Two killed in Russian air attack on Ukraine’s Lviv region, governor says
A Russian drone and missile strike on Ukraine’s western Lviv region overnight killed two people, the region’s governor said on Sunday.
Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Maksym Kozytskyi added that two other people had been wounded.
Tara Cobham5 October 2025 08:00
Lithuania-bound flights diverted to Latvia and Poland after ‘balloons’ incident
Lithuania’s public broadcaster LRT cited the head of the country’s National Crisis Management as saying late on Saturday that 13 balloons were heading towards Vilnius airport.
According to notices posted to the US Federal Aviation Administration’s website, the flight restrictions were due to “hot air balloon flights”.
It was not immediately clear who launched the balloons and what kind they were.
The Vilnius airport said that throughout Sunday, flight delays may occur due to disrupted crew and aircraft rotations. Overnight, most incoming flights redirected to neighbouring Latvia and Poland, while departures were cancelled. One flight due to arrive from Copenhagen returned to Denmark.
NATO-member Lithuania in August declared a 90-km (60-mile) no-fly zone parallel to the border with Belarus in response to drones entering from there, saying this would allow its armed forces to react to violations.
Lithuania, a strong supporter of Ukraine, shares a 679-km (422-mile) border with Belarus, a close ally of Russia. The capital Vilnius lies roughly 30 km from the border.
The Vilnius airport said that throughout Sunday, flight delays may occur due to disrupted crew and aircraft rotations (Simon Calder)
Tara Cobham5 October 2025 07:41
Lithuania’s Vilnius airport reopens after balloons cause suspension, diversions
Lithuania reopened air traffic at Vilnius airport, its largest and busiest air hub, on Sunday after hours of suspensions and diversions triggered by reports of balloons in its airspace affected thousands of travellers, the airport’s operator said.
European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and air incursions, including at airports in Copenhagen and Munich.
Air traffic at Vilnius was restored at 4.50am on Sunday after a decision was made late on Saturday to close the airspace “due to a possible series of balloons heading toward Vilnius Airport,” the operator said in a statement on its Facebook page.
The temporary restrictions affected both arriving and departing flights, with some flights being cancelled, the operator said. In total, around 30 flights and nearly 6,000 passengers were impacted, it added.
Namita Singh5 October 2025 07:03
China accused of giving Russia satellite intelligence to aid missile strikes in Ukraine
China is supplying intelligence to Russia to help it carry out missile attacks inside Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian intelligence official has claimed.
Oleh Alexandrov, an official with Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Agency, told the state-run news outlet Ukrinform that Beijing had been sharing satellite data with Moscow to support its military operations.
A firefighter looks at a building burning after it was hit during overnight Russian drone and air strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine (via REUTERS)
“There is evidence of a high level of cooperation between Russia and China in conducting satellite reconnaissance of the territory of Ukraine in order to identify and further explore strategic objects for targeting,” Alexandrov said.
He added that some of the sites targeted “may belong to foreign investors”, suggesting that the intelligence exchange could put infrastructure backed by international funding at risk.
China has maintained what it calls a neutral stance on the war, refusing to condemn Russia’s invasion and deepening economic and political ties with Moscow.
Namita Singh5 October 2025 06:41
Russian air defence units destroy 32 Ukrainian drones overnight, RIA reports
Russian air defence units destroyed 32 Ukrainian drones overnight, RIA news agency reported on Sunday, citing data from Russia’s defence ministry.
Namita Singh5 October 2025 06:02
At least 1 dead and dozens injured as Russian drones strike a Ukrainian railway station
Russian drones struck a Ukrainian railway station on Saturday, killing one and wounding dozens, as Moscow stepped up strikes on Ukraine’s rail and power grids before the fourth winter since its all-out invasion.
At least 30 people were wounded in the “savage” attack, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said following the attack on Shostka, a city in the Sumy region northeast of Kyiv that lies about 70km from the Russian border. Hours later, local prosecutors said that a 71-year-old man was found dead in one of the wrecked carriages.
