Order given to evacuate children from border city – DW – 10/09/2025

The city of Kupyansk in northeastern Ukraine has been locked down since late September; No one can come in or go out – not even aid workers. Russian soldiers are now deployed there.

Some residents remain despite threats by Russian troops to take complete control. The longer they wait. Evacuating becomes just as dangerous.

DW spoke to some of them. Read the story here.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told state news agency TASS that efforts by Russia and the United States to end the conflict in Ukraine are still ongoing.

The statement appeared to contradict comments made by a top Russian diplomat the previous day.

On Wednesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the momentum of the Alaska summit between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump is “largely gone” and accused Ukraine’s European allies of disrupting peace efforts.

However, on Thursday Ushakov was quoted as saying: “Claims that the pace of Anchorage is slowing down, or that it has ended, are completely false. We continue to work with the Americans on the basis of what was agreed between the presidents in Anchorage.”

Trump-Putin Alaska summit fails to end war between Russia and Ukraine. Trump has become increasingly critical of Putin in recent weeks.

Ukrainian local authorities ordered the evacuation of children and their guardians from towns and villages around the border city of Kramatorsk, as well as parts of the city.

They cited an increase in Russian drone attacks in the area as the reason for the evacuation.

“Residents of these settlements, especially families with children, who, unfortunately, still live there, should immediately leave the area accompanied by representatives of evacuation services,” the city council said on social media.

Kramatorsk, which had a pre-war population of about 147,000, is located about 20 kilometers (12 mi) from the front line in the Donetsk region. Kramatorsk is the largest civilian center and garrison city in the region still under Ukrainian control.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities in the neighboring city of Sloviansk also urged residents to evacuate, citing an increase in Russian attacks on energy and heating facilities.

“I am addressing the residents of the city today, especially the elderly and families with children , It’s time to evacuate. At least for the duration of the summer season. Because we see that the enemy is targeting the energy system, especially boiler facilities,” Mayor Vadim Liakh said in a social media post.

Czech election winner Andrej Babis said he spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and expressed his support and hope for a quick end to the war with Russia.

“I’m glad he contacted me and described the current situation,” Babis said on X.

“We also agreed that if everything goes well, I will visit Ukraine next year,” he said.

Before the election, Babis promised to end a Czech program that was a source of ammunition for Ukraine.

Polish investigators accused a Warsaw registry office archive employee of copying personal data of Polish citizens and foreigners between 2017 and 2022 and sending it to Russian contacts.

According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the man was arrested in March 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Since then he is in custody. The matter has now become public.

According to the statement, the data and documents obtained enabled the Russians to create fake identities for so-called “illegals”. “Illegals” refers to Russian agents who live in a country for years or decades under false identities, collecting information and carrying out operations.

Tomasz Simoniak, the minister responsible for secret services, said the registrar’s case showed that locations unrelated to national security that have access to data are of interest to Russia.

The United States has imposed sanctions against Serbia’s main oil supplier NIS, which is majority owned by Russia’s state-owned oil company Gazprom Neft.

On Thursday the NIS announced it had failed to get another moratorium on US sanctions, which could jeopardize its efforts to secure long-term oil and gas deliveries. The company said it has enough supply to maintain operations for customers in the short term.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on Russia’s oil sector on January 10 and gave Gazprom Neft a deadline to divest its ownership of NIS, which Gazprom Neft did not meet.

Serbia is almost entirely dependent on Russian gas and oil, which it receives primarily through pipelines to Croatia and other neighboring countries. Belgrade is formally seeking EU membership but has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of attempting to create chaos in Ukraine by escalating attacks on the country’s energy grid and railway infrastructure.

“Russia’s task is to create chaos and exert psychological pressure on the population through attacks on energy facilities and railways,” Zelensky told reporters in restricted comments in Kiev on Wednesday.

According to Zelensky, Russian attacks this year have already put Ukrainian gas infrastructure under “enormous pressure” and further attacks could force Ukraine to increase imports.

Ukraine has also recently increased its drone and missile attacks on Russian territory. Zelensky insisted that the campaign was showing “results” and had led to increased fuel prices in Russia.

The Ukrainian president said, “We believe that they have lost up to 20% of their gasoline supplies as a direct result of our attacks.”

Overnight Russia launched a drone attack on Ukraine’s southern region of Odessa, wounding five people and damaging port and energy infrastructure, according to the region’s governor.

The attack cut off power to 30,000 consumers and set fire to containers containing vegetable oil and wood pellets in the port, according to a post by local governor Oleh Kipar on Telegram.

Both Russia and Ukraine have been targeting each other’s energy infrastructure in reciprocal drone strikes.

Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy company, Rosatom, is preparing to restart the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, citing Rosatom head Alexei Likhachev.

However, later on Thursday Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov refuted this statement, saying that there are currently no grounds for restarting the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.

The Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant is the largest nuclear facility in Europe. It has six VVER-1000 V-320 reactors, which are Soviet-designed, water-cooled, and water-powered. These reactors contain uranium-235. At present all the reactors are closed.

Russian forces captured the Ukrainian power plant in the early days of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and it is still under Russian control. The plant has been disconnected from the power grid for more than a week. It now relies on backup generators to power cooling systems and other safety mechanisms.

Governor Andrei Bocharov said the drone strike resulted in a fire at fuel and energy facilities in Russia’s Volgograd region. He said that firefighters are currently controlling the fire.

According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 19 Ukrainian drones over Russian territories overnight, including nine drones in the Volgograd region.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military announced it attacked the Korobkovsky gas processing plant and oil transportation infrastructure in Russia’s Volgograd region overnight.

DW has brought for you the latest headlines related to this Russia was in Ukraine.

As Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues, Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom is preparing to restart the first Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.

The Ukrainian plant, which is the largest in Europe, has been occupied by Russian forces since the early days of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, both Ukraine and Russia have continued their mutual drone attacks.

Stay tuned for latest news and analysis.