![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025-10-10T091505Z_549872384_RC2V8HAKQ3WQ_RTRMADP_3_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ATTACK-KYIV-1760621965.jpg\")
A boy with a bicycle looks on near buildings damaged during a Russian drone and missile strike in the town of Brovary, outside of Kyiv, October 10, 2025 [Alina Smutko\/Reuters]<\/p>\nRussia is increasing air attacks to compensate for failing to crack Ukrainian defences on the ground, according to Kyiv.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia has started a new wave of air terror against Ukraine \u2013 against our cities and civilian infrastructure,\u201d Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told NATO\u2019s 71st Parliamentary Assembly on October 13.<\/p>\n
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Zelenskyy spoke days after Russia launched an overnight strike against Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure involving 465 drones and 19 missiles.<\/p>\n
A boy with a bicycle looks on near buildings damaged during a Russian drone and missile strike in the town of Brovary, outside of Kyiv, October 10, 2025 [Alina Smutko\/Reuters]<\/p>\n
Ukraine said it downed 405 of the drones and 15 of the missiles, but the remainder deprived three-quarters of a million Ukrainians of electricity for the day, wounded 20 people and killed a seven-year-old boy.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy said cold autumn weather had reduced the effectiveness of Ukraine\u2019s air defences by 20-30 percent, claiming Russia \u201cdeliberately waited\u201d for this.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Russian drones again knocked out power in some parts of Ukraine and struck a thermal power plant, according to Naftogaz, Ukraine\u2019s gas utility.<\/p>\n
Russia \u2018increased the number of air attack means\u2019<\/p>\n
On the battlefront, too, Russia was turning to the air.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a month, the enemy has increased the number of air attack means used by 1.3 times,\u201d wrote Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii on his Telegram channel on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Syrskii generally refers to Russian first-person view (FPV) drones and air-launched glide bombs, which Russia uses at the front in addition to artillery and multiple launch rocket systems.<\/p>\n
But Russia was increasingly using its long-range Shahed drones \u2013 the type it deploys against cities \u2013 to hit targets at the front as well, said the Kyiv Independent after speaking with analysts.<\/p>\n
Shaheds are more precise than glide bombs, and Russia was \u201clikely looking to conserve KAB guided aerial bombs where possible to prepare for a long war ahead\u201d, said the newspaper.<\/p>\n
Discussions with Ukraine\u2019s allies<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s tactics prompted a flurry of consultations with allies.<\/p>\n
On the day of the massive air strike, Zelenskyy said he spoke with United States President Donald Trump about the damage to Ukraine\u2019s energy sector and what the nation needs to protect it. During the week, he also spoke with the leaders of Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and France, and the European Union\u2019s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy said he is short of air defences and has asked allies to increase provisions to protect 203 key facilities in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
At Wednesday\u2019s meeting of the Defence Contact Group for Ukraine, Germany pledged 2.3 billion euros ($2.7bn) in new weapons and air defence systems, including interceptors for Patriot launchers and two more IRIS-T systems.<\/p>\n
Poland offered electricity exports, generators and the services of a liquefied natural gas\u00a0(LNG) terminal to bolster Ukraine\u2019s energy supply.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy dispatched Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko to the US to lay the groundwork for his meeting with Trump on Friday.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s fight for Donetsk<\/p>\n
On the ground, Zelenskyy said this week that Russia had planned to capture the entirety of the Donetsk region this autumn. About a quarter of it remains in Ukraine\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n
The hammer has fallen hardest on Pokrovsk, once a city of 60,000 people. Russia has failed to take it by direct assault and by conducting an enveloping manoeuvre through Dobropillia to its north.<\/p>\n
Syrskii said a Ukrainian counteroffensive at Dobropillia had retaken 181sq km (70sq miles) of territory since the end of August.<\/p>\n
The Dobropillia counteroffensive caused 12,000 Russian casualties, including 7,000 deaths, and upset Russia\u2019s plans to conquer Donetsk this autumn, Zelenskyy claimed.<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the death toll estimated by Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s operation \u201cdisrupted all the plans that the Russians communicated to the American side, claiming they would supposedly occupy the Donbas \u2013 most of it \u2013 specifically by November. Initially, they said September, then pushed the deadline to November\u201d, said Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s determination to capture Donetsk was evident in the fact that it had returned to high-casualty mechanised assaults on October 6, 9 and 13, said the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, having\u00a0largely stopped reinforced company-sized mechanised assaults in late 2024.<\/p>\n
All three assaults came in the Dobropillia direction and were defeated with high losses to men and armour.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Russians are now tasked with urgently taking Pokrovsk \u2013 at any cost,\u201d Zelenskyy said, and some analysts suggested they may be swinging to the south of Pokrovsk instead.<\/p>\n
Russia has not been wholly without success. During the week of October 9-15, it claimed to have seized four villages in Donetsk, and settlements in Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk.<\/p>\n
In Kharkiv, Zelenskyy said, Ukrainian forces were pushing Russian troops out of some positions in the city of Kupiansk, in whose northwestern outskirts they have taken positions.<\/p>\n
Despite this, Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday evacuated hundreds of families from 27 villages in the Kupiansk area, citing the security situation.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s strikes and Tomahawks<\/p>\n
![\"INTERACTIVE](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/INTERACTIVE-What-are-Tomahawk-missiles-September-30-2025-1759225571.png\")
(Al Jazeera)<\/p>\n