**🇷🇺 Russia – Thursday, 1 October 2026**
**Russia debuts pylon-cutting drone**
A Zelensky adviser says Russia used a jet-powered drone with a shaped-charge warhead built to sever power pylons for the first time, part of its heaviest combined energy-grid attack in months on the night of September 30 into October 1, involving nearly 190 drones plus ballistic missiles on Kyiv Oblast. Russia has not commented on the claim.
**Previously:**
The Kyiv Independent
Russia strikes Ukrainian pylon with steel-cutting drone for 1st time, as power outages hit 3 regions
The warhead was designed to destroy high-voltage pylons and steel bridges and contains a 40-kilogram main charge and four additional destructive mo...
🇷🇺 Russia – Wednesday, 30 September 2026
**Fresh missile strike hits Kyiv again**
Ukraine says Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv again overnight into Wednesday, disrupting electricity in parts of the city and injuring two, a night after the Academy of Sciences strike. Separately, Zelensky said over 8,000 North Korean troops are already on Russian territory with 10,000 more being prepared for deployment, a claim Moscow has not addressed.
https://www.kyivpost.com/thread/85696
**Russia sets record defense budget**
Russia's government submitted a 2027 defense budget of roughly $202 billion, about 27% above the original 2026 figure and the highest since the war began, while envoy Kirill Dmitriev met US officials in Washington to discuss future US-Russia energy projects once the war ends.
https://www.kyivpost.com/thread/85696
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