometers long for fuel in the capital. The World Food Programme has recorded seven hits on its convoys this year and 20 over the past two years. Brown said she did not know where the strikes originate and called for the message that they must stop to reach whoever needs to hear it.

Israel’s Defense Ministry began this month upgrading the “Hourglass” security fence along the Gaza Strip, the Jerusalem Post reported, based on lessons from the October 7 attack and the war against Hezbollah. One of the five work fronts integrates technologies and methods to counter very low-altitude threats, particularly fiber-optic drones used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The 64-kilometer fence had been criticized after being breached at dozens of locations.

An Ozon logistics center in Adygeysk was hit by a drone attack, and employees were evacuated. According to preliminary information, no one was hurt, the company’s press service said. A fire broke out in the warehouse after the attack, and emergency services were working at the scene.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthis says it intercepted a drone in the Mecca region, home to Islam’s holiest city, while the Houthis reported 17 people killed in Yemen over two days, according to The Hindu. Saudi Arabia has accused the Houthis several times of targeting Mecca and Medina, accusations the group systematically rejects.

The management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, under Russian control, said on Tuesday that a Ukrainian drone had killed two people in a car, including a female employee at the station, according to Reuters, in a text republished by Street Insider. The statement gave no indication where the attack occurred and said the employee was the third killed in the past two weeks and the 13th since April. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said last week that an employee at the plant had been killed, but gave no details. Ukraine did not comment on the accusation. Russian forces seized the plant, Europe's largest, with six reactors, in the first weeks of the invasion that began in February 2022. The facility is offline, and IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has repeatedly called for military restraint around it.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said two US LUCAS drones were destroyed over Bandar-e Khamir by fire from its Imam Sajjad air defense unit, which operates within the national air defense network. The previous night, the force had announced that two MQM-170 reconnaissance drones were brought down south of Qeshm Island using electronic warfare, and said the number of aircraft of that type captured had reached four.

The death toll from a Russian attack on a site where people had gathered to receive humanitarian aid in Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region, rose to 31 on Tuesday, with dozens still missing under the rubble. The dead included four police officers and two rescue workers, according to the acting head of the regional military administration, Mykhailo Semikin, and at least five people were hurt. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles across nine regions, triggering emergency power cuts. In Kharkiv, a combined Russian missile and drone attack wounded at least 62 people, according to local authorities. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it shot down 856 Ukrainian drones overnight, and Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 493 drones were fired toward the capital.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had downed 856 Ukrainian drones over Russia’s regions overnight, with two employees injured at the Yaroslavl refinery and emergency services fighting a fire at the site, according to Evrayev — Russia’s Battlegroup South said it had shot down 87 Ukrainian copter drones over the past day.

Sudan’s army said on Tuesday that its air defenses shot down a “hostile” drone that crossed the border from Ethiopia and was intercepted over Blue Nile State, without identifying the operator, the origin, the target or the circumstances of the interception, amid border tensions, with the army repeatedly accusing external actors of backing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Taiwan’s armed forces want to acquire more than 1,400 coastal surveillance and reconnaissance drones, over 200,000 coastal attack drones and 1,320 one-way attack uncrewed surface vessels. Parliament passed on August 27 the law providing NT$ 240 billion over six years, with procurement priority for domestically produced low-cost, high-performance uncrewed systems. US company Maritime Tactical Systems announced that Taiwan’s coast guard will buy 25 of its uncrewed vessels, to be made in the United States and Taiwan, and the country aims to become an Asian hub for drone production free of Chinese components, capitalizing on its lead in artificial intelligence and semiconductors.

Yaroslavl Governor Mikhail Yevrayev said that two staff members of the Yaroslavl oil refinery suffered shrapnel injuries in a Ukrainian overnight drone attack and were hospitalized, with the refinery’s infrastructure damaged even as defenses and electronic warfare repelled, according to him, 124 drones; Russian defenses further claim that 493 drones flew toward Moscow between the night of November 2 and the morning of November 3, with 187 neutralized approaching the capital.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it shot down two more US MQM-170 drones over Qeshm Island and destroyed an MQ-9 east of the Strait of Hormuz.

The US military carried out what US officials called “defensive strikes” in the Strait of Hormuz. On Qeshm Island, the blasts came in rapid succession late on Monday, and witnesses told the state-owned IRNA news agency they saw two planes flying over the island. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had downed a US MQ-9 drone over the eastern Strait of Hormuz, the 55th such drone brought down.

The Aerospace Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it brought down two US MQM-170 reconnaissance drones south of Qeshm Island using electronic warfare. Explosions were also heard on the island, according to the state-run IRNA news agency, with no known cause and no official statement on their origin.

Japan’s government and ruling coalition are weighing defense spending of 70 trillion to 80 trillion yen (US$457 billion to US$508 billion) over the five years from April 2027, about 1.8 times the 43 trillion yen in the current plan, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), which cites sources quoted by Reuters. Some of the money is expected to fund purchases such as large numbers of drones, and a weaker yen has pushed up the cost of procurement, one of the sources said.

Sudan has lodged a complaint against Ethiopia with the United Nations (UN) Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council after a series of deadly drone attacks this year, according to Al Jazeera.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry says it launched a new drone headquarters on Monday and plans to acquire more than 20,000 low-cost, expendable combat drones, while accelerating the Korean Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (K-LUCAS) program, according to the Korea Herald.

The Russian Defense Ministry said, according to the TASS news agency, that nearly 50 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russian regions during the day.

Two Iranian fishermen were injured in a drone attack attributed to the American “enemy” on two fishing boats in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday morning, China’s state-run Xinhua reported. Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB, citing a Hormozgan province official, said the US attacked two fishing boats near Qeshm Island, leaving two fishermen missing and one wounded, Reuters reported.

Two people were killed and five injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a private house in the village of Klimovo, in Russia's Bryansk region, according to regional governor Yegor Kovalchuk, in a post cited by the Xinhua news agency. The fatal victims were a 30-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man, the governor said.

Myanmar is waging the world’s second-most intense drone war, after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, according to El País. A London School of Economics (LSE) report reaches the same conclusion, calling Myanmar’s war the world’s second-most intense conflict for drone attacks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The military junta, which seized power in 2021, is responsible for seven out of every 10 drone strikes in the country, in a war with an opposition divided into dozens of armed groups.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy said it had captured intact a US reconnaissance and decoy drone west of the Strait of Hormuz, after taking control of the drone’s guidance and control systems, according to the Iranian agency IRNA. According to the Guard’s statement, the drone’s mission was to identify Iranian air defense systems along the Persian Gulf coast and around the Strait of Hormuz, and analysis of the recovered data indicated it had taken off from the coast of a southern Persian Gulf country.

North Korean leader Kim visited on Thursday an exhibition of drones, a variety of attack and other types that, according to the state Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), show recent achievements in the field of unmanned aeronautical technology. In a speech at the exhibition, Kim stressed the need to seize “the absolute superiority in the drone technology,” the Associated Press (AP) reported, citing KCNA.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy captured a US MQM-170 spy drone and landed it intact in the western Strait of Hormuz, Press TV reported. The Guard described the action as an offensive electronic warfare operation in which it landed the drone intact, according to Mehr News.

At least 14 people, including children, were killed in several drone strikes on Thursday (October 29) on a camp for displaced people in Ethiopia's Amhara region, three witnesses told AFP in a report published by The Hindu. Local media and conflict monitors reported at least 16 civilians killed and 22 injured in Thursday's strike on a camp for people displaced by conflict in Ethiopia's northern Amhara region. The camp houses more than 1,800 internally displaced people, many of whom fled violence in the Oromia region, including the Wollega area, according to Anadolu.

Ukraine resumed drone attacks on Russian oil refineries, and a refinery in Russia's Samara region was struck in the new wave, according to Al Jazeera. Russian authorities say they intercepted more than 1,000 Ukrainian drones over multiple regions overnight, the broadcaster reported.

Saudi Arabia said on Friday it had intercepted and destroyed a drone launched by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels near Mecca, Islam's holiest city, a claim the Houthis deny. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree dismissed the coalition's account as false in a post on X, saying the group had not carried out any operation against Saudi territory and that its operations target Saudi oil facilities and military bases, according to Reuters.

Kim Jong Un put the development of drones and the incorporation of artificial intelligence into weapons systems among the central priorities of North Korea's military modernization, at the Unmanned Aeronautical Technology Development 2026 exhibition, according to TASS. The exhibition, held on October 29, showcased multipurpose drones for strategic and operational-tactical missions, kamikaze strike drones and other combat systems, the Russian state news agency reported.

