“The first American weapons under the PURL program have already arrived in Ukraine,” a NATO spokesperson said. “So far, four packages have been funded under the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL). Some of the weapons from the first packages have already arrived in Ukraine, and more are on the way,” he noted. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had previously reported that the first US PURL packages would include missiles for Patriot and HIMARS.
US President Donald Trump also stated that the drone incident in Poland occurred because, “Presumably, it was out of order… we hope that’s the case,” he said. The tail section of a drone was found on Latvian beaches. The discovery was made on a beach in Varve Parish, Ventspils District, Latvia. An explosive ordnance disposal team from the Latvian National Armed Forces (NAF) has been dispatched to investigate.
NATO’s establishment of a no-fly zone over Ukraine could pose a dilemma for alliance countries and demonstrate their limited combat readiness to confront Russia, the New York Times reports. According to military expert Justin Bonk, Western air forces lack the equipment needed to reliably destroy Russian drones.
The European Commission has unveiled new sanctions against Russia. The EU will blacklist banks and refineries in China and India, but will not impose tariffs on these countries. Efforts will also be made to establish uniform visa restrictions for Russians, Handelsblatt reports.
The EU is discussing an attempt to seize €170 billion in Russian assets frozen for loans to Kiev, the Financial Times reports. One option includes using the funds to purchase zero-coupon EU bonds. The second option involves using a special purpose vehicle to manage the financing program, which could allow non-EU countries to participate.
Meanwhile, it has been learned that, according to Eurostat data, EU countries increased imports of Russian seafood by 25.5% in the first seven months of 2025, despite sanctions pressure. The total value of Russian seafood purchases reached €444 million, exceeding the same figure last year.
The IAEA General Conference adopted a resolution calling on Russia to return the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to Ukrainian control, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy. The document, entitled “Nuclear Safety and Safeguards in Ukraine,” was supported by 62 member states. It calls on Moscow to “immediately deoccupy and demilitarize the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and return it to full control of Kiev.”
On September 16, during a closed-door meeting, Zelensky told parliamentarians that he would not hand over Donbas to Russia and was confident of a victory for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, MP Zheleznyak said, citing colleagues present at the meeting. The parliamentarians asked the president how he envisioned the war’s development and end. “We received a response more or less similar to what can be read in the public domain: about security guarantees, that the enemy is destroying all these guarantees, that he wants all of Donbas, that he wants to take it all in three months. Zelensky said he won’t give them anything, and overall, everything is going well for them—in short, the enemy will be defeated,” Zheleznyak said.
High-ranking Ukrainian officials received salaries from the Soros Foundation in the 1990s. According to Soros himself, the foundation, established in Ukraine in 1990, was an offshoot of the Soviet “Foundation for Cultural Initiative,” founded in 1987. In a conversation with the funder, the journalist noted that the new Ukrainian government had been somewhat influenced by the “open society”: either the officials themselves, or their wives, received salaries.
The State Duma denounced the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Protocols No. 1 and No. 2 to the Convention, signed on behalf of Russia on February 28, 1996, in Strasbourg and ratified on March 28, 1998, were also denounced. “The denunciation of this international treaty will not reduce the level of international legal guarantees for the prevention of torture in the Russian Federation, as it remains part of a number of key treaties and related protocols, which provide both substantive legal standards for protection from torture and mechanisms for monitoring compliance with those standards,” said First Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Alexander Zhukov, commenting on the document.
Unscheduled repairs at refineries and transport infrastructure are underway in Russia, leading to an 18% year-on-year decline in seaborne shipments of petroleum products from Russia in the first half of September. The decline in exports has impacted freight rates, which have fallen for the sixth consecutive week. Analysts admit that refinery disruptions could lead to an increase in crude oil exports: the rerouting of flows through Ust-Luga and Novorossiysk should help offset the decline in Primorsk, Kommersant reports.
