Russia strikes Ukraine; Zelensky: Moscow is not ready to end the war

Russian drone strikes killed at least four people in Ukraine overnight and in the early hours of September 27, including one person in the capital Kyiv and three in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian officials said.

In Kyiv, a man was killed when a Russian drone hit a building in the Solomianskyi district, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service announced.

A fire broke out at a vehicle repair facility in the same district, while another building was also hit, the agency said.

It published footage showing firefighters battling blazes in the damaged buildings.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said a Russian attack in the Shevchenkivskyi district wounded a woman and two 16-year-old children. All three were taken to hospital, according to him.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, in southeastern Ukraine, three people were killed by Russian strikes, according to the regional military administration.

A man was killed in the village of Komyshuvakha, where a house was destroyed and several others were damaged, the administration said. Two other people, a man and a woman, were killed when a Russian strike hit their car in the village of Novotavriiske.

Four people were wounded, meanwhile, in the attack on Komyshuvakha, according to the regional military administration.

Trump tells Kyiv to “settle” the war

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump declined to confirm he had agreed for Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles, despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s statement on September 25 that Trump had made a “final decision” to give Kyiv a license for the production of American air defense missiles.

Asked on September 26 about the Patriot deal, President Trump said he wanted Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to “settle” their war.

Trump and Zelensky met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 22.

“We talked about many different topics and on many of them… there was strong agreement,” Trump told reporters about the meeting.

“But, you know what I want him to do? To reach an agreement. I want him to settle the matter with Putin and I want Putin to settle the matter with him.”

Zelensky said after the meeting that he hopes Washington will help end the war “as soon as possible”. He also called on Trump to continue pressure on Moscow, including through new sanctions.

Zelensky: Putin seeks excuses to continue the war

In his nightly address, Zelensky said Moscow shows no signs of being ready to end the war against its neighbor and called on Western countries to remain united in efforts to force the Kremlin to the negotiating table.

“It is clear that the Russians are not preparing to stop their war, at least not now,” Zelensky said, referring to intelligence reports that Moscow aims to increase spending on the production of jet-engine drones and other munitions.

Putin “always finds some weak excuse — not to meet, not to hold a trilateral meeting, not to talk, not to end the war, not to stop the killing”.

“With him, the situation is the same for whole years, and all our partners feel this. He is seeking excuses to continue the war. It always sounds the same, and our last meeting with the American president showed this,” Zelensky added in his September 26 speech.