North Korea tested suicide attack drones, tactical cruise missiles and multiple rocket launchers, vowing to “deter threats”, according to TRT World — tactical suicide attack drones and cruise missiles hit the islet target with 100 percent accuracy, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said on Friday that Russian air defense forces destroyed 16 drones heading toward the capital and that emergency crews are working where debris fell, according to state agency TASS.

Kim Jong-un attended an exhibition of unmanned aerial technology and a weapons demonstration featuring suicide drones, cruise missiles and a 600-millimeter multiple rocket launcher, state agency KCNA reported, according to Yonhap. The launcher, known as “Sniper,” was shown in a firing exercise in public for the first time, and KCNA claimed that air-to-ground missiles fired from suicide drones and multipurpose drones, along with cruise missiles, hit an island target “with 100 percent accuracy” — a claim by the state agency that has no independent verification. In a speech, Kim called for the rapid expansion of the country’s unmanned aerial capabilities and for breakthroughs in unmanned aerial technology and defense artificial intelligence.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it brought down a US MQM-170 spy drone intact in an offensive electronic warfare operation west of the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Mehr news agency. In the Guard’s account, the drone’s mission was to conduct reconnaissance of Iran’s air defense systems along the Persian Gulf coastline and the Strait of Hormuz.

Sudan accused Ethiopia of providing platforms on its territory for launching drones that recently targeted the country on Wednesday and warned of risks to regional security and stability, according to the Chinese agency Xinhua. Sudanese Foreign Minister Khalid said Sudan reserved the right to defend its security by all legitimate means. Over the past three days, drones the agency links to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have targeted electricity stations in multiple Sudanese states.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Thursday its air defenses intercepted and destroyed 1,214 Ukrainian drones between 8 p.m. on October 28 and 8 a.m. on October 29, Moscow time, according to the Russian agency Sputnik. The count covers the whole night, and Moscow says the drones targeted Russia in that period, according to TRT World.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 613 drones were launched toward the city and its surroundings between 20:30 and 7:00, and that most were neutralized by air defense. On the other side, a train was hit in Dnipro and at least 13 people were killed, according to Ukrainian authorities. The head of the Dnipro region, Serhiy Ganzha, reported 13 dead and said at least five injured were receiving medical care.

Another 15 drones flying toward Moscow, in Russia, have been destroyed, according to the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergey Sobyanin, TASS reported.

A drone strike on a market in Nyala, the de facto capital of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Darfur, killed 21 people and wounded at least 40, a medical source and witnesses told AFP, in a report published by Asharq Al-Awsat. In the country’s east, the RSF launched a coordinated drone attack against five power stations, causing mass power outages, a government official told the Guardian.

Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched a coordinated drone attack on Monday against five power stations, causing mass power outages across the east of the country, a government official told AFP. The drones hit two power stations each in Al-Jazira and Gedaref states and one in White Nile state, leaving large parts of the three states without power, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Two people were killed and 17 others, including a child, were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Voronezh region, the regional governor said Monday, according to TRT World.

Drone strikes killed at least 306 people in the first three weeks of October in Sudan, hitting homes, markets, hospitals, displacement sites, power stations and water sources in Kordofan, Darfur, Blue Nile, Khartoum and other states in strikes attributed to both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, according to the UN human rights office; UN human rights chief Volker Türk said drones already account for the majority of conflict-related civilian deaths in Sudan this year.

Serhii Beskrestnov, a defence technology adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Sunday that existing restrictions on Starlink's use in Ukraine prevented such operations, referring to drone strikes, the Hindustan Times reported. On Saturday, Elon Musk had written on X that “using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be”.

Iran's Mehr news agency reported that the Revolutionary Guards' ground forces hit the headquarters of the Komala group in the Balisan region with drones the previous night, according to Middle East Eye, which cited the agency. Mehr described Komala as a “terrorist and separatist group”, and the target is in the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

At least three people were killed and 16 injured in Ukrainian attacks on Russia, while 10 people were injured in Russian strikes on Ukraine, officials from both countries said on Sunday. In Belgorod, one person was killed and 14 injured in a large-scale overnight drone attack, regional Governor Alexander Shuvaev said on the Russian social media platform Max. In Ukraine, 10 people, including three emergency responders, were injured in Russian strikes in Kharkiv and Vinnytsia, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said.

Iran's army air defense hit and destroyed a US Lucas drone over Bandar Abbas on Sunday morning, the army's public relations office said, according to Mehr News.

Russian air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 532 Ukrainian drones of the fixed-wing type over Russian regions overnight, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, as cited by TASS.

The center of Belgorod in western Russia came under a massive Ukrainian drone strike with significant damage and casualties, according to the city's mayor, Valentin Demidov. In a post on his Max channel, he said the strike hit residential neighborhoods in the city center, damaging residential buildings, cars and social and commercial facilities, and that preliminary reports indicated there were casualties.

Ozon said its logistics center in Omsk came under a drone attack, with all staff evacuated and a fire at the site, and no one injured according to preliminary information. According to TASS, Russian air defenses were repelling the attack as the drones reached the Northern Industrial Cluster, and emergency services were working at the scene. Temporary restrictions on flight arrivals and departures had been imposed at Omsk Airport earlier on Saturday.

Russian air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 616 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones overnight over Russian regions and the waters of the Azov and Black seas, the Russian Defense Ministry said, according to TASS.

Saudi Arabia's air defenses intercepted and destroyed a drone in the country's eastern region, a spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition said in a post on X, according to the Middle East Eye.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk condemned on Friday an escalation in drone strikes across Sudan this month that killed at least 306 people and injured hundreds more in the first three weeks of October alone, according to AllAfrica. The strikes, attributed to both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), hit homes, markets, hospitals, displacement sites, power stations and water sources in Kordofan, Darfur, Blue Nile, Khartoum and other states, according to the UN human rights office (OHCHR).

Drone strikes killed at least six schoolchildren and wounded more than 20 at a primary school in Ethiopia, according to preliminary reports. The strike hit Sana Elementary School in Dera Woreda, in South Gondar Zone of Amhara, on Tuesday, October 20, between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m., according to Addis Standard, in a text republished by AllAfrica. In a separate strike in Finaruo village, Saharti Samre Woreda, in Tigray's Southeastern Zone, four people were killed and six wounded as they loaded livestock onto a truck, local residents said. Addis Standard said it could not independently establish the circumstances of either strike or obtain a response from the Ethiopian military.

A wave of drone attacks across Sudan has killed more than 160 people in recent days, according to Al Jazeera. The deadliest attack occurred near a market in the town of al-Dabba in West Kordofan, where a drone struck a transport hub and killed 80 people. The country has been at war between competing military forces since April 2023.

One person was killed and eight wounded in an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, according to the Saudi civil aviation authority. The authority confirmed the toll on Wednesday evening, according to the Jerusalem Post. The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said the injured were immediately taken to hospital, with conditions ranging from minor to severe, according to TRT World. The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, Turki Al-Maliki, said air defences intercepted and destroyed four drones in the country's Eastern Province, in a post on X, according to Middle East Eye.

Russia will respond firmly to a Japanese company's supply of combat drones to Ukraine, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a news briefing, according to the TASS agency. The agency did not name the company or specify which response is under consideration.

The United Nations strongly condemned drone strikes on civilians and critical infrastructure across Sudan on Tuesday, according to CGTN. Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the UN strongly condemns the reported killing of dozens of civilians in a drone strike on a market in the locality of Al Dibab, West Kordofan State, on Sunday. On Tuesday, drones damaged the main power station in the town of Tendalti, in White Nile state, according to Dujarric.

Russian air defenses downed 136 Ukrainian drones overnight, according to the Russian military command, via TASS.

UN (United Nations) spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said he is alarmed by the deadly drone strikes killing civilians, including children, and disrupting essential services in Sudan — with at least 19 injured on Monday in a market in Abyei and targets in Khartoum, including an area near the airport. The UN condemned all of these attacks unequivocally, according to Dujarric.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it intercepted and destroyed a US MQ-9 drone over the Strait of Hormuz early on Tuesday, according to the Middle East Eye.

The Ukrainian military released footage of what it says is the world’s first drone airlift of a wounded soldier from the front line, according to the BBC. The 92nd Assault Brigade said a ground rescue mission was not possible because the wounded serviceman was surrounded by landmines and there was high Russian drone activity in the area; according to the brigade, a “heavy” hexacopter, piloted by a remote operator, maintained stability during the “very difficult” operation. BBC Verify confirmed the identity of the army personnel involved in the video and found no signs of AI generation or manipulation.

