The moment a Russian drone slammed into a Ukrainian university

2 hours ago 1

By Iona Cleave

September 17, 2025 — 11.55am

Russian forces have launched a wave of daylight attacks on Ukraine, striking a university and killing at least two people.

A drone struck the National University of Pharmacy in the centre of Kharkiv, heavily damaging the educational centre and causing injuries.

Footage showed the moment the drone slammed into the building in Ukraine’s second-largest city, sending a huge cloud of debris into the air as pedestrians ran for their lives.

Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov said four people were hurt, including three women in their 50s, and an 89-year-old man.

Russia also bombarded the Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and the Kyiv regions early on Tuesday in what Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky called a “typical day for Russia”, whose forces are intent on hitting sites with “no military purpose whatsoever”.

Despite US President Donald Trump’s attempts to engage his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, a breakthrough in peace talks appears to be no closer as Russia continues its daily assaults.

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Tuesday, a building is seen on fire after a Russian strike on Kharkiv region.

Trump has issued a series of ultimatums and deadlines that have passed without apparent consequences for Moscow. Since the two leaders’ Alaska summit in August, Russia has continued to escalate its overnight bombardments of Ukraine, without apparent fear of reprisal.

Last week, Russia provoked widespread condemnation when its drones entered Poland in an unprecedented violation of Nato airspace.

Over recent days, Moscow’s forces have also struck several Ukrainian railway stations following months of Kyiv’s own successful strikes on Russian railways.

In Ukraine’s south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday, a 41-year-old man was killed and 18 others injured by Russian strikes that hit more than 20 homes and sparked multiple fires.

“I heard some distant explosions very far away, so we went to sleep. And then there was a super-strong explosion which blew out our windows,” Oleksii, 35, a Zaporizhzhia resident, told Reuters.

The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog on Tuesday said its team at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant heard shelling close to the site and observed black smoke rising from nearby locations, Reuters also reported. “The incident once again underlined the constant dangers to nuclear safety and security,” International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi said.

Since July, experts say Russia has systematically targeted key rail junctions, including those used for civilians and many far from the front line, in an effort to cause widespread destruction and stop the supply of Kyiv’s war effort.

There were also reports that Russian air defence units in the border region of Belgorod accidentally fired on their own drones by mistake as the kamikaze weapons were en route to Kharkiv.

After Tuesday’s attacks, Zelensky demanded that the world “respond to every strike” to finally make Moscow “feel pain”.

“Until Russia feels truly significant losses – above all economic losses – it will continue to avoid genuine diplomacy and ending the war. It is crucial that the world respond to every strike,” he wrote on X.

Zelensky said that in the past two weeks Russia had launched more than 3500 drones, more than 2500 powerful glide bombs and almost 200 missiles at targets inside Ukraine.

Noting the recent drone incident in Poland, he urged European leaders to make the continent safe by building an ambitious air defence umbrella.

Rescuers work on a site of a house destroyed by a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia. This image was provided by the regional military administration.

“Now is the time to implement the joint protection of our European skies with a multilayered air defence system. All the technologies for this are available,” he said on Telegram.

“We need investments and desire, we need strong actions and decisions from all our partners.”

Russia’s glide bombs, usually dropped by jets at high altitude on targets far behind the front line, and drone swarms are a real challenge for Ukraine’s depleted air defences. Kyiv still has no effective counter-measure against them.

Putin on Tuesday, meanwhile, was pictured putting on a jovial display at the large-scale Zapad 2025 joint military exercises between Belarus and Russia, which began on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, centre, inspects weapons and equipment during the Zapad 2025 military drills in Nizhny Novgorod region, Russia, on Tuesday.

The Russian leader smiled and winked at his military commanders during the war games, which are intended to be a major show of force against NATO.

Ahead of his UK state visit, Trump piled pressure on Europe to deprive Russia of energy revenues.

Following his demands, the EU was forced to delay a 19th round of sanctions intended to be presented on Wednesday. They were designed to target Russian banks and Moscow’s sanctions-evading “shadow fleet” of oil tankers.

Trump over the weekend said that he would impose “major” sanctions on Russian oil when all NATO nations stop buying oil from Russia. Imports of Russian oil have plummeted since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but Hungary and Slovakia insist they need to keep the pipelines flowing.

Telegraph, London

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