Russia struck two passenger trains in quick succession, first targeting a local commuter service and then one bound for Kyiv, said Oleksiy Kuleba, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and reconstruction minister. He said that the second drone hit while an evacuation was underway.
The head of Ukraine’s national rail operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, Oleksandr Pertsovsky, called the strike “a vile attack aimed at stopping communication with our front-line communities.”
A passenger train is seen damaged following Russia’s drone attack on a railway station in Shostka, Sumy region, Ukraine, Saturday, 4 October 2025 (AP)
“This is one of the most brutal Russian tactics – the so-called ‘double tap,’ when the second strike hits rescuers and people who are evacuating,” said Ukraine’s top diplomat, Andrii Sybiha, according to a Telegram post by the foreign ministry.
Both Zelensky and local governor Oleh Hryhorov posted what they said were photos from the scene showing a passenger carriage on fire. The drone strikes also knocked out the power supply in Shostka, home to more than 70,000 people before the war, and surrounding areas, according to Hryhorov.
Namita Singh5 October 2025 05:45
Russia rains drones and missiles on western Ukraine
At 3am GMT, Ukraine’s Air Force said all of the country was under the threat of fresh Russian missile attacks, following hours of air raid alerts and warnings of drone and missile attacks.
Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv – a western Ukrainian city about 70km from the border with Poland, said missiles were approaching the city after air defence systems were already engaged heavily in repelling a Russian drone attack.
A man salvages wood from a building damaged in a recent Russian strike, in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine on 2 October 2025 (AFP via Getty Images)
Reuters witnesses said the pounding of what sounded like air defence systems in operation came from all directions.
There were no immediate reports of potential damage and there was no comment from Russia.
Both sides have been launching air attacks throughout the war aimed at destroying infrastructure deemed crucial to the overall war efforts, including energy and transport facilities
Namita Singh5 October 2025 05:30
German minister to equip police with drone defence unit
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, hosting a migration-focussed summit of European interior ministers in Munich on Saturday, told reporters he would equip police with a drone defence unit amid suspicious drone sightings that led to the closure of Munich airport.
“We are in an arms race,” he said.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt gestures during the Munich Migration Meeting (AFP via Getty Images)
“We want to rise to that challenge.” European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and air incursions.
Dobrindt has promised legislation making it easier for the police to ask the military to shoot drones down.
Namita Singh5 October 2025 05:15
Multiple drone sightings reported in Germany in past three days, Bild says
Drones have been spotted at airports and military installations across Germany over the past two days, Bild newspaper quoted a confidential police report as saying, suggesting sightings this week at Munich Airport were the tip of the iceberg.
Dozens of flights were diverted or cancelled at Munich Airport on Friday after both runways were closed following the second drone sighting in two days. Operations resumed, with delays, on Saturday morning.
Flights resume at Munich Airport after temporary suspension early this morning due to drone sightings on 4 October 2025 in Erding, Germany (Getty Images)
There is mounting concern that Russia could be behind a growing number of recent drone incursions in the airspace of Ukraine’s European allies. Russia, which is fighting a war in Ukraine, has denied any involvement.
Quoting the confidential police report which it said it had seen, Bild said on its website the drones spotted at Munich Airport were “used militarily”, without giving further details or saying where they had come from.
Other sightings in the past three days, it said, included a drone seen on Friday morning flying about 700m from Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s largest hub, and a small aircraft reported flying over an ammunition depot in northern Germany on Friday afternoon.
Three drones were also seen the day before, seemingly flying in formation, above a base of the Federal Police’s airborne unit near the northern town of Gifhorn, it said.
Namita Singh5 October 2025 05:01
Lithuania’s Vilnius Airport suspends traffic over possible balloons in airspace
Lithuania suspended air traffic at Vilnius Airport due to balloons possibly flying in its airspace, and flights have been diverted to neighbouring countries, the airport’s operator said late on Saturday.
European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and air incursions, including at airports in Copenhagen and Munich.
“The decision was made due to a possible series of balloons heading toward Vilnius Airport,” the operator said in a statement on its Facebook page.
“As a result of this incident, flights have been affected.”
Namita Singh5 October 2025 04:45