A drone strike near a market in al-Dibab, in West Kordofan, killed 80 people on Sunday evening, most of them commuters catching rides home, according to The Guardian. A witness told the newspaper the drone struck twice at the transport hub in al-Dibab, one of the deadliest single attacks of the war.

Malian forces and the Russian Africa Corps carried out 47 drone strikes that killed 94 civilians between April and August, compared with 22 strikes and 44 deaths in the same period a year earlier, in attacks described as apparently indiscriminate, including the August 19 attack on a cattle market in Bandiagara that killed six men, according to data from the ACLED monitor cited in a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, in a Times of India report.

A suspected drone exploded over Lithuania on Sunday morning after triggering an alert that forced residents in northern and central areas to seek shelter for an hour, the president and other defense officials said, according to the South China Morning Post. Lithuania is treating an attempted arson attack at a SpaceX Starlink base station on Sunday as a Russia-linked act of sabotage aimed at undermining Ukraine’s military capacity, according to the Straits Times.

Sudan’s army said it struck Rapid Support Forces (RSF) command centers in South Darfur, but the RSF and its allies say a crowded livestock market was hit. A drone strike on a cattle market in Nyala killed 30 people on Friday, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. In a statement, the paramilitary group said the strike targeted a densely populated civilian area and that preliminary reports indicated 17 women and five children were among the dead.

At least one person has been killed and at least five have been injured in an overnight attack on St Petersburg that targeted two of the city’s oil facilities, according to the BBC. The region’s governor, Alexander Beglov, said fires were being extinguished at the St Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Ruchyi oil depot, and that 12 apartment buildings and two homes were damaged, with Pulkovo Airport temporarily closed. A logistics center belonging to Ozon and a data center belonging to VKontakte were also hit. Ukraine has not yet commented on the strikes, and Russia’s defense ministry said it had shot down more than 1,000 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight, according to the BBC.

Ukrainian attacks set an oil export terminal ablaze in St. Petersburg on Sunday and left one person dead and five wounded, according to local Governor Alexander Beglov, in an Associated Press (AP) text republished by WTOP. The fires hit the Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Ruchi depot, and Russia’s Defense Ministry said it destroyed 1,015 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions, the annexed Crimea and the Black Sea, part of more than 1,000 drones Kyiv launched in one of the largest aerial bombardments Ukraine has carried out in the war.

Six ships were attacked in 10 days in the Black Sea by drones suspected of being Russian (among them the Able and Chelsea-3), an escalation in a maritime conflict that is pressing on the borders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), according to The Guardian. By Thursday, the attacks had encroached on Romania’s airspace and territorial waters; the Turkish-owned Alfa Watan, bound for the Romanian port of Sulina, had been struck by suspected Russian air and naval drones. Two chemical tankers, Wine Trader and Yara J, were attacked and left burning, and seven more sailors were missing.

A Saudi AH-6i helicopter crashed in the Najran region of Saudi Arabia due to a technical malfunction, killing its two crew members, Brigadier General Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said. Yemen’s armed forces said they downed an armed Karayel reconnaissance drone over Hajjah province, the fourth of its kind in recent tensions, spokesman Yahya Saree said.

Ukrainian forces launched a massive drone attack on St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, and Russian air defense forces downed 126 of them over the region, Governor Alexander Drozdenko said. Pulkovo Airport suspended all arrivals and departures, according to the Russian agency Rosaviatsia, and drones hit the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal and civilian infrastructure in four city districts, causing no casualties, Governor Alexander Beglov said. VK confirmed a drone attack on its data center in the Leningrad Region and said its services remain available to users as usual.

A drone attack by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan’s paramilitary forces, killed 41 people at a camp for displaced people in the Abu Shandi area of Blue Nile state, on the border with Ethiopia, according to the Emergency Lawyers rights group, cited by the BBC. The strike took place on Friday.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defense forces repelled an attack by 75 Ukrainian drones heading for the capital, according to the Russian agency TASS. There were no preliminary reports of casualties or damage, and the drone raids disrupted air traffic at airports across western Russia, including Moscow’s Domodedovo and Zhukovsky.

According to Ukrainian commanders, robots and drones led the offensive in eastern Ukraine and 250 Russians surrendered in a year-long campaign that has freed 16 settlements from Russian occupation. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Starlink access for Ukraine's military has still not been fully restored.

Japan is increasingly turning to foreign companies to accelerate its military modernization, drawing on overseas technology, expertise and production capacity to plug defense gaps that could prove critical in a potential regional conflict involving China, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP). Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi confirmed last Friday that Japan had signed a contract to acquire interceptor drones from Ukrainian start-up SkyFall, according to the SCMP.

Ukrainian forces struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Ryazan region, Russian officials said, hours after Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would resume attacks on Russian energy facilities, according to OilPrice. Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov said in a post on Telegram that “our region came under a massive drone attack” and that “a fire broke out at the oil refinery.” In Brussels, reacting to criticism from Donald Trump, Zelensky said he is “just defending Ukraine’s interests”, according to Opera Mundi.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its Citadel anti-aircraft artillery system uses minimal shells to take out drones, uncrewed boats and lightly armored vehicles, according to TASS. The Citadel’s 30-mm automatic cannon uses shrapnel shells with programmable detonation timing to destroy enemy drones.

Nine US senators, led by Jeanne Shaheen and Thom Tillis, called on the Defense Department’s inspector general, Platte Moring III, to investigate the disruption of Starshield systems in Ukraine. According to reports cited by the senators, speed restrictions imposed on SpaceX’s Starlink terminals between October 12 and 14, 2026, disrupted critical communications capabilities supporting Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles and fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. The senators said they were alarmed by incidents in which US diplomatic, military and security personnel were unable to reach designated bunkers during Russian air raids, and want to determine whether any US government officials directed, authorized, approved or had advance knowledge of the changes.

Drones struck two tankers near Romania’s Black Sea coast, setting them ablaze, leaving seven sailors missing, according to The Guardian. The missing crew were from the Wine Trader, a San Marino-flagged tanker travelling from Tunisia to Romania. The Wine Trader reported explosions and a fire about 13 nautical miles (24km) east of the mouth of the River Danube at Sulina on Thursday morning, according to the BBC. A NATO military source told Reuters the drones that hit the Wine Trader and the Yara J came from Russia, according to The Guardian. Romania’s president, Nicușor Dan, described the situation in the Black Sea as serious: “Commercial ships are being attacked and sunk,” he wrote on X.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he feels betrayed by Donald Trump over a throttling of Starlink access and accused the US president of picking the other side, risking a breakdown in US-Ukraine relations. Ukraine’s military reported that the system, produced by Elon Musk’s SpaceX but managed by the US government, was no longer working on terminals moving at speeds greater than 100 mph, which crippled most Ukrainian strike drones behind the lines and affected the defense against Russian drones over Kyiv, according to The Guardian. Zelensky also told the BBC that Ukraine will resume attacks on Russian refineries and that the pause came from political will and not from a technical problem.

Ukraine accused Elon Musk's SpaceX of limiting Starlink services and crippling its drones, as Russian missiles knocked out power stations in attacks President Volodymyr Zelensky called “ostentatious disrespect” to Donald Trump. Zelensky's external adviser and expert in communications and unmanned systems, Serhiy Beskrestnov, said SpaceX limited the speed of Starlink satellite internet terminals used by the Ukrainian army overnight. In an interview with NPR, Zelensky said the US warned Ukraine that it could suspend intelligence sharing and that his generals reported being notified of that possibility at the military level.

Between 8:30 p.m. on October 13 and 7 a.m. on October 14, 493 drones flew toward the Moscow region, most of them neutralized at long-range approaches, according to RBC-Ukraine. Moscow’s Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky airports suspended operations, with Vnukovo closed for more than eight hours, the outlet said. TASS assessed the attack as one of the largest against Moscow and the region in two years.

Iranian missile and drone attacks on ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz were at their most intense in the two weeks to October 11, the highest level since the US-Israeli strikes began seven months ago, according to the Financial Times, in a report by Middle East Eye. Six vessels were attacked on Sunday alone — the deadliest day of attacks on shipping near the strait since the start of the conflict, the newspaper calculated. Oil shipments through Hormuz fell to 2.9 million barrels on October 11, the lowest daily volume this month, according to Kpler.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev summoned the Russian ambassador after two merchant ships were struck by drones off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast and one of them sank, according to the BBC. Eleven sailors from the sunken ship were missing at sea on Tuesday, according to Reuters. The other ship, the Ukrainian-owned Chelsea 3, sailing under the Maltese flag, was hit 18 nautical miles from the town of Byala, and all 15 crew were rescued, according to the BBC.

