Russian drones hit petrol stations in Kyiv, fires broke out in three districts. They came in the morning after Zelensky's offer of an energy truce

On Wednesday morning, Russian drones hit at least two petrol stations and a warehouse in Kyiv, and a fire also broke out on the grounds of a transport company. Fires broke out in three city districts. Three people ended up in hospital, two of whom are in serious condition, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Ukrajinská pravda ↗

The attack came in the morning after President Volodymyr Zelensky offered Russia an energy truce in New York. Ukrajinská pravda ↗ At the same time, he warned that Moscow is preparing a new massive strike. Ukrajinská pravda ↗ Kyiv had already been hit on Tuesday evening, when fuel was also the target. Ukrajinská pravda ↗

Fires in three districts

An air-raid alert over the threat of drones was declared in Kyiv at 6 a.m. local time (5 a.m. CEST). The first reports came from the Solomianskyi district, where, according to preliminary reports, debris fell among residential buildings and onto the grounds of a transport company, which then caught fire. In the Holosiivskyi district, a fire engulfed a warehouse building. Ukrajinská pravda ↗

In the same district, a drone hit a Ukrnafta petrol station. The company's head, Bohdan Kukura, said this was the sixth strike on the company's civilian infrastructure in recent weeks. Staff were in a shelter and none of them was injured. In the Darnytskyi district, a drone hit a transport infrastructure facility, and a fire broke out on the roof of another petrol station. Ukrajinská pravda ↗

At 9:16 a.m. local time, Klitschko announced that a drone had hit a four-storey business centre in the Holosiivskyi district. Vitali Klitschko ↗ The city military administration said office premises were damaged and it was still gathering data on the injured. Kyjevská mestská vojenská správa ↗

The city train Kyiv City Express suspended service in both directions because of the attack. Ukrajinská pravda ↗

Second attack in under twelve hours

Already on Tuesday evening, drones hit fuel tanks and a non-residential building in the Obolonskyi district, and strikes were also reported in the Pecherskyi and Dniprovskyi districts. Eight people were injured, three of whom were hospitalized. Ukrajinská pravda ↗

According to the Ukrainian air force, since 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Russia has launched 161 drones of various types across the whole of Ukraine, including decoys, 82 of them jet-powered Shaheds. By 8:00 a.m. Kyiv time, air defence had shot down or electronically neutralized 122 of them, and strikes were recorded at 18 locations. Ukrajinská pravda ↗

In the Odesa Oblast, Russian forces hit a cargo ship flying the flag of Antigua and Barbuda, killing its captain, a Ukrainian citizen, announced Oleh Kiper, head of the regional administration. Ukrajinská pravda ↗ Poland once again scrambled military aircraft in response to the Russian strikes. Onet ↗

The Russian Ministry of Defence claims its forces hit defence and energy facilities, logistics centres and vessels of the Ukrainian army. Seznam Zprávy ↗

Fuel as a target

Petrol stations are not a random target. Over the past six months, Russian attacks have damaged or destroyed more than 300 Ukrainian petrol stations, according to a count by the Ekonomichna Pravda portal. Ekonomichna Pravda ↗

Ukrnafta reports more than 150 stations hit since the attacks began last year. During an alert, staff have two minutes to stop refuelling, close the station and head to a shelter. According to ČT24, Ukraine has not yet suffered a fuel shortage, since it imports almost everything. ČT24 ↗

In the Holosiivskyi district itself, this is not the first strike. On September 10, a drone hit a Ukrnafta station on the bypass near the Respublika shopping centre and injured three people. Suspiľne ↗

A truce with no answer from Moscow

After Tuesday's meeting with Donald Trump, Zelensky said Ukraine is ready for an energy truce if Russia does not attack Ukraine's energy system, electricity, heating and water. The Americans are to hand the proposal to Moscow. "I don't know the Russian position," he added. Ukrajinská pravda ↗

Exactly which facilities the truce would protect has not yet been specified by anyone. It is therefore unclear whether it would also cover the petrol stations and fuel depots that Russia is targeting. SITA ↗

Ukraine, meanwhile, has in recent weeks been attacking Russian refineries, and Trump said in the public part of the meeting that he would discuss this with Zelensky, since in his view the strikes have seriously hit the Russians. Ukrajinská pravda ↗ Zelensky said afterward that Trump had not asked him to unilaterally stop the strikes and that they had in fact discussed a mutual truce. Európska pravda ↗

After a conversation with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Zelensky wrote: "Our intelligence now reports that Russia is preparing a new massive attack against Ukraine." TA3 ↗ French President Emmanuel Macron, on Tuesday at the UN General Assembly, called on both Moscow and Kyiv to stop attacking civilian and energy targets. TASR ↗

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York on Wednesday. Le Monde ↗

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*Illustrative photo: a firefighter at the scene of a fire after a Russian attack on Kyiv on July 4, 2025. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine, Wikimedia Commons, license CC BY 4.0.*