Here are the key events from day 1,329 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Wednesday, October 15, 2025:

Fighting

• Russian forces launched powerful glide bombs and drones against Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, in overnight attacks, hitting the city’s main hospital, wounding seven people, and forcing the evacuation of 50 patients, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that its forces have taken control of the village of Balahan in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
• A convoy of United Nations vehicles carrying aid supplies came under fire from Russian forces near the town of Bilozerka in the Kherson region, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, describing the attack as “utterly unacceptable”. There were no injuries in the attack on four UN trucks, two of which were set on fire by remote-controlled drones.
• Local authorities have ordered the evacuation of families from dozens of villages near the all-but-destroyed northeastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, citing the “worsening security situation”.
• Oleh Syniehubov, governor of Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, said that a total of 409 families with 601 children were told to leave 27 localities. Another official in the affected area later told public broadcaster Suspilne that the list of localities to be evacuated by families had been expanded to 40.
• Russia will be able to deploy about 2 million military reservists to fight in Ukraine if needed under amendments to a law likely to be backed by the Russian parliament, according to reports.
• Power outages were reported in the Ukrainian capital and other regions late on Tuesday due to a network overload and the aftermath of Russian attacks, the Kyiv City State Administration said. Power was cut in three central Kyiv districts on the west bank of the Dnipro River running through the city. Ukrenergo, which operates Ukraine’s high-voltage lines, said that lingering problems from Russian attacks on the country’s energy system had triggered outages in regions across northern, central and southeastern Ukraine.
• Work is to begin this week to restore external power links to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, which has been running on emergency diesel generators for three weeks. Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organisation based in Vienna, told the Russian state news agency RIA that it was “vital to agree on a local ceasefire in areas where the repair work is to be carried out”.

Military aid

• NATO defence ministers will meet on Wednesday to try to drum up more military support for Ukraine amid a sharp drop in deliveries of weapons and ammunition to the war-ravaged country in recent months.
• European military aid to Ukraine declined sharply this summer, despite a recent NATO initiative in which member countries bought US weapons and transferred them to Kyiv, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy said.
• The United Kingdom has delivered more than 85,000 military drones to Ukraine over the last six months, Secretary of State for Defence John Healey has said, according to the Press Association.
• German Federal Minister of Finance Lars Klingbeil said his country would continue to “financially secure Ukraine’s defence capabilities for the next few years”, while also working with the US to “massively increase pressure on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to end his brutal war of aggression”.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stripped the mayor of the port city of Odesa, Gennadiy Trukhanov, of his Ukrainian citizenship after it was discovered he held Russian citizenship. Trukhanov could now face deportation. Trukhanov denied the claim, saying, “I am a citizen of Ukraine”, and said he would challenge the decision in Ukraine’s Supreme Court and, if necessary, the European Court of Human Rights.
• Zelenskyy said he would appoint a military administration to govern Odesa, citing unresolved security concerns. Ukraine prohibits dual citizenship with Russia, and Trukhanov has long faced allegations of holding both.
• A Kyiv government source told the AFP news agency that Ukrainian ballet dancer Sergei Polunin had also been stripped of citizenship. Polunin has been a vocal supporter of the Russian president. Pro-Kremlin politician Oleg Tsaryov, who survived an assassination attempt in 2023, was also among those who had their Ukrainian citizenship revoked, according to AFP.
• United States President Donald Trump said he was “very disappointed” with Russian leader Putin in advance of a planned visit by Zelenskyy to Washington, DC, later this week. “I don’t know why he continues with this war,” Trump said of Putin.
• Zelenskyy is set to meet Trump in Washington, DC, on Friday, where the two will discuss Ukraine’s air defence and long-range strike capabilities.
• Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said she was focusing on Russian attacks on her country’s energy grid in talks this week with US officials.
• Svyrydenko described the priorities of her visit to Washington, DC, as “energy, sanctions and the development of cooperation with the USA in new ways that can strengthen both our countries”.
• Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had opened a criminal case against exiled Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other prominent Kremlin critics, accusing them of plotting to violently seize power. The FSB said it was investigating all 22 members of the Russian Antiwar Committee – a group of Russian politicians, businesspeople, journalists, lawyers, artists and academics all based outside the country, who oppose Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Regional security

• Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslaw Sikorski warned that Europe must be prepared for Russia to strike deep into the region, calling it “irresponsible” not to build defences such as a “drone wall” on its eastern flank.
• German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has accused China of undermining the international rules-based order through its increasingly aggressive policies in Asia and its support for Russia.
• Wadephul also criticised Russia, saying Moscow is testing NATO’s resolve, violating European Union and NATO airspace, spying on Germany’s critical infrastructure and seeking to influence public discourse with propaganda and disinformation.
• Trump threatened trade penalties, including tariffs, against Spain, saying he was unhappy with its refusal to raise defence spending to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and calling the move disrespectful to NATO.
• Pro-Russian hackers brought down the German government’s public procurement portal, the Sddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) newspaper reported on Tuesday. The cyberattack rendered this important interface between the state and businesses inaccessible for almost a week, the report said.
• Sweden will set up its first emergency grain stocks in the north of the country, a region that risks being isolated in a conflict, the government said. In its 2026 budget, Stockholm plans to invest 575 million kronor ($60m) to set up the grain reserves. Sweden revived its “total defence” strategy in 2015 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and more measures were introduced after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Trade

• Russia’s war in Ukraine is bad for US businesses, which have heavily invested in Europe and whose profits are affected by the uncertainty that Moscow’s aggression creates, European Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said. Dombrovskis said that in 2023, US-owned assets in Europe were worth an estimated $19.2 trillion, or roughly 64 percent of all US corporate foreign assets globally.

