Key Points and Summary – Russia turned September into its heaviest month of the air war, launching 5,636 drones and 187 missiles—sharply up from August—as nightly barrages hammered Ukraine’s cities and power grid.
-Ukraine’s air defenders still knocked down the lion’s share (about 87% of drones and 68% of missiles), but the tempo is unmistakably rising.
-The month included an overnight record: an 810-drone wave and a dud Iskander that slammed Kyiv’s Cabinet of Ministers building.
-As peace feelers stalled, reports also surfaced of Russian drones probing German infrastructure, widening European jitters.
– Kyiv is racing to adapt—fielding mobile air defenses, EW, interceptor drones, and joint training with NATO partners.
Russia Set Record for Drone, Missile Attacks in September 2025
WARSAW, POLAND – Ukraine has reported a 38 per cent increase in combined Russian drone and missile attacks for September 2025 compared to August.
This is based on Ukrainian Air Force (PSU) data that was analyzed by the US ABC News network.
The increase indicates the obvious intention by Moscow to increase its nightly long-range barrages on cities all across Ukraine.
The PSU said Russia had launched a total of 5,636 drones and 187 missiles on Ukraine during September.
That number represents a roughly 39 percent increase in the number of drones and a nearly 20 percent increase in the number of missiles compared to the August numbers.
Ukraine’s air and missile defense units shot down or suppressed almost 87 per cent of all Russian drones and over 68 per cent of Russian missiles during the month. This is a percentage of drones and missiles being intercepted that is consistent with that of previous months.
An Agence France-Presse analysis of data from the PSU also showed that these attacks came concurrent with Russian airspace violations into Europe and also as peace talks stalled.
On 1 October, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported that an apparent Russian drone swarm had flown over Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein state and methodically surveyed the NATO nation’s critical infrastructure, including a power plant and a naval facility.
The German publication’s report was based on what was described as an internal German government memo.
Moscow’s Brief Pause
Moscow had temporarily scaled back its strikes ahead of an August 15 summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, which took place at the US Air Force Base in Elmendorf, Alaska.
That meeting made no progress towards bringing about peace talks.
By September, Russia was declaring that any talks with Ukraine were “on pause” and declared its intention to press its offensive forward.
September was also the month in which Russia launched the largest ever aerial bombardment of the war, firing 810 drones on Ukraine during the night of 6-7 September.
That barrage struck the main Ukrainian government building in the centre of Kyiv, called the Cabinet of Ministers, making it the first time it had been struck since Russia invaded in February 2022. That missile was an Iskander-M and would have destroyed the building entirely except that its warhead failed to explode.
The data on this overnight record-high attack covers the PSU’s initial estimates of the number of incoming long-range drones and missiles detected in overnight strikes. The air force said it shot down or intercepted 87 percent of the Russian drones and 68 percent of the missiles.
Russia’s Air Attack Streak
Russia has fired drones at Ukraine every single night since 10 May.
This followed a three-day “truce” that was unilaterally announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin to “close the skies” for the 80th anniversary of Russia’s victory in WWII, which climaxed with a grand-scale military parade on 9 May.
To counter the attacks that began the following day, Ukraine had deployed a combination of mobile air defense units, electronic warfare systems, and newly designed interceptor drones.
Kyiv has also begun a more regular dialogue with NATO members about sharing their technical data and overall experience in bringing down Russian drones, particularly when there are simultaneous incidents of airspace violations of NATO nations by Russian drones and aircraft taking place.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that Ukraine was deploying an anti-drone military team to Denmark “for exercises” to engage in precisely this kind of activity.
Several NATO members, including the United States, Germany, and France, have deployed military equipment to Copenhagen to help protect the summit of EU leaders on Wednesday.
Denmark has seen repeated airport closures in recent weeks over drone sightings that have exacerbated fears about the heightened threat from Russia.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
More Military
China’s New J-35 vs. America’s F-35: Stealth Is Close. Experience Isn’t.
