Overnight Russian strike on Ukraine: seven missiles and 22 drones shot down
Source: Ukraine’s Air Defense Force
In the early hours of September 4, Russian troops unleashed a combined missile and drone barrage targeting several regions of Ukraine. Ukraine’s Air Force said their swift response helped intercept a “significant number” of incoming threats.
According to Ukraine’s Air Force, their radar units detected and tracked a total of 42 enemy targets. The onslaught included:
- Two Kh-47M2 “Kinzhal” ballistic missiles, launched by MiG-31K aircraft from Russian airspace in the Tula region.
- Two Kh-22 cruise missiles fired by Tu-22M3 bombers from the Black Sea.
- Six Kh-101 cruise missiles launched by Tu-95MS bombers from the Volgograd region.
- Three “Iskander-K” cruise missiles coming from occupied Crimea.
- 29 Shahed-131/136 strike drones, launched from Russia’s Kursk region.
Ukraine’s air defences said they shot down 29 of the 42 aerial threats. These included:
- Four Kh-101 cruise missiles.
- Three “Iskander-K” cruise missiles.
- 22 Shahed-131/136 drones.
The report said that six drones were lost from radar, likely due to electronic countermeasures, while one drone crossed into Belarusian airspace.
The intercepts took place across a wide swath of Ukraine, with anti-aircraft forces engaged in the regions of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Volyn, Ternopil, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Poltava, and Sumy.
Ukraine’s air defence involved a coordinated effort of fighter jets, anti-aircraft missile units, electronic warfare divisions, and mobile fire teams from both the Air Force and the broader Ukrainian Defence Forces.
In 2025, the deadliest year yet for civilians, Ukraine’s three largest charitable foundations raised a record 105.9 billion hryvnias. It is more than the years 2022–2024 combined. According to the UN, humanitarian aid in Ukraine was delivered by more than 450 organisations, reaching five million people over the course of the year. Civic foundations hold licences to purchase lethal weapons, which is a function states have monopolised for centuries. These record sums were underwritten by international government grants, which means foreign states now channel billions directly through Ukrainian civic funds, bypassing inter-state channels. It is hard to imagine a stronger institutional trust in civil society.
During the GLOBSEC Defence Forum 2026 in Prague, representatives of “Steel Front”, an initiative by Rinat Akhmetov, discussed with NATO delegations, military officials, and representatives of the European defense industry the lessons learned from Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
After the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine witnessed an unprecedented wave of private support for the army. Citizens, big businesses, charitable foundations, and international philanthropists began financing the country’s defense alongside state assistance provided by international partners. Estimates of total private contributions range from tens to hundreds of billions of hryvnias. However, determining the exact amount remains difficult. In many cases, companies combine military aid, humanitarian programs, tax payments, social spending, and employee support in their reporting.
Rinat Akhmetov’s military initiative, “Steel Front”, has delivered a batch of drones worth UAH 214 million to the 1st “Azov” Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine. This shipment is part of the Metinvest Group’s ongoing support for the unit in 2025.
On October 6, the Administrative Cassation Court within the Supreme Court of Ukraine continued hearing case No. 990/80/25, in which the fifth President and leader of the party “European Solidarity”, Petro Poroshenko, seeks to have Presidential Decree No. 81/2025 from February 12, 2025 — enacting sanctions by the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) — declared illegal and annulled. The plaintiff claims the document was falsified and that the sanctions are a tool of political persecution of the opposition, contrary to international norms. Government representatives deny the allegations and insist their actions were lawful. Journalists of Bukvy were present at the hearing.