The Trump administration is looking for alternative ways to ensure federal law enforcement officers are paid as the government shutdown enters its third week.

With Democrats and Republicans locked in a stalemate over the shutdown, officials in government are exploring alternative ways of paying for some key programmes, including a food programme for women and children.

Members of the US military, meanwhile, will be paid using funds previously allocated to the Pentagon following an order from President Donald Trump.

Thousands of federal workers have already been laid off, with Vice-President JD Vance warning of further “painful” cuts should the shutdown continue.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted for an eighth time to fund the government, but failed to advance Republicans’ stopgap budget in a 49 to 45 vote.

It is unclear how much money would be necessary to ensure that all federal law enforcement officers are paid.

In response to a query from the BBC, a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget – or OMB – confirmed that it is examining alternative ways to ensure those payments continue.

Like military personnel, federal law enforcement officers are considered “essential” and are still expected to report for duty, even without pay.

They include officers from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), US Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Separately, on Saturday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he had directed Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to use “all available funds” to get members of the military paid on 15 October, when they would have their pay withheld.

While Trump provided no further details on where that money would be drawn from, an OMB spokesperson told the BBC that the funds would come from an amount previously allocated for defence research and development that is available for two years.

Approximately 750,000 federal employees – about 40% of the total workforce – have so far been furloughed or sent home without pay.

The administration has begun layoffs at least seven agencies, totalling about 4,000 workers so far.

With both US political parties continuing to blame each other for the shutdown, the Trump administration has said it is seeking new ways to ensure that some essential services continue.

On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said her department had found an “innovative” way to ensure members of the Coast Guard continue to be paid, although she provided no further details.

Administration officials have also said tariff revenue would be used to fund the Special Supplementation Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC.

More than 6.5m people across the country benefit from the programme, which provides food to women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or postpartum, as well as infants and children up to five years of age.

The National WIC Association, however, said in a statement that the measure “is not a permanent solution” and that a prolonged shutdown could put millions of recipients at risk.

Congressional Democrats are reportedly planning to introduce a bill that would ensure the programme remains fully funded, with Virginia Democrat Robert Scott telling the Guardian that it should be “immune to the vagaries of the annual budget process”.

President Donald Trump announced that the United States has carried out another air strike on a vessel off the Venezuelan coast, once again accusing the boat of transporting drugs.

In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump said six people were killed in the latest bombing.

“Under my Standing Authorities as Commander-in-Chief, this morning, the Secretary of War, ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO),” Trump wrote.

“The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike. No U.S. Forces were harmed.”

Trump did not offer any evidence to confirm his allegation that the boat was “conducting narcotrafficking”.

But as with past strikes, he shared an unclassified video of the bombing, which appeared to show a small boat seemingly drifting in the water, not moving, before the US missile makes impact.

This latest attack is believed to be the fifth such US bombing in the Caribbean Sea. Experts and rights groups have described the US strikes as a clear violation of international law since drug traffickers do not qualify as armed combatants.

Despite their dubious legality, the strikes have become commonplace over the last month and a half.

The first such attack took place on September 2, killing 11 people. Two further attacks took place on September 15 and 19, with three people killed in each case.

Then, a fourth strike came on October 3, with US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth claiming four fatalities aboard that boat. Tuesday’s attack brings the known death toll to 27.

In each case, Trump and his officials have claimed that the air strikes were necessary to prevent “narco-terrorists” from reaching the US with their deadly cargo, though it is unclear who was onboard those small vessels, what they were carrying, and what their destination was.

Suspected drug trafficking vessels are often interdicted by US forces at sea as part of the government’s efforts to halt the transportation of drugs into the country.

But critics say the lethal attacks reflect Trump’s push for executive power with few limits, both at home and abroad.

Still, Trump has attempted to lay the groundwork for international action against drug cartels, through a series of executive actions and statements.

In early October, for instance, the Trump administration issued a memo to Congress saying the president had determined that the US was enmeshed in a “non-international armed conflict” with the cartels, whom he described as “unlawful combatants”.

And in August, news reports emerged that Trump had secretly signed a separate order authorising military strikes against drug-trafficking networks.

That continues a months-long campaign by the Trump administration to recategorise drug trafficking as an act of foreign hostility.

Since February, the Trump administration has sought to label a wide variety of criminal and narcotics groups as “foreign terrorist organizations” (FTOs), a move rights groups say could pave the way for US military operations abroad.

Last week, the US Senate voted down a bill introduced by a handful of Democratic senators that would have required the approval of the legislative branch for any future strikes on drug-trafficking vessels.

The attacks have also taken place amid a build-up of US forces in the Caribbean, including at bases in Puerto Rico.

The increase in fighter jets and other military equipment in the region has prompted questions about possible attacks on Venezuela.

Trump has long had an adversarial relationship with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and on Tuesday, he repeated past accusations that Venezuela was responsible for an “invasion” of foreign gangs into the US.

“We get drugs and all of that, but we get something, in a way, worse,” Trump said at a news conference in the White House, repeating unsubstantiated allegations.

“What they do very well is they send their criminals into the United States, and they send trend Tren de Aragua.”

A US intelligence report declassified in May found no evidence that Maduro has directed the Tren de Aragua gang or its movements in the US.