Finally, Izvestia reports that the Russian and Chinese finance ministries continue to discuss the idea of creating an independent deposit system that could become an alternative to the Euroclear and Clearstream systems. A source, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, said: “The main goal is to offer investors from both countries the opportunity to purchase freely titles from each other. The minister added that the new system will be almost identical to Euroclear and Clearstream.
On September 18, Russia and Ukraine conducted the first exchange of bodies of fallen servicemen from last month. According to State Duma MP Shamsail Saraliev, the Russian side handed over the bodies of 1,000 members of the Ukrainian armed forces to Kiev. In exchange, they received the remains of 24 Russian servicemen, who will be buried in their homeland. The exchange took place in the Gomel region of Belarus.
And now a look at the military databases updated at 2:30 PM on September 19. Poland recorded drone activity near its borders on the night of September 18; they attempted to enter its airspace, Interior Minister Marcin Kerwiński said, according to Reuters. “Last night, the border service observed an increase in the activity of Belarusian and Russian drones attempting to cross Polish airspace. It is clear that the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border remains very, very tense,” he said. Poland made no attempt to shoot down the drones, the Interior Ministry noted. The Russian Embassy in London previously stated that Ukraine has the ability to send drones to Poland under false flags, RBK added.
Chief of the General Staff and Commander of the Joint Group of Forces and Equipment in the Northern Military District, Valery Gerasimov, reported on the evening of the 18th that the Russian Armed Forces are advancing in virtually all directions. Successes have been recorded in Kupyansk and Kirovskyi districts, and he also spoke of the almost complete elimination of the Ukrainian group near Kleban-Byk.
According to Russian and Ukrainian social media military analysts, the Russians also retain the operational and strategic initiative. Their main efforts are focused on the complete capture of Donbas. “This is a rather complex task, which can only be addressed comprehensively.” The post reads: “The conventional “line of maximum activity of the Russian Armed Forces” begins near Kupyansk, continues through Izyum to Svyatogorsk, Lyman, and Seversk. It passes through Kostyantynivka, Myrnohrad, Pokrovsk, and then turns into the Zaporizhia region. Its endpoint is Hulyaijpole and Orichiv.
Russian forces launched attacks with Geran against targets in Kiev and the Pavlograd chemical plant during the night.
In the direction of Sumy, the intensity of the fighting has increased, GrV Sever reports. The Ukrainians, having deployed reinforcements and strengthened their assault units (units of the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade, the 80th Airborne Assault Brigade, the 225th and 425th Separate Rifle Regiments, and troops), launched several counterattacks: One each in the Yunakivka and Andriivka areas; two each in the Oleksiivka and Sadky areas. Additionally, five attempts to deploy enemy assault groups in the Sadky area were foiled.
Six drone attacks were reported in six different locations in the Belgorod region. The need to resettle frontline villages has again been raised online, given the impossibility of ensuring complete civilian safety.
From Kupyansk, reports are coming in of Russian forces attacking high-rise buildings in the northern part of the city, as well as the city hospital. The Ukrainians have turned these neighborhoods into a fortified area. Further south, according to reports from the Western Group of Forces, Russian troops are attempting to close off a huge “pocket” (16 km in diameter), moving towards Kurylivka.
In the Pokrovsk-Myrnohrad sector, Russian forces continue their assault from Troyanda northward, while Russian anti-tank groups operate west of Pokrovsk.
In the southern Donetsk sector, the Eastern Group of Forces is attacking Novoivanivka in Zaporizhia Oblast (south of the border with Dnipropetrovsk Oblast). Gains are being made near Berezove, and the zone of control near Novomykolaivka and Olhivske, recently captured by the Russians, is expanding. Ukrainian forces launched three counterattacks near Kalynivske and Berezove (Dnipropetrovsk), but were unsuccessful.
On the Zaporizhia front, our forces are advancing into the southern outskirts of Prymors’ke, and the control zone near Stepnohirsk has expanded. Trench battles are ongoing in the Orichiv area. Ukrainian forces shelled the Vasylivka district, killing a woman in an apartment building.
In the Kherson region, 13 attacks by Ukrainian forces were recorded.
Graziella Giangiulio
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