War in Ukraine: Russian strikes on kyiv, counter-offensive near Lyman

Have you missed the latest events on the war in Ukraine? 20 Minutes takes stock for you every evening. Here is the gist of this Wednesday, September 30, 2026, on the 1,680th day of the conflict.

Fact of the day

Terror from the cold. Russia massively targeted the Ukrainian capital's energy infrastructure overnight for the first time since last winter. These strikes left at least four dead in kyiv and its suburbs, including a child found under the rubble of a building. The damage caused led the Ukrainian electricity operator to decide on emergency cuts.

According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Serguii Koretsky, these bombings mark the start of a new Russian campaign against the energy sector. “Since this summer, there has hardly been a single day when the enemy has not attacked our energy infrastructure,” he wrote on Telegram. “However, a combined attack of this magnitude is taking place for the first time since the end of the last cold season.”

Ukraine fears a repeat of the scenario of last winter when Russia shelled the country's energy sites in an attempt to force kyiv to its knees, plagued by temperatures sometimes below -20°C.

Today's statement

“We strongly condemn the threat of use of force, including any irresponsible nuclear rhetoric”

She was reacting to the content of a document that Moscow sent to Alliance officials to complain about “provocations” from the Western camp around the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, wedged between Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea. In its letter, Russia says it is ready to respond “with all its arsenal”.

The number of the day

46. The number of newly elected Russian deputies to the Duma who fought on the Ukrainian front. “Participants and veterans of the special military operation enjoyed broad support from voters. These are people who have proven their unconditional devotion to the homeland on the battlefield,” President Vladimir Putin told the new deputies.

The trend

Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he had visited soldiers engaged on the front near Lyman, in the east of the country, where the army is carrying out a counter-offensive operation, called “Operation Vivaldi”, against Russian forces. “Today I met the soldiers who are carrying out missions in the Lyman sector and I presented them with decorations,” the Ukrainian president declared on social networks, affirming that Ukrainian troops had regained ground in this sector.

Our file on the war in Ukraine

According to several military analysts, this operation aims to reduce a Russian salient approximately 15 km wide located north of the town of Lyman, the stronghold of the famous Azov division, and around thirty kilometers north of the key city of Sloviansk.

Moscow seeks in particular to conquer the entire eastern region of Donetsk, which it claims as its own, but several fortified towns close to the front, including Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, remain under Ukrainian control despite years of bombings and heavy human losses.