Escalation in Ukraine: Russian Air Strikes Intensify Amid Global Tensions

Sat Sep 13 2025 10:47:52 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

Recent Russian missile attacks in Ukraine escalate crisis, targeting key infrastructures and resulting in civilian casualties. As air raids increase, Ukraine calls for stronger international support.

Russia's missile strikes on Ukraine have intensified, specifically targeting the heart of Kyiv, including a direct hit on a government building. The increased escalation follows failed peace efforts and has resulted in significant civilian casualties, including casualties from strikes on homes and pension queues in the east. President Zelensky urges Ukraine's allies for immediate action against Russia's escalating aggression.

Ukraine has shown reporters fragments of the missile it says hit a key government building in Kyiv this weekend, identifying it as a Russian Iskander cruise missile.

Officials here now believe the building was struck deliberately in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Vladimir Putin's response to Donald Trump's peace efforts has been a clear escalation in Russian attacks.

But they don't only target the Ukrainian capital.

In the eastern Donbas region, more than 20 civilians were killed by a Russian glide bomb on Tuesday as they queued to collect their pensions.

Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the strike on the village of Yarova as savage and called once again on Ukraine's allies to increase the pressure on Moscow through sanctions.

His office said some US and European weapons components are still reaching Russia, including for the Iskander missile. Moscow has already substituted the rest with its own production.

Strong actions are needed to make Russia stop bringing death, Ukraine's president wrote.

In Kyiv, the increase in early morning attacks is obvious: they've grown more frequent - but most importantly they're bigger in scale. Russia now launches hundreds of drones at a time, deliberately draining Ukraine's resources.

That's why Zelensky is constantly calling for more missiles: to someone far from Kyiv it might sound like he's stuck on repeat. But for people here, it might be the difference between life and death.

Russia's strikes are not only symbolic; they regularly hit people's homes. In Yarova, those killed this time were elderly, individuals most reluctant or least able to leave their homes.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called it a barbaric strike by Russia and a heinous crime against the very people Putin claimed needed saving when he ordered the invasion.

Ukraine wants more than condemnation; it is still calling for action against the Russian economy and its defense sector.

Ukrainian teams have been examining the remains of the missiles launched by Russia since 2022, finding that while the percentage of Western-made components has shrunk, the number of Russian parts has increased, indicating a growing ability to produce sophisticated weaponry.

This escalation of conflict dramatically affects the lives of daily citizens in Ukraine, forcing many into continuous danger amidst the violence.