Ukrainian Drones Hit Voronezh, Killing Two to Three, as Russia and Ukraine Prepare for November Talks

A Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian city of Voronezh overnight into Monday, Oct. 26, killed at least two people and injured at least 17, according to regional governor Alexander Gusev.

Gusev wrote on Telegram that "more than 70 drones" were shot down over the city between late Sunday and early Monday. He called it a "terrorist attack." At an emergency meeting later in the day he put the death toll at three, according to The Moscow Times. That outlet's count of the injured was 29.

Most of the wounded were on a moving commuter train in Voronezh's left-bank suburbs when debris from a downed drone fell on it, Gusev said. Two of the injured are in serious condition. He did not say where the dead were killed.

Fires and a possible rubber plant hit

Drone debris started fires at several industrial sites, a business center in the city center, a residential building and a school sports arena, Gusev said. He said the industrial premises were not significantly damaged.

The exiled outlet Astra, using eyewitness footage of black smoke, identified one target as a synthetic rubber plant owned by the petrochemical company Sibur. That identification has not been confirmed by Russian authorities. The plant makes polymers used in military aircraft tires, armored vehicles and solid rocket fuel components, according to The Moscow Times.

If Astra is right, it would be the third strike on a Russian synthetic rubber factory in three days, after attacks on plants in Tolyatti and Omsk over the weekend.

Elsewhere in Russia, Bryansk governor Yegor Kovalchuk said a drone attack killed a train driver Sunday night. Russian Railways said at least five passengers were wounded when a train from Anapa to Moscow was hit. Russia's Defense Ministry said it intercepted 290 Ukrainian drones across Russia and annexed Crimea overnight, and civil aviation authorities briefly suspended flights at all Moscow airports.

On Sunday, local authorities said a Ukrainian drone attack on Belgorod killed three people and injured 13, and a later strike killed another person.

Russia's overnight attacks on Ukraine

Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 140 drones and four missiles overnight. Air defenses downed 112 drones and three Kh-59/69 missiles.

A strike on Zaporizhzhia injured four people and damaged houses, cars and a hotel. Two people were wounded in the Chernihiv region, where a hangar and a grain storage facility were hit. A strike on an energy facility in the Kamianets-Podilskyi district forced emergency power cuts in the Khmelnytskyi region. Guided bombs on Izium injured three people.

Zelenskyy said Sunday that over the past week Russia had launched about 1,600 guided bombs, 48 missiles and almost 2,300 strike drones at Ukraine.

The diplomacy underneath

The strikes come days after Moscow agreed on Wednesday, Oct. 21, to return to trilateral negotiations with Ukraine and the United States. Putin told U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, at Witkoff's request during a three-hour meeting, that he would resume talks after November 10, according to CNN. Moscow says the venue will be Abu Dhabi.

Direct talks were held several times in 2025 without a settlement and have been frozen since the start of this year.

The pattern since then has been talks and strikes at the same time. Hours after the Putin-Witkoff meeting, Russia fired 21 missiles and 210 drones at Ukraine, Zelenskyy said. The attack killed two people and injured 34 in Kyiv. The Ukrainian Air Force said none of the ballistic missiles that hit the capital were intercepted. Ukraine faces a critical shortage of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors.

President Trump said Wednesday his administration is "the closest we've been" to settling the war. Zelenskyy's reply was blunt. "When Russian ballistic missiles are the response to negotiations, real pressure must be applied on Russia," he said.

Russian officials say the opposite about who is the aggressor in the current exchange. Gusev's "terrorist attack" description of the Voronezh strike reflects Moscow's line on Ukrainian drone raids on Russian cities. Russia's Defense Ministry has said its own drones hit cargo vessels bound for the Ukrainian ports of Chornomorsk and Odesa because the ships were supplying the Ukrainian army. Ukraine disputes that framing of its strikes and attacks on civilian areas.

Territory, security and the refinery dispute

Zelenskyy said Sunday that Kyiv is "ready to talk." "If it's a territorial issue, it must be addressed at a leadership level," he said. "Other issues fall within the remit of the technical groups." He renewed his push for a meeting with Putin. He said Ukraine will not discuss limits on its armed forces or enforced postwar neutrality in November.

Those are the points Russia has pressed. Moscow's previous demands include Ukraine ceding all of the Donbas, shrinking its military and pledging never to join NATO. Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said after the Witkoff meeting that Moscow wants to discuss a "security framework" for both countries once the fighting ends. He gave no details. CNN reported no indication that Russia has moved off its maximalist positions.

There are small signs of de-escalation. On Friday, Oct. 23, Kyiv and Moscow agreed to a localized ceasefire around Oleshky, a heavily damaged Russian-occupied town in southern Ukraine.

Washington has also been leaning on Kyiv. The U.S. wants Ukraine to stop hitting Russian oil refineries, which it says push energy prices higher. Starshield satellite internet service to Ukraine was throttled earlier in October amid that pressure. Zelenskyy said it was restored at full speed after he met Witkoff in Oslo, bringing back U.S. warnings about incoming Russian ballistic missiles.

Zelenskyy says Kyiv will stop the refinery strikes only if Moscow stops hitting Ukraine's power grid, if the U.S. lets Ukraine use Starshield over Russia to find ballistic missile launch sites, or if it supplies Patriot missiles. Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure continued overnight in Khmelnytskyi.

The November meeting has no confirmed date beyond "after November 10," and the