Sources told the Lebanese outlet Al-Modon that Hezbollah took advantage of the extended ceasefire to rebuild its military capabilities in southern Lebanon, both south and north of the Litani River, according to The Jerusalem Post. The same sources linked the rebuild to the seizure of a truck carrying hundreds of kilograms of explosives, including TNT and C4, and said the group uses the material for first-person view (FPV) drones, whose payload has grown from 2.5 kg to between 4 and 6 kg.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had thwarted an attempt by Ukraine's security service to attack the Baltimor military airfield in Voronezh with drones, involving nine drones to be controlled via the internet from Ukraine in the final phase, according to Sputnik.

Air defenses intercepted 13 drones heading toward Moscow, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said, according to TASS, which reports 23 drones destroyed since the start of the day.

A Russian drone attack on a residential building in Kyiv killed two people on Monday evening, according to the Ukrainian capital’s prosecutor’s office: a 59-year-old woman and a person who was in a car near the building. According to Reuters, the strike on a high-rise residential building in a Kyiv suburb killed two people and injured at least nine, while attacks in other Ukrainian regions killed at least six, Ukrainian officials said.

A drone struck an Iranian Kurdish opposition camp in Koya, east of Erbil in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, on Monday, according to Reuters, in a text republished by Iran International. There were no immediate reports of casualties, per two security sources cited by the agency. The Kurdistan-based website Rudaw released a video showing a drone over Koya.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised that the European Union (EU) will provide additional funding this week for Ukraine to purchase drones and missiles, following a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to The New Voice of Ukraine, which reports that Ukraine received an additional €1.24 billion on October 7 under the Ukraine Support Loan program, dedicated to Ukrainian-made drones and missiles. Von der Leyen said that Ukraine will be front and center at this week’s European Council, with discussion of next year’s funding needs, according to TASS.

One civilian died and three people were wounded, including two teenagers, in Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia’s Belgorod region, according to the regional emergency response center. A man died after a drone hit his car on the Posokhovo-Kazinka road, and a 15-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl were hurt in the village of Novostroyevka-Pervaya.

Russia's Ministry of Defense said it struck data centers, Ukrainian port infrastructure and vessels serving the Ukrainian military overnight, including the TeNet data center in Odessa, used to process, transmit and store information, according to the ministry, cited by Sputnik.

Power supply in Vladimir, locally disrupted by a drone attack, was restored to 80%, with heat and water fully restored, according to regional governor Alexander Avdeyev. Yandex said the attack damaged its facilities and caused the complete shutdown of its data center in the Vladimir region — the third major company data center to go offline in recent days.

Bryansk regional governor Yegor Kovalchuk said a man was killed and two women were injured in Ukrainian strikes on the region. According to him, a kamikaze drone struck the village of Sluchok and seriously injured a resident, who died in the hospital.

Drone debris fell on the grounds of Sochi airport, in residential areas and hotels, in Russia's Krasnodar region, according to the regional emergencies headquarters, TASS reported. The debris hit an administrative building at the airport, where the fire was quickly extinguished, and damaged the roof of a house, starting another fire. No one was injured.

The infrastructure of Yandex's data center in Vladimir was damaged in a drone attack, and the center's operation was completely suspended, according to TASS. There were no casualties, the agency said.

A Congressional Research Service report released this week says the United States military had 81 aircraft destroyed or damaged in the war with Iran, according to CNN. The number includes airplanes, helicopters and drones, with MQ-9 Reaper drones accounting for more than half of the losses; the list includes an F-35A and an E-3 Sentry. The total cost of the aircraft lost is between $1.9 billion and $3.3 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) cited in the report.

NATO’s military command has drawn up a new defense plan for the alliance’s eastern flank, focusing on drones and artificial intelligence, to be presented on October 12 to NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe Alexus Grynkewich, according to TASS. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of the NATO Military Committee, said the plan, dubbed “Theory of Victory”, is meant to ensure that war never begins, because those who threaten the alliance are convinced not to start it, and is not directed against Russia, according to TASS, citing an interview with La Repubblica.

Newly declassified US military footage shows an Iranian Arash suicide drone striking a base in Kuwait, according to Mehr News.

A drone strike in Sudan’s Blue Nile state killed at least 30 displaced people, including women and children, and wounded dozens, according to Al Jazeera. The governor of Wad al-Mahi, Mahjoub Al-Sheikh, said the drone belonged to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and hit the centre of the province, killing 26 women and four children, according to AFP.

Residents of Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine, are being forced to flee the city as drone strikes intensify, according to France 24. On the evening of 8 October, two people were killed in a Russian drone strike on a civilian car in the centre of Kramatorsk, bringing the number of people killed in the city over the course of the day to 32, according to the city council cited by Ukrainska Pravda.

Ethiopian drones struck units of the Eritrean Army in the city of Adigrat, in Tigray, in the early hours of October 8, according to the Russian agency TASS. A local resident said several Eritrean military trucks were destroyed.

China is running the most systematic effort of any outside power to learn from the drone war in Ukraine, with military and defense-industry analysts writing up new battlefield techniques within about four months, although those lessons usually take a year or more before showing up in training, equipment or force structure of the Peopleʼs Liberation Army (PLA), according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Two drones attacked positions of Iranian Kurds opposed to Tehran in the province of Erbil, in northern Iraq, hitting facilities in the Rizgari district, with no information so far about dead or wounded, in what Al Hadath TV described as the first attack on Erbil following the withdrawal of United States (US) troops, without naming who was behind it, according to TASS.

At least 81 US military aircraft, including fighter jets and drones, were lost or damaged in Operation Epic Fury against Iran, according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report released on Monday and reported by Al Jazeera. The CBO estimated the cost of the aircraft losses as of August 1 at between $1.9bn and $3.3bn. The aircraft include 12 F-15E fighter jets, one F-35A and seven KC-135 tanker aircraft; 45 of the 81 are MQ-9 Reaper drones. In a separate report in September, the CBO estimated the total cost of the war with Iran as of August 1 at about $38bn.

Germany has announced a new round of military aid for Ukraine valued at approximately €1 billion, to include turbojet-powered drone interceptors, standoff weapons and space-based technology, according to Breaking Defense. The package includes several tens of thousands of Quantum Systems interceptor drones, to be produced in Ukraine and deployed against Russia's intensifying drone campaign. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Germany's new aid package is worth more than €1.3 billion, including funding for interceptors against turbojet Shaheds, according to UkraineToday.

Yandex suspended operations at one of its key data centers on Thursday after a drone strike, as Ukraine continues to target the country’s infrastructure, according to CNBC. The attack caused a fire at the company’s data center in Sasovo, in western Russia’s Ryazan region, and affected part of its infrastructure, Yandex told CNBC. Open-source intelligence (OSINT) groups Exilenova+ and ASTRA identified the site as Yandex DC Sasovo, which the company describes as its largest data center, according to the Kyiv Independent.

Yemen's armed forces announced they had downed over Taiz a Turkish-made, Saudi-owned Bayraktar Akinci armed reconnaissance drone, hit with an appropriate weapon, according to Mehr News.

About 7,000 troops were stationed at Camp Buehring, in Kuwait, and most were moved before fighting began, according to the Jerusalem Post, citing CBS News. The remaining troops left the base at night in vehicles, taking equipment, and set up forward operating bases in the Kuwaiti desert, after attacks with ballistic missiles and drones and what three service members identified as Iranian F-5 aircraft. No soldiers were killed by enemy fire at Camp Buehring or the desert positions, although several were injured.

Videos obtained by CBS News show Iranian attacks with ballistic missiles, drones and F-5 jets on the U.S. military base at Camp Buehring, in Kuwait, at the start of the war, according to the network. Service members who spoke to CBS said the base was abandoned and the troops moved out into the desert at night, where they set up forward bases; no one died there from enemy fire, according to CBS News.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had carried out a massive strike with precision weapons and drones on military-industrial facilities in Ukraine, in Kyiv and other regions. The ministry confirmed the overnight strike and did not mention civilian casualties. In the Chernihiv region, a missile hit a five-storey residential building in Pryluky, killing nine people, including three children, and wounding 34, according to Ukraine’s Interior Minister, Ihor Vyhivskyi.

