Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,339

On Saturday, October 25, 2025, how things are going:

Fighting

A man reportedly exploded a grenade on a train station platform in Ovruch, in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine, killing three people and himself, and injuring 12 others. All three of the victims were women. The attack, which took place close to Belarus’s border with Ukraine, was not connected to Russia’s conflict there, according to the police.
• According to the Ukrinform news website, two people were killed and 23 apartment buildings were damaged by Russian shelling in the Kherson region of Ukraine’s Shumenskyi.
• According to Russian media outlet TASS, two people were killed by Ukrainian shelling in Oleshky, in the region’s Kherson region, citing Volodymyr Saldo, the governor of the area’s newly installed governor, who was installed by Russia.
• According to TASS, Russian forces seized the village of Dronivka in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, citing the Russian defense ministry.
• 111 Ukrainian drones were shot down by Russian forces overnight and into the morning of Friday, according to TASS, citing the Ministry of Defense of Russia.
• According to an “intelligence update” shared on social media, which includes Ukraine’s General Staff, North Korean “uncrewed aerial system]UAS] operators are allegedly assisting Russian forces in firing rockets at Ukrainian positions in Ukraine’s Sumy region.

military assistance

• Russian President Donald Trump should provide Ukraine with weapons, including long-range Tomahawk missiles, according to Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, who told the Politico news agency.

Politics and diplomacy

Following the US’s new sanctions against Russian oil giants Lukoil and Rosneft, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded that allies sanction all Russian oil companies.
• At a press conference in London, Zelenskyy and other “coalition of the willing” members said, “Sanctions that hit Russian oil – Russian oil infrastructure, Russian oil companies – are a big step,” and that they are.
• The Dutch prime minister, Dick Schoof, agreed with Zelenskyy, saying: “It would be good if the European Union [EU] were to copy the US-UK sanction against Lukoil and Rosneft.”
• Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, claimed that the sanctions “were not such a big deal” for Russia because they would likely also cause higher oil prices, which would mean that “Russia will simply be selling less oil at a higher price.”
• Dmitriev added that a meeting between Trump and President Putin “will occur,” but “probably at a later time,” in an interview with CNN.
• At Friday’s “coalition of the willing,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated that progress on using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine must be made “within a short timetable.”

Regional security

After helium weather balloons blew into Lithuania’s two biggest airports, the NATO member shut them down and closed the border crossings with Belarus.
• In response to global conflicts, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, Croatian lawmakers voted to reintroduce mandatory military service.