Revealed On 25 Sep 2025
Right here is how issues stand on Thursday, September 25 :
Preventing
- At the least two individuals had been killed by a daytime Ukrainian drone assault on the Russian metropolis of Novorossiysk on Wednesday, in accordance with The Moscow Occasions. Amongst these injured had been staff of a Russian-Kazakh oil venture.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence on Wednesday stated 1,495 Ukrainian troops had been killed prior to now 24 hours of preventing, in accordance with Russia’s state information company TASS. The numbers haven’t been independently verified.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed considerations about Russian incursions into NATO airspace as unfounded “hysteria”, in accordance with the AFP information company.
- “We hear such exaggerated hysteria about our army pilots allegedly violating some guidelines and invading somebody’s airspace,” Peskov stated.
Politics and diplomacy
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned world leaders of the menace posed by Russian weapons and innovation whereas chatting with the United Nations Common Meeting.
- “Stopping Russia now could be cheaper than questioning who would be the first to create a easy drone carrying a nuclear warhead,” Zelenskyy stated on Wednesday.
- The Ukrainian chief additionally warned of the menace posed by synthetic intelligence within the weapons trade, which could possibly be the “most harmful” arms race in human historical past.
- Ukraine and Syria formally restored diplomatic ties on the sidelines of the UN summit. Kyiv broke off ties in 2022 after Syria’s then-leader Bashar al-Assad recognised Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory as unbiased.
- Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov individually met along with his United States counterpart Marco Rubio in New York on Wednesday. Rubio urged “Moscow to take significant steps in direction of a sturdy decision”, whereas Lavrov accused Kyiv and Europe of “prolonging” the warfare.
- Kremlin spokesperson Peskov rejected an announcement from US President Donald Trump that Russia is a “paper tiger” and stated the nation “maintains its macroeconomic stability”.
Financial system
- Russia launched its 2026 wartime price range on Wednesday, which included a proposal to boost its value-added tax (VAT) from 20 to 22 %. This may attract one other $15.5bn in funds, in accordance with The Moscow Occasions.
- VAT stays an vital supply of presidency income in Russia, the newspaper stated, and roughly 40 % of this 12 months’s federal income will come from VAT.
- Moscow’s newest price range additionally got here with the dire prediction that progress in 2025 will faucet out at simply 1 %, down from 4.3 % in 2024, in accordance with the Reuters information company.
- Russia’s economic system is anticipated to develop simply 0.5 % in 2026, The Moscow Occasions stated, whereas the federal deficit swelled to $61.1bn between January and July.