The attack on Aden airport gains detail: a missile landed near the runway minutes before a flight from Cairo was to land, according to Al Jazeera via Yemen’s government. Yemen’s government says the Houthis targeted the runway and passenger terminal with at least two ballistic missiles and drones; the Houthis say they targeted Saudi military supplies at the Badr camp, and the Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted a ballistic missile north of Riyadh.

The toll from the Russian overnight attack from October 6 to 7 rose from 2 to at least 11 killed and more than 34 injured in Pryluky, Dnipro, Kremenchuk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kyiv, according to The Guardian. Ukraine’s Air Force says, according to Reuters, in a text republished by G1, that Russia launched 130 drones and 48 cruise and ballistic missiles and that 161 targets were shot down; Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed a “massive attack” on the military-industrial complex. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian ballistic missiles remain the greatest challenge and that air defense packages are a vital necessity.

The 23 crew members, all Indian citizens, were rescued from the Liberian-flagged tanker attacked by naval drones, while crude oil is burning openly in the Black Sea waters and firefighters could not tackle the blaze due to its intensity, according to The Hindu, citing Russia’s transport ministry for the attack and the burning oil.

Reports indicate that explosions were heard in Riyadh without any prior warning being announced, according to Mehr News. Saudi authorities had not commented by the time of publication on reports of suspended airport operations and the downing of the drone. The Houthis claim to have shot down a Saudi CH-4 reconnaissance and strike drone in the airspace of Al-Jawf, according to TASS.

The United States sent MQ-9 Reaper drones to South America, The New York Times revealed on Tuesday, in a text by G1, for anti-narcotics operations in the region. According to officials heard by the newspaper, the drones were redirected from Africa to Colombia and Ecuador, with no details on how many were sent to each country.

A Liberian-flagged oil tanker caught fire off Russia's Black Sea coast, near Sochi, after being attacked by unmanned boats, according to Russia's Transport Ministry. All 23 crew members, Indian nationals, were rescued with no injuries, the ministry said. The ship was identified as the Aframax Rio and was hit by “naval drones” on Tuesday, in a Times of India report citing Reuters.

British police arrested a seventh suspect on Tuesday in a widening investigation into a suspected Iran-backed plot to attack an air base that hosts U.S. bombers, according to The Washington Post. The arrest is the seventh linked to the airbase incident, according to France 24.

Russia said it intercepted nearly 900 Ukrainian drones overnight on Tuesday over multiple regions of the country, as well as the occupied Crimean peninsula and the Sea of Azov, according to the Defence Ministry in Moscow. Unconfirmed media reports said a major fuel depot in the Moscow region was on fire after the attack, which killed two people. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 650 drones flew towards the Moscow region between Monday evening and Tuesday morning.

A merchant ship has sunk and its crew is missing after a drone attack in the Black Sea, Bulgarian officials say. A second vessel carrying grain was hit within Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said. Its crew of 18 were rescued. The attacks took place at about 03:00 (23:00 GMT), some 70 miles (112 km) off the coastal town of Byala in eastern Bulgaria, and involved air and sea drones, Radev said. The sunken ship was flying the flag of Togo.

Russia said the overnight drone attack saw 868 vehicles intercepted over Russian regions and the Sea of Azov, according to TASS calculations based on Defense Ministry data, with drones shot down over 11 regions, Crimea and the Sea of Azov, including Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk and the Moscow region, according to TASS.

650 drones headed toward the Moscow Region between the night of October 5 and the early hours of October 6, most destroyed at long range and 105 intercepted on approach, according to the mayor of Moscow, TASS reported.

The Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said drone and missile attacks targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. The same statement said the Aramco refinery in Rabigh was also hit, along with military installations and smaller airports in the country’s south. According to Middle East Eye, the group targeted King Khalid International Airport for the second time on Monday. The Houthis declared Saudi airspace an open theatre for their operations, except the holy airspaces of Makkah and Madinah. UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed concern over the “strong escalation” of the fighting in Yemen and condemned the Houthi attacks on Saudi territory, according to AFP.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said that at least one person was killed and another wounded in a Russian drone attack on a Turkish-owned civilian vessel in the Black Sea. According to him, Azerbaijani and Indian citizens were on board and the ship’s captain was killed, with eleven crew members rescued and one of them injured; the fate of one other person is still being established. Romanian authorities said, according to AFP, in a text republished by RFI, that two crew died and 11 were rescued after a fire caused the ship to sink.

The Houthis said they launched ballistic missiles and drones at an Aramco facility in Riyadh, in a statement posted on X on Saturday by military spokesman Yahya Saree. The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Turki al-Maliki, called the claims of an attack on Riyadh “misleading”. Early on Sunday, the coalition said it carried out 97 “precise targeting operations” against Houthi reinforcements on the Tor al-Baha front and the Taiz axis, using warplanes, drones, artillery, missiles and snipers. A tanker reported seeing several explosions about 60 nautical miles south of the Yemeni port city of Mocha in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO). The Houthis also said they forced two Saudi F-15 formations to withdraw from Taiz’s airspace with locally made anti-aircraft missiles.

Russian drones hit a warehouse storing medical supplies in Sumy, killing a 52-year-old employee and injuring three others, according to the Kyiv Independent, citing local authorities, in a text by the Hindustan Times. The Ukrainian embassy in Delhi said the warehouse belonged to Indian owners.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia has transferred jet-powered drone technology to North Korea as part of its intensifying defense partnership, according to the Kyiv Independent. Asked whether Moscow had shared the new jet drone technology with Pyongyang, Zelenskyy’s response was unequivocal: “Yes, of course.”

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Germany will provide another aid package worth more than 1.3 billion euros, including weapons and support for the energy sector, after his meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Kiev, according to TASS. The amount includes 1 billion euros for interceptor drones and long-range weapons production and 350 million euros for energy, according to German government sources cited by DPA.

Russia again struck Kyiv with drones, hitting the North Bridge over the Dnieper during German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's surprise visit, according to the BBC. Merz arrived in Kyiv unannounced with the economy minister and defense and energy executives, pledging long-range weapons and 1,000 specialized interceptors, according to the Kyiv Post. He warned that Russia's war machine will turn against NATO if it is not stopped. The Ukrainian capital is under increasing missile and drone attacks on infrastructure, including the energy sector vital for electricity and heating before winter, according to France24.

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region, Alexander Shuvayev, said 17 municipalities came under 141 Ukrainian attacks over the past day, with 182 drones downed or suppressed, according to TASS. One civilian was killed in Grayvoronsky district and two more died in hospitals after injuries in Belgorod and Krasnoyaruzhsky. Russia's Defense Ministry said Russian forces used Geran drones to strike a data center in Odessa and a Nova Poshta logistics center in Chernomorsk, as well as a ship carrying military supplies.

The Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said the group struck an oil facility in Riyadh with ballistic missiles and drones, claiming the attacks caused fires. In a post on X, he said the strikes were a response to Saudi air raids on territory the group controls in Yemen, including Sanaa. An AFP journalist at the scene reported seeing fire engines trying to extinguish a blaze at Aramco’s Riyadh refinery, with ambulances and police vehicles stationed nearby.

Russia proposed that Moldova conduct a joint investigation into drone incidents, rather than levelling baseless accusations, according to TASS. Russia’s ambassador-designate to Chișinău, Oleg Ozerov, said Moldova blames Russia for all its troubles, following the European Union’s lead, without providing any evidence. Moldova handed a note of protest to Ozerov after three drones violated the country’s airspace on September 30, two of them exploding on Moldovan territory, according to Radio Moldova.

Blasts were heard in Sanaa, and the Houthis blamed the attacks on Saudi Arabia, according to France24. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted and destroyed four drones launched by the Houthis toward Khamis Mushait, in southern Saudi Arabia, as well as two ballistic missiles, according to Israel National News.

At least five people were killed in the long-range strikes exchanged by Kyiv and Moscow, Al Jazeera reported, and Russia again urged diplomats and foreigners to leave the Ukrainian capital. Russia said its drones had hit the two bridges used to transfer Ukrainian troops and military cargo, the BBC reported.

Four people were arrested after drones attacked the Zawiya oil station in western Libya and caused a fire, according to the Guardian. Three Libyans arrested were linked to Saddam Haftar, son of the Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, who faces allegations he oversaw a “terror cell” that launched drone attacks on fuel facilities and power stations. The Tripoli-based Government of National Unity says working with Saddam Haftar is “impossible”. The tank that was hit held about 4.5 million litres of fuel.

