Here are the key events from day 1,339 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 25 Oct 2025
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Here is how things stand on Saturday, October 25, 2025:
Fighting
- Ukrainian National Police reported that a man detonated a grenade on a train station platform in Ovruch city in Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region, killing three people, as well as himself, and injuring 12 others. The three people killed were all women. Police did not say if the attack, which occurred near Ukraine’s border with Belarus, was connected to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
- Russian shelling killed two people and damaged 23 apartment buildings in the Shumenskyi neighbourhood of Ukraine’s Kherson region, the Ukrinform news site reported.
- Ukrainian shelling killed two people in Oleshky, in a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, Russia’s TASS news agency reported, citing the area’s Moscow-installed governor, Volodymyr Saldo.
- Russian forces seized the village of Dronivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, TASS reported, citing the Russian defence ministry.
- Russian forces shot down 111 Ukrainian drones overnight and into the early hours of Friday, TASS reported, citing Russia’s Ministry of Defence.
- The British Ministry of Defence reports that North Korean “uncrewed aerial system [UAS] operators” are said to be assisting Russian forces to target Ukrainian positions in Ukraine’s Sumy region with rockets, according to an “intelligence update” shared on social media, citing Ukraine’s General Staff.
Military aid
France’s President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will provide “additional Aster missiles, new training programmes, and new Mirage aircraft” to Ukraine in the coming days, France’s Le Monde newspaper reports.
- Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo told the Politico news outlet that Russia presents a “permanent threat” to European security, and United States President Donald Trump should supply Ukraine with weapons, including long-range Tomahawk missiles.
Politics and Diplomacy
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on allies to sanction all Russian oil companies, after the US imposed new sanctions against Russian oil giants Lukoil and Rosneft.
- “Sanctions that hit Russian oil – Russian oil infrastructure, Russian oil companies – are a big step, and I thank President Trump and all our partners who are implementing this,” Zelenskyy said at a news conference in London, together with other “coalition of the willing” members.
- Dick Schoof, prime minister of the Netherlands, agreed with Zelenskyy, saying: “It will 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 said the sanctions were “not such a big issue” for Russia, since they will likely also increase oil prices, meaning that “Russia will be just selling less oil at a higher price”.
- In an interview with CNN, Dmitriev also said that a meeting between Trump and President Putin “will happen”, but “probably at a later date”.
- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said there was “absolute clarity” during Friday’s “coalition of the willing” meeting that progress on using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine must be realised “within a short timetable”.
Regional Security
- NATO member Lithuania closed its two biggest airports and shut crossings on its border with Belarus after helium weather balloons drifted into its territory.
- Croatian lawmakers voted to reintroduce mandatory military service in response to global conflicts, including Russia’s war in Ukraine.