The B-21 Raider Stealth Bomber ‘Math Problem’ That Needs Solving
J-20 Mighty Dragon vs. the World: 5 Strengths That Make China’s Stealth Jet a Problem
U.S. Navy Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carrier: 5 Biggest Complaints
What Makes U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier USS Harry S. Truman A Powerhouse? 1 Word.
Swamplaw Yankee
October 2, 2025 at 5:05 am
In an ancient time, this peer reader posted the new measurement of war. The number of projectiles issued per minute per hour per 24 hour period per week.
That is, comparing the Xi intelligence being on top of the Genocide line action in Ukraine and the USA out in slumber land.
I asked what are the USA projections for the new measurement I quantified for the next 4 quarters?
For example, has the PRC CCP funded Xi to supply on site a projectile for firing every minute every hour for 24 hours for a week? How many weeks of reserve projectile stock is on hand in Putin’s hands?
So, the world’s largest economy is priming up crazed Putin, and the MAGA POTUS Trump is having top General party meetings?
What do we have here? The USA HAS a POTUS out of touch, in capable of even stating what the Zi regime is funding to Putin?
The reality that Ukraine has to finance a response, a fight back, on its own. The meat grinder front trench Genocide line will kill Ukrainians as the world watches MAGA POTUS Trump blather his incapable state in public.
Ukraine has to solely finance a fight back to the Billions of HAN Chinese who are covertly, but eagerly, funding the gold plating of free projectiles to a crazed Putin.
Does that even make sense is any metric? Ukraine has to fund in advance enough projectiles to shoot every minute, per every hour, per 24 hours for a week. Or, be conquered by the PRC CCP Xi regime who are using their vassal putin as a front.
So, the PRC CCP Xi regime has declared a world war against the WEST while hiding behind a 1000 year old Genocide of Ukrainians that POTUS Obama restarted in 2014.
Who is most stupid here? Xi, who is covert funding his vassal, Putin, or MAGA POTUS Trump who demands cash up front from Ukraine to try and fight the world war that Trump is too cowardly to admit is on?
If Xi can figure out his supply line 100% then Xi can have his vassal shoot a projectile every SECOND, of every minute or every hour of every 24 hours for a week and have a reserve stock of 2 weeks on site for Putin to use.
At that point, Zi can target any country in Europe of Asia with a projectile every second ready to fire. And, Putin is crazy enough to do it for Xi.
So, Germany, Italy, France, Finland are all states that can handle incoming projectiles that are attacking them at every second for one continual week.
Yeah, that F-35 air frame + pilot are going to be up in the air 24 hours a day for a week knocking down the assortment of projectiles that Zi has selected for each of the above states. NOT.
We all understand how so very scared the USA MAGA POTUS becomes when Putin or Lavrov issue a new REDliner. Putin tells Trump another Redline, the USA promptly capitulates and Zi just keeps his supply line of drone/missile projectiles for crazed Putin growing and improving.
MAGA POTUS elite pretend that the 5 nuclear reactors in Ukraine will not get blown up by renegade russkies. It just goes on?
Fund the Ukraine now: Got it MAGA POTUS elite? The Genocide of Ukrainians continues daily as kookoo admin types keep blaaabing it is a war like Vietnam, Korea or Iran. It is a Genocide 100% under ruuzzkie full speed and MAGA POTUS Trump is 100% in total denial. -30-
Jim
October 2, 2025 at 4:27 pm
Wait a second, turn Ukraine into ash, Russia is turning out the lights and hitting any military installation they can find, but given the intensity of the strikes, the number, it’s remarkable how accurate they are, it’s a blanket of pinpoint hits across the board and around the dial.
We see the balance of forces at work on the battlefield.
And the front is getting sketchy for Kiev. Rushing troops from one spot to another… or unable to do so at all. Robbing peter to pay paul… time is running out on all that.