A strike on Saturday morning damaged the road surface and trolleybus overhead wires on the Northern Bridge in Kiev and blocked traffic, according to the BBC. It was the second major bridge hit in the city in days: the Southern Bridge was targeted several times by Russian drones on Thursday and Friday, the BBC also reported. Russia's Defense Ministry said that overnight drone strikes hit the Severny road bridge over the Dnieper, used to move troops and deliver military cargo, according to TASS.

A US Department of Energy electrical engineer has been arrested on charges of providing support to the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, including by buying materials for homemade explosives and drones and traveling to Yemen, according to the Associated Press, in a text republished by WGEM. Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy, 51, of Richland, Washington, was arrested Thursday and is due to make his first court appearance Friday. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says he had a goal of helping the Houthis improve their communications capabilities and traveled last September to Yemen.

The Saudi-led coalition accused the Houthis of striking the Taibah electricity distribution station with a drone, which provides power to the Prophet’s Mosque, in Medina, according to Euronews. A senior Houthi official again rejected allegations that the movement had targeted Islamic holy sites, calling them a “lie”. Turkey condemned the alleged attack and voiced support for Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan sent four cargo planes of armaments to the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government of Yemen in September, with delivery in Aden, according to Reuters, in a report published by Middle East Eye. The shipment included air defence systems, light artillery, drones and anti-drone systems, and Pakistani military advisers are on the ground with their Saudi counterparts.

After Russian drone strikes, the Southern Bridge over the Dnipro was completely closed to traffic in both directions, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko; the Paton Bridge was open one way only, and there were no reports that it had been hit. The drones struck the support structures of the Southern Bridge on Thursday, according to Reuters, in a text republished by AOL. A separate strike on a 25-storey residential building killed one person and wounded at least two.

Russian drones hit a major bridge in Kyiv on Thursday for the first time since the start of the conflict with Ukraine, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). The Southern Bridge in central Kyiv was again hit by a Russian drone on Oct. 1 and into the early hours of Oct. 2, with damage reported, according to the Kyiv Independent.

The Saudi-led coalition accused the Iran-backed Houthis of carrying out a drone attack on the Taibah power distribution station in Medina on Tuesday, according to Al Arabiya. Coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said the Houthis targeted the Taibah station on Tuesday, damaging a transformer and knocking it out of service. The Houthis deny the claim, according to Al Jazeera.

A Russian drone hit a school in Kyiv on Thursday while children and staff were hiding in shelters, and there were no immediate reports of casualties, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Two other Russian drones hit an important bridge connecting eastern and western Kyiv, forcing the suspension of metro services and ground public transport. Ukraine’s nuclear safety watchdog said a Russian drone hit the grounds of a nuclear research facility in Kyiv on Wednesday, causing a fire but leaving the facility’s test reactor undamaged. The United Kingdom announced a new package of 31 sanctions on Russia, aimed at stemming funding to the “Kremlin war chest, propagandists and torturers”.

Blasts were heard overnight in Addis Ababa, hours after the Ethiopian capital instituted a ban on drone-flying in the city and surrounding areas, three diplomatic sources told Reuters. A source linked to the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival told Al Jazeera the alliance had carried out several drone strikes in the capital, including some targeting the military’s headquarters. On the ground, government forces advanced from Amhara deep into Tigray, reaching within about 40 kilometres (25 miles) of Mekelle, according to Al Jazeera’s Muhammed Taha Tawakel, reporting from Afar on Wednesday.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy announced it had captured a US Remus 600 unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) operating in the Strait of Hormuz for espionage. According to the Tehran Times, it is the second US underwater drone captured in less than a month, while Washington keeps its bid to reopen the passage. The IRGC warned that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and said it will continue confronting what it describes as dangerous movements.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday a 20% cut in the positions of generals and admirals by January 1, 2027 and the creation of a new four-star command to expand drone, autonomous and robotic warfare, according to India Today. Reuters had reported he was set to make the announcement when he spoke with hundreds of junior service members at Quantico, Virginia.

Two children are among six Palestinians wounded in fresh Israeli attacks in Gaza despite the ceasefire, according to local sources cited by the Wafa news agency, Middle East Eye reported. A drone targeted a shelter housing displaced people in southern Gaza, injuring four people, including the children; one of the wounded was reportedly in a serious condition. The Wafa news agency also reported several Palestinians injured in an Israeli airstrike east of Gaza City.

Saudi Arabia appears to be mending fences with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to push back a Houthi offensive in Yemen that threatens the Saudi Red Sea oil export corridor, with drones already striking Riyadh, according to Middle East Eye. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hosted the Emirati vice president, Mansour bin Zayed, in Riyadh on Tuesday, in the most visible reconciliation effort after disputes over Sudan, Yemen and Somaliland.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said a dry cargo ship carrying military equipment for Ukraine’s armed forces was hit this afternoon by a drone strike in the northwestern part of the Black Sea, according to Sputnik Globe. The ministry added that it continues striking port infrastructure and vessels used to support Ukrainian troops.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired ballistic missiles and dozens of jet-powered drones at Kyiv on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, according to The Associated Press (AP), in a text republished by The Hindu. Ukrainian authorities said the barrage hit apartment buildings, houses and public transportation in Kyiv, wounding one person, according to AP, in a text published by U.S. News & World Report. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces hit data processing centres in Kyiv that Moscow says are used by the Ukrainian military.

An Israeli drone targeted a residential apartment in the al-Nasr neighbourhood, west of Gaza City, according to Middle East Eye, which cites Al Jazeera and medical sources at al-Shifa Hospital. Footage showed medics treating children with severe wounds after the attack, and the total number of casualties remained uncertain at that time. Anadolu Agency reported that two Palestinians were killed and several others, including children, were injured in an Israeli airstrike and gunfire in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, amid daily violations of a ceasefire in effect since October 10, 2025.

Yemen’s Armed Forces claim they carried out 356 operations against Houthi targets over the past day, according to the Middle East Eye. The army spokesman says there were 756 precision operations over 72 hours across several fronts, according to Arab News. The same spokesman claims that 2,316 Houthis were killed or wounded and four Iranian drone and missile experts were killed in Taiz, also according to Arab News.

Estonian security services launched a reconnaissance drone over the Baltic Sea, including over neutral waters within the airspace control sector, according to TASS. The drone took off from the island of Saaremaa and is flying at just over 1.5 km altitude, outside routes designated for civilian aviation, according to the agency.

Waves of jet-powered Russian drones hit central Kyiv, striking the National Academy of Sciences and a large, state-of-the-art medical center, according to The Washington Post. The newspaper describes the attacks as part of a campaign that is turning the Ukrainian capital into a daytime war zone.

Russian strikes killed three people in Kyiv, including one in an attack on a building housing the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. A jet-powered drone strike hit the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in the capital, killing one person and wounding four, according to local authorities. The State Language Protection Commissioner said two academicians were killed in the strike on the Academy building, with contact lost with others. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine struck two defence plants in the Tula and Voronezh regions, as well as oil facilities in the Krasnodar region, in a post on X.

Saudi Arabia is exporting 6 million barrels per day of crude oil in September, equivalent to the country’s monthly average in 2025, according to CNBC, with data from Kpler. Riyadh ramped up exports even after closing the critical East–West oil pipeline due to damage sustained in a drone attack, according to CNBC. Flows through Hormuz reached a seven-day average of 13.2 million barrels per day, compared with around 17 million before the Iran war, according to Kpler, via CNBC.

Tehran says it is fully prepared for the war to resume, while the US rejects the drone claim on social media, according to the Al Jazeera liveblog.

US Central Command denied the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claim to have captured an American underwater drone in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Middle East Eye. Spokesperson Tim Hawkins said the US maintains “positive control of all of our operational drone assets” and called the claim “clearly desperate”. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran is prepared for a renewed conflict with the US while keeping the door open for diplomacy, after President Donald Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to Sputnik Globe. Araghchi wrote that “our conditions are clear, and any measure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz depends on their fulfilment” and that “only a negotiated solution can pull the parties out of this impasse”, according to G1. Trump told Axios he expects American negotiators to hold more talks with Iran this week, according to Middle East Eye. In Bandar Abbas, Basij forces and residents held a parade of the Janfada drill to show preparedness against potential enemy aggression, according to Mehr News.

Yemen’s Armed Forces said they shot down an armed Karayel spy drone belonging to Saudi Arabia over the Al-Tinah area in Hajjah province, according to the spokesperson for Yemen’s Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree.

