Victory Chronicles-DAY 1302

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia has already launched and lost three major offensives against Ukraine but is preparing two new campaigns this year.

Speaking in an interview with UK-based Sky News that was published on Sept. 16, Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian forces had proved Moscow wrong on the battlefield. 

“They told you they could take our east, they told you they could occupy the [northeastern] city of Sumy,” he said. “All of this was lies and manipulation. Three campaigns and the Russians have already lost.”

Ukraine’s second war-time president added that Russia paid a heavy price in military personnel and equipment and now faces growing strain. Still, Moscow is gathering manpower for two more large-scale attacks.

The lesson is clear for Zelenskyy: Ukraine can hold if it continues to receive weapons and financial support from allies. 

“If we have the arms and the funding to produce them, we will withstand the next two campaigns,” he said.

Firefighters battle massive blaze near Kyiv after Russian drone strike. Firefighters in Ukraine’s Kyiv region spent more than 10 hours extinguishing a fire that broke out after a Russian drone strike on Sept. 16, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

The blaze consumed about 183,000 square feet — the size of roughly two-and-a-half soccer fields. The drone hit a warehouse complex, filling the area with heavy smoke and threatening nearby buildings.

Nearly 400 firefighters were mobilized, supported by more than 100 fire engines, two helicopters, a fire train and four firefighting robots. Units from Kyiv city and volunteer brigades joined local crews in the effort.

“The scale was enormous,” Klymenko said. “Imagine two and a half football fields on fire. Our people had to fight not only flames but smoke from packed warehouses, all while protecting neighboring buildings.”

Russian drone strikes spark fires, cut power for 45 villages in central Ukraine. Russian drone attacks overnight on Sept. 17 ignited fires and knocked out power to 45 communities in central Ukraine, officials said.

The strikes hit infrastructure sites in the Kirovohrad and Poltava regions, setting fires at three locations in the Kropyvnytskyi district. More than 60 firefighters and 14 fire engines were dispatched to contain the blazes, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.

Andriy Raikovych, the head of Kirovohrad’s regional administration, said the attacks left the regional capital and 44 nearby villages without power. Several single-family homes were damaged in the town of Oleksandrivka.

Rail service was also disrupted on two major lines, including the routes from Pomichna to Kropyvnytskyi and from Fundukliivka to Piatykhatky, Ukraine’s rail operator reported.

Drone footage shows aftermath of Russian strike on Kharkiv. A Russian drone slammed into a campus building of Kharkiv’s pharmaceutical university on Sept. 16, sparking a fire and injuring at least four people, local officials said.

The strike hit the Slobidskyi district of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, damaging the roof and igniting a blaze that spread across roughly 1,600 square feet (150 square meters), according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. Fire crews contained the flames after several hours.

Key Takeaways

• Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin oversaw the final day of the Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2025 joint military exercises on Sept. 16.
• Ukraine’s ongoing long-range strike campaign targeting critical Russian energy infrastructure continues to degrade Russia’s oil and gasoline markets, likely affecting Russia’s long-term ability to finance its war in Ukraine.
• Ukraine continues to demonstrate its adeptness at innovating and fielding drones with increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) technology while maintaining accessible costs, significantly augmenting Ukrainian drone effectiveness.
• Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko continues to rhetorically distance himself from Russia’s recent incursion into Polish airspace in an attempt to obfuscate the fact that Belarus is de facto a cobelligerent in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Kupyansk, in the Kostyantynivka-Druzhkivka tactical area, and in eastern Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

• Reuters: US approves first arms packages for Ukraine funded by NATO allies
• Russians conducts ’complex attack on Ukrainian railway’
• IAEA records shelling and ‘black smoke’ near Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
• Von der Leyen announces 19th EU sanctions package against Russia after talks with Trump
• Russia is close to cutting oil output due to drone attacks
• Zelenskyy assumes Poland may be unable to save people in event of large-scale Russian attack
• FT: EU wants to create a ‘drone wall’ using Ukrainian technology