Russia’s September Strikes on Ukraine: What’s Confirmed About Civilian Casualties and Damage

Reports from late August through Sept. 28 describe multiple Russian drone and missile attacks across Ukraine. They document civilian deaths and damage to homes, medical and commercial sites, and infrastructure, but the incidents happened on different dates; their casualty figures are not one cumulative toll. Details of a reported Sept. 28 strike on Kyiv’s National Academy of Sciences were still unclear in the available accounts. 35

What reports say about the attacks

Kyiv and the surrounding region

On Sept. 23, Reuters reported that drone strikes in Kyiv killed two people and injured 45, and damaged railway infrastructure, warehouses and fuel stations. 1

A separate attack reported on Sept. 24 killed eight people in Kyiv and Ukraine’s northeast, according to officials cited by Reuters. In Kyiv, a maternity hospital was among the sites hit; police also reported damage to homes, a post office, warehouses and cars. In Kharkiv region, a strike on a farm killed six people and injured 12, prosecutors said. 57

On Sept. 25, strikes in Kyiv killed seven people, including a 14-year-old boy, and injured 58, Reuters reported. The coverage also described damage to a food warehouse and reported that Ukraine’s largest steel plant was suspending production.

On Sept. 27, drones set a food market in Sofiiska Borshchahivka, outside Kyiv, on fire. Ukrainian prosecutors said two people were killed and about 10 injured; the capital also came under attack that day. 3

A separate report about an Aug. 27 attack said strikes in Kyiv damaged residential buildings, a school and a medical facility, with no casualties reported in the city. This was a different incident from the September attacks.

Dnipro, Kharkiv and other locations

Reporting on Sept. 10 described a strike on an international agribusiness facility in Dnipro. Separate coverage that day reported attacks in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Sumy, including a drone crashing into a two-storey office building in Kyiv and warehouses burning in Dnipro. The reports do not establish that these sites were damaged in one strike. 4

Reports on the Sept. 27 attacks said people were also killed in Kharkiv and Sumy, but the available account does not provide enough detail to identify the damage in Kharkiv city specifically. 3

National Academy report: details remain uncertain

On Sept. 28, Ukrainian media reported that a drone hit a building identified as the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in central Kyiv and sparked a fire. One report said at least one person was killed and others injured; another said the condition of people inside was not yet known. The casualty details were therefore not consistent across the available reports.

What officials said—and what remains unverified

President Volodymyr Zelensky called the Sept. 27 attacks “terrorism” with no military purpose, according to Reuters. After the Sept. 25 strikes, he said Russia was expanding its escalation. These are Zelensky’s characterizations of the attacks, not independent findings about intent. 3

Reuters reported that Russia denies deliberately targeting civilian sites. The available reporting does not provide enough verified detail to summarize specific Kremlin or Russian Defense Ministry statements about these particular attacks or peace prospects. It also does not establish the competing battlefield claims about gains in Donetsk and Sumy, so those claims should not be treated as confirmed here. 4

The clearest takeaway

The reports show repeated attacks with serious consequences for civilians and civilian sites, but they cover different incidents across several weeks. Keeping the dates and locations separate is essential: casualty totals from one attack cannot be used as the toll for another, and some reports—particularly the Sept. 28 Academy account—were still incomplete.