The Russian Ministry of Defence said the Armed Forces carried out overnight drone strikes against logistics centers, port and transport infrastructure, communications centers and vessels operating on behalf of the Ukrainian military, according to TASS. The ministry said it hit the Vodafone data center in Kiev, one of the largest providers of mobile communications and high-speed internet to the Ukrainian military, including the transmission of intelligence data, and that it hit in the port of Kiliya the headquarters of the Vostok naval base, a State Border Guard Service outpost, four warehouses with military equipment and port infrastructure facilities. According to Sputnik, the ministry also said a dry cargo vessel was hit while transiting at sea, having been delivering military equipment and dual-use cargo to the port of Odessa.

Russian attacks killed four people across Ukraine on Saturday, September 26, officials said, according to The Hindu (PTI). A Ukrainian drone attack on the Krasnodar region killed three people and wounded two, local officials said.

The Saudi-led coalition said early Saturday it had intercepted two ballistic missiles and two drones launched by Houthis towards the kingdom, according to Reuters, in a text republished by the Express Tribune. The coalition said in posts on X that the missiles were headed towards Khamis Mushait and the drones towards the capital, Riyadh. Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Al Budaiwi condemned the attacks as a violation of Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty and a direct threat to civilian safety and regional stability, according to SANA.

Ukraine’s General Staff said units of the Defense Forces struck the Ilsky oil refinery, in the Ilsky district of Krasnodar Krai, in Russia, on the night of September 26, and that a fire broke out at the facility. Krasnodar Krai Governor Veniamin Kondratiev confirmed that drones attacked the Seversky district, where the refinery is located, and said there were fatalities and one person seriously injured. The General Staff described the refinery as a facility that fuels Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.

Russian air defenses shot down nine drones flying toward Moscow, according to the city’s mayor, Sergey Sobyanin. The total number of drones downed approaching Moscow since the start of the day reached 20, according to TASS.

Russia's Defense Ministry said the country's air defenses intercepted and destroyed 645 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones overnight, over Russian regions and the waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

The Saudi-led coalition said early on Saturday, September 26, 2026, that it had intercepted two drones launched by the Houthis towards Riyadh, according to Reuters. In posts on X, the coalition said the drones were headed towards the capital and that two ballistic missiles were headed towards Khamis Mushait, adding that it was monitoring the missile and drone threat against the kingdom without providing further details, according to Reuters, in text republished by StreetInsider.

Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said that the United States and Europe support terrorism at the highest level and that Kyiv’s militants can already assemble explosive-laden drones from parts sold in children’s toy stores, according to Russia’s state news agency TASS. The accusation comes from one of the parties to the conflict and has not been confirmed by an independent source.

The governor of the Russian region of Krasnodar, Veniamin Kondratyev, said the Seversky District was attacked by a drone, with fatalities and one seriously injured person hospitalized, according to the Russian state agency TASS. According to him, debris damaged a residential building and fires broke out on the premises of two enterprises.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia has widened its attacks to target data centres and internet providers, according to BBC News. On Friday, September 25, 2026, a Russian drone hit a business centre in Kyiv, killing four people and damaging a data centre, the same report said. Russia’s defence ministry confirmed it had hit the Datagroup site, which it said was being used by Ukrainian military intelligence.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said any threat to the holy sites of Islam in Saudi Arabia is a “red line” and that the country stands “shoulder to shoulder” with Riyadh, according to Arab News Pakistan. Sharif condemned what he called a “dastardly and heinous” attempted drone attack on Mecca, and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the defence agreement with Saudi Arabia and Turkey applies, according to The Statesman.

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, tied a resumption of talks with Ukraine to Russia’s electoral calendar: he said negotiations would hardly be possible before the State Duma elections, but that after them Moscow would be ready to resume them, Ukrainska Pravda reported, citing a briefing carried by the Russian state news agency TASS. Putin also said that on the night of 19–20 September more than 1,600 drones entered the Moscow zone and that polling stations were hit — a claim coming from the Kremlin itself.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, 25 September 2026, that Ukraine so far has no “counter-action” or “antidote” against Russia’s Geran drones, in remarks carried by TASS. Putin also said provocations by Kyiv will not bring the result they seek and only worsen Ukraine’s position, according to TASS, and questioned the purpose of Ukrainian strikes on warehouses of marketplaces such as Wildberries and Ozon, which he described as civilian facilities.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukrainian attacks on Russian and foreign-flagged merchant vessels and tankers — including ships linked to the United States and Turkish merchant vessels hit by drones — prompted Russia’s retaliatory actions, according to the Russian state news agency TASS. Peskov also said Moscow is in no hurry to name new ambassadors to the United Kingdom and France, because normal bilateral relations with both countries are missing, according to TASS.

Ukrainian drones struck markets in the Nikitovsky and Tsentralno-Gorodskoy districts of Gorlovka, in eastern Ukraine, according to mayor Ivan Prikhodko, cited by TASS. Emergency services reported one civilian killed and another injured in the strike on the market in the Nikitovsky district, TASS reports.

Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, Saleh bin Fawzan Al-Fawzan, called on the kingdom’s soldiers to be ready to lay down their lives fighting the Iran-backed Houthis until the group is ousted from power, Al-Monitor reported, citing Reuters. The statement came after weeks of escalation, with Houthi missile and drone salvos against Saudi Arabia and Saudi retaliation with airstrikes.

A Russian drone struck a 16-storey residential building in Kyiv’s central Pechersk district, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring at least seven people, RTE reported. In the same assault, Russia launched nearly 300 drones on the night of September 25, many of them jet-powered; a 25-storey building in the capital was hit at the level of the fourth floor, and one person died in Odesa, according to RBC-Ukraine.

The Novoshakhtinsk refinery in the Rostov region temporarily suspended operations after a drone attack, the Straits Times reports, citing governor Yuri Slyusar. Russian air defenses destroyed about 50 drones over the region overnight, and the export-oriented refinery — with annual capacity of 5 million metric tons — halted activity, according to the same Straits Times report.

Russia's Defense Ministry said it intercepted 592 Ukrainian drones between the evening of September 24 and the morning of September 25, Moscow time, told TASS. One man was killed by drone shrapnel in the Perm region and 8 people were wounded in Ulyanovsk, including teenagers aged 14 and 17, according to regional governors. Overnight, drones struck industrial sites in Rostov — including the Novoshakhtinsk refinery — Perm, Ulyanovsk and Voronezh, according to Ukrinform.

Chinese journalist Li Xiang said the killing of women, children and civilians is a “red line” when commenting on the attack on the Starobelsk Pedagogical College, he told TASS. According to the Russian account — still without independent confirmation — Ukrainian drones struck the college’s academic building and dormitory on the night of May 22, 2026, killing 21 people, with 86 children present, according to TASS.

Ukraine killed two people in overnight drone attacks on Russia and struck an oil refinery and a passenger train, Russian officials said, according to Devdiscourse. In the Perm region, home to a major refinery, Governor Dmitry Makhonin said one man died during a massive drone attack, according to Devdiscourse.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it hit enterprises of the military-industrial complex, logistics centres and naval vessels linked to Ukrainian forces on the night of September 25, Izvestia reports, citing the ministry. The alleged targets include a drone assembly site in Borispol, logistics centres in Odessa and Nerubayskoye, and the port of Reni.

One man was killed and another wounded in Russia’s Belgorod Region, on the border with Ukraine, after a Ukrainian drone hit a truck, according to the regional crisis response centre cited by TASS. In the Volga region of Ulyanovsk, the agency reported a massive drone attack that wounded at least seven adults and one child. Both tolls come from Russian official sources and have no independent confirmation.

A massive drone attack is under way in the Russian city of Ulyanovsk, in the Volga region, on Friday, September 25, 2026, with damage to industrial and civilian infrastructure and casualties, according to regional governor Alexey Russkikh, in a message on the Max messenger cited by TASS; “air defenses and our mobile fire groups continue to repel a massive drone attack on the city of Ulyanovsk,” the governor said, adding that the casualties are receiving medical assistance; according to monitoring channels cited by the Kyiv Independent, the Iskra plant, which makes components for communications and radio technology, was struck in the city.

