Russian strikes kill 2 Ukrainian civilians as Moscow and Kyiv threaten to raise the stakes

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian aerial attacks overnight and during daylight Wednesday killed two civilians and wounded six in a central Ukraine city, local officials said, while the Kyiv and Odesa regions bore the brunt of Moscow's latest attacks.

The air war between Russia and Ukraine has intensified as the conflict stretches into its fifth year following Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor. The front line in eastern and southern Ukraine remains largely deadlocked, and U.S. efforts to negotiate a settlement have yet to produce a path to peace.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy exchanged threats late Tuesday over what their next steps might be.

Zelenskyy warned foreign airlines that the skies over Russia are not safe for flights because of Ukrainian long-range drone attacks, saying that “Russian airspace will effectively be closing.” The military pressure aims to compel Russia to accept peace negotiations, he said.

Putin accused Zelenskyy of “state terrorism” and said: “We don’t negotiate with terrorists.”

Putin’s comments got short shrift from Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, a government body, which said the remarks were a flagrant attempt by the Russian leader to shift the blame away from Moscow.

“A state that itself unleashed this war, that daily commits terror against Ukrainian civilians and destroys cities, is again trying to portray itself as a ‘victim,’” the center said.

Russian Transport Minister Andrey Nikitin dismissed any travel concerns, saying that authorities are constantly strengthening flight safety.

“We will not allow any significant disruptions to civil aviation,” he told reporters, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

At a late-night news conference on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan, Putin also addressed reports that the Ukrainian military had used British-made drones to strike targets inside Russia.

Asked whether Russia would strike British military facilities if the U.K. government continues to provide Ukraine with weaponry, Putin declined to rule it out. With a small smile, he told reporters that is “a military secret.”

China and North Korea, meanwhile, have provided military support for Russia, as has Iran in previous years.

The Russian and Ukrainian leaders' comments came as European officials weigh their response to the latest in what they say is Moscow’s campaign of continental sabotage and disruption aimed at weakening support for Ukraine. Germany on Tuesday blamed Russia for an attempted attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport last month using a drone laden with explosives.

Russia fired 174 attack drones, about half of them jet-powered drones that are hard to stop and are increasingly being deployed by Moscow, as well as two ballistic missiles and two plane-launched missiles at Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force.

Russian strikes on the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine killed a man and a woman, local officials said.

The assault hit food warehouses belonging to a Dnipro retail chain, wounding at least six people, said Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration.

Moscow’s forces have recently hit other food storage depots, leaving some supermarket shelves empty. Russian forces have targeted civilian facilities in what Ukrainian officials say is an effort to disrupt daily life and sap public morale.

“Unfortunately, there has been far too little response from the world and its most influential leaders to this latest Russian escalation of strikes,” Zelenskyy said on social media Wednesday. “Every partner knows what is needed: air defense for Ukraine, sanctions against Russia, and a significant increase in defense production.”

Officials in the southern Ukraine region of Odesa reported that the attack damaged a 24-story residential building, destroying apartments on several floors and wounding eight people, including a child.

A man and a woman were wounded by shrapnel in morning attacks on the Kyiv region, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional military administration.

It was the seventh straight day Kyiv came under attack, although the latest barrage wasn’t as heavy as in previous days.

Russian air defenses destroyed 130 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday. The drones were shot down over 11 Russian regions, as well as the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the Black Sea, it said.

Ukrainian drone attacks killed two people in Russia’s Belgorod border region and wounded 16 more, acting Gov. Alexander Shuvayev said. Ukrainian forces hit the region 140 times over the course of 24 hours, he said.

Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range drones have repeatedly targeted Russia's oil sector, hoping to dent the economy, and the warehouses of online retailers, to make the Russian public feel the effects of war.

The Russian army’s effort to drive deeper into Ukraine has lost its momentum, according to Western analysts and officials.

Russian advances in August were “a fraction” of Moscow’s gains during the same month last year, the Institute for the Study of War said late Tuesday.

Russia’s spring-summer offensive has failed to smash Ukraine’s front-line defenses, the Washington-based think tank said.

“Russian gains remain slow and limited,” it said.

Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Firefighters put out a fire at warehouse stores after a Russian air attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out a fire in a warehouse following a Russian drone attack near Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out a fire in a warehouse following a Russian drone attack near Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters arrive to put out a fire in a residential building after a Russian drone attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

BERLIN (AP) — Two incidents that disrupted power distribution systems in the west and east of Germany are being investigated as possible sabotage, authorities said Wednesday, while one of them was also being examined for possible terrorism links.

Multiple explosive devices were found Tuesday morning at a substation near the Jänschwalde coal-fired power plant in Brandenburg in northeast Germany. No general power outage resulted, but only one of the devices caused short circuits, authorities said.

Brandenburg police said later on Wednesday on X that it had also launched an investigation into the formation of a terrorist organization “in conjunction with causing an explosion involving explosives and the destruction of important work equipment.”

The interior minister of Brandenburg state said that “at this time, we cannot rule out any perpetrators.”

“What we are currently experiencing is a hybrid threat, and in that regard, we cannot rule out the possibility that foreign powers are behind it,” Brandenburg Interior Minister Jan Redmann told public broadcaster ARD.

Germany is on high alert after the government on Tuesday blamed Russia for an attempted attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport on Aug. 4 using a drone laden with explosives.

Emergency responders were on the scene Wednesday searching the area for additional evidence, police said, leading to some road closures. Investigators were combing through the area in large groups, searching the ground for possible clues.

Officials described the explosive devices as similar to fireworks, saying that only one of more than a dozen “rocketlike objects equipped with a propellant charge” reached its target. One projectile managed to carry a cable into the high-voltage power line to establish a conductive connection to the ground, the German news agency dpa reported.

In a separate incident, a short circuit that caused several power lines to go out of service Tuesday evening at the Bergheim power substation near Cologne in western Germany was a deliberate act, security officials said Wednesday, adding there was no general power outage.

RWE, the company operating coal power plants at the Bergheim substation, said five coal-fired units with a combined capacity of 4,200 megawatts were taken offline after the incident.

“It wasn’t a broken switch, it was intentional. It was a criminal act,” said Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, where Bergheim is located. “We are investigating two possibilities: sabotage directed by a foreign government and left-wing extremism. We cannot rule out either possibility at this time.”

“There were bright flashes of light visible along the power lines, the overhead wires. In German, that’s called a short circuit. Several lines were affected,” Reul told reporters Tuesday night.

He added that based on the investigation's current status, “the perpetrators deliberately caused a short circuit by placing conductive material — presumably cables — over the overhead line.”

Security officials from both regions were in contact and closely checking for possible connections between the Brandenburg and Bergheim incidents, Reul said.

“Is this connected to Brandenburg, to the attacks on the railways, to hybrid threats from abroad?” Reul said in response to a question. “The answer is: We are investigating, and very thoroughly at that. But investigating is not the same as knowing, and speculation is not proof.”

Three power plants are expected to go back online later on Wednesday. Work is underway to bring the two remaining units back online by the weekend.

German power infrastructure has previously been affected under similar circumstances. Suspected left-wing extremists set fire to high-voltage lines near a power plant in southwest Berlin in January.

—-

Ciobanu reported from Warsaw.

A police helicopter is circling above the Amprion substation in Bergheim, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (Henning Kaiser/dpa via AP)

A police vehicle is blocking a road leading to the Jänschwalde power plant in Turnow-Preilack, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (Michael Ukas/dpa via AP)

Water vapor rises from the cooling towers at the Jänschwalde power plant in Turnow-Preilack, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (Frank Hammerschmidt/dpa via AP)