Yemen’s Houthis said on Thursday, September 24, 2026, that they had launched missiles and drones at a “sensitive target” in Riyadh and at Aramco facilities in the Red Sea city of Yanbu, according to Al Jazeera; oil rose the same day: Brent futures for November ended above US$106.50 a barrel, after earlier exceeding US$108 and settled at US$106.60, up US$3.52, or 3.4%, according to The Vibes; according to Middle East Eye, vessel transits in the Strait of Hormuz fell to nine on Thursday, from 14 the day before and a 10-day average of about 18, preliminary ship-tracking data showed.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, branded Yemen’s Houthis a “terrorist militia” and condemned the attempt to target Mecca, describing it as a “heinous crime” and “a provocation to Muslims around the world”, according to Al Jazeera and Dawn, which published the report by the French news agency AFP. He spoke at a cabinet meeting in Jeddah, recorded by the Saudi Press Agency, the kingdom’s official news agency: a rare intervention by the 90-year-old monarch, who has left day-to-day affairs to his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Saudi Arabia says it intercepted a Houthi drone headed for Mecca on 15 September 2026, which Al Jazeera records as the first time a security alert had been activated in the city in nearly 10 years. Houthi leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi denied the attack and called the Saudi accusation “a heinous lie”. Since then, Houthi missiles and drones have hit Saudi cities and energy infrastructure: the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a ballistic missile fired at Riyadh on 19 September 2026, sending a dark column of smoke from a fuel storage area at King Khalid International Airport.

German investigators found a suspicious substance that may be explosive a few metres from where parts of a drone were discovered near the Wunstorf military airfield in Lower Saxony, according to reporting by NDR, WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung published by tagesschau on Tuesday, September 22, 2026. The drone, broken into several pieces, was found by a farmer about a week earlier roughly a kilometre from the base where Germany’s fleet of A400M transport aircraft is stationed, and at least one component was 3D-printed. Investigators are working on the assumption that the drone also carried explosives, but forensic analysis of the substance is not complete. The federal prosecutor’s office (Generalbundesanwalt) and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) are examining whether there is a link to the foiled attack with explosive-laden drones at Leipzig/Halle airport in early August 2026, which the German government blames on Russia and Moscow denies. Investigators believe the drone may have been at the site for up to two years, and the case was discussed at the weekly intelligence meeting at the federal chancellery.

Saudi Arabia restarted its East-West Pipeline and could resume exports from the Red Sea port of Yanbu, three sources briefed on the matter told Reuters; two of them say the line was pumping at a low rate, and state oil firm Saudi Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Drone attacks forced the kingdom to shut the pipeline on September 13, 2026, halting crude loadings at Yanbu. Since oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz were disrupted, the pipeline had been rerouting around 4 million barrels per day to the port, roughly 4% of global supply, according to the agency.

Lithuania’s prime minister, Mindaugas Sinkevičius, told BBC News that the country has evacuation plans in the face of Russian threats and that, if attacked, “we will fight back”. In an interview with the Newsnight programme, he said Lithuanians feel “constantly threatened”, partly because of drones entering the country’s airspace, and that the government is working on “a variety of scenarios”, not all of them discussed publicly, citing as an example moving elderly residents out of cities without traffic jams. Lithuania’s Interior Ministry approved a population evacuation plan on 14 July, and details released on 16 September set out three main routes out of the capital, one of them using Poland’s Podlaskie province as a transit corridor, according to Newsweek. The interview comes a week after North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Lithuanian airspace from the direction of Belarus, according to BBC News. Lithuania shares a land border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Saudi Arabia restarted its East–West pipeline and could resume exports from the Red Sea port of Yanbu later on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, according to Reuters, which spoke to three sources briefed on the matter; the line is pumping at a low rate. The 1,200-kilometre pipeline runs from Abqaiq to Yanbu and lets the kingdom move crude without passing through the Strait of Hormuz. It had been shut after drone attacks launched from Iraq. Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said on 11 September that the conduit was halted “as a precautionary measure” after “multiple attacks” and that there were injuries, according to the state Saudi Press Agency; the following day the Foreign Ministry condemned the attacks and said the kingdom chose not to respond immediately, at the request of the Iraqi prime minister, according to the agency. Baghdad dismissed a military commander and opened an investigation after admitting the drones came from one of its provinces bordering Iran, according to BBC News.

The United Kingdom will send a Royal Air Force (RAF) Voyager tanker aircraft to provide “defensive” air-to-air refuelling to Saudi jets against Houthi attacks, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, saying he had agreed to a Saudi request for military support. The aircraft, based at the British base of Akrotiri in Cyprus, is expected to begin operating within days and the mission is “time limited”, according to BBC News, which reports it involves a single aircraft and that the support is limited to defending the country from drones and missiles rather than backing strikes on Yemen. Defence Minister Luke Pollard told Sky News, according to Middle East Eye, that the decision is about British “national security” and that “in dangerous times, good friends stand together”. Besides the Voyager, Saudi Arabia already hosts the Sky Sabre air defence system, and the Houthis have claimed drone and ballistic missile attacks on Riyadh and on energy sites on the Red Sea coast in recent days. The announcement came the same day the United Nations (UN) Refugee Agency (UNHCR) projected that around 230,000 displaced people in Yemen and another 10,000 refugees in Djibouti may need humanitarian assistance in the coming months, according to spokesperson Babar Baloch, cited by Middle East Eye.

Lithuania’s prime minister, Mindaugas Sinkevičius, told BBC News his country has drawn up evacuation plans for “a variety of scenarios” in the face of the Russian threat, while saying Lithuanians “will not surrender” if attacked: “we will fight back, we will engage”. In an interview with the Newsnight programme, also BBC News, he said Lithuanians feel “constantly threatened” by Russia, in part because of the drones entering the country’s airspace, and gave the example of getting elderly citizens out of cities “smoothly”. Lithuania borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and is a NATO member that shot down a drone entering its airspace a week ago; Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas told BBC News the aircraft came from the direction of Belarus, a Russian ally, which did not comment on the incident.

The US national average price of a gallon of gasoline reached $4.48 on Friday, September 18, 2026, according to AAA as cited by The Associated Press, up roughly 17 cents in a week, 40 cents in a month and $1.27 from a year ago, at a time of year when prices usually fall. The national average diesel price hit $6.44 a gallon on Friday, 71% above its prewar level, with daily record highs since September 11, according to NBC News, which attributes part of the pressure to Russia’s extension of a diesel export ban through the end of September after Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian energy assets. Donald Trump said last week that the surge is an “inexpensive price to pay” for the war with Iran and publicly demanded that Volodymyr Zelenskyy stop striking refineries: “Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” he said, according to NBC News. A Fox News survey released on September 16, 2026, found that 61% of voters call gasoline prices a major problem for their household, against 48% two years earlier, and that nearly two-thirds, 63%, say the administration has made the economy worse, compared with 52% in September 2025. Early voting in the November 3 midterm elections is already under way, and G1 highlighted that the surge strains household budgets and deepens dissatisfaction with Trump.

The Kuibyshev refinery, one of the largest in Russia’s Samara region, was hit by drones overnight into Tuesday, 22 September 2026, and a major fire engulfed the plant, according to the Russian opposition outlet ASTRA, which geolocated footage filmed by residents, and the Kyiv Independent. Samara governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said “dozens of drones” struck industrial enterprises and that homes and vehicles were damaged, without reporting casualties. The refinery sits 765 kilometres from the Ukrainian border and can process up to 10,000 metric tons of oil a day, according to Reuters, and was already forced to halt operations by a strike on 10 June 2026. Russia’s Defence Ministry said it intercepted 297 drones over 14 regions and occupied Crimea — a figure that has not been independently verified — and the federal air transport agency restricted flights in Samara and other cities in the region overnight.

Moscow’s refinery, owned by Gazprom Neft, has halted crude oil processing after fires broke out at both of its primary crude distillation units following a Ukrainian drone attack on 20 September, according to three industry sources cited by Reuters. The sources said repairs and the restart of operations could take several weeks. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Sunday that an industrial facility on the refinery’s premises had been damaged in the attack. The AVT-6 unit has a capacity of 21,400 metric tons per day, 53% of the total, and EURO+, 18,800 tons per day, the remaining 47%. According to the sources, the refinery processed 11.6 million tons of crude in 2024, about 230,000 barrels per day, and produced 2.9 million tons of gasoline, 3.2 million tons of diesel and 1.3 million tons of bitumen. Gazprom Neft did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Ukraine launched more than 1,600 drones at Russia in the early hours of Sunday, about 450 of them towards Moscow, on the last day of Russia’s parliamentary election, according to Russian officials in reports by Reuters and Times Now; Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, called it “the most massive” attack on the capital and said one of the drones shot down on approach hit the Kapotnya refinery, run by Gazprom Neft, as well as a residential building. Russia’s Defense Ministry says it downed 1,100 drones nationwide, including over Crimea and the Black Sea, and Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov said 249 were brought down over the region and that two people were killed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the operation hit an oil facility and a logistics site; Vnukovo airport suspended all operations and Sheremetyevo imposed “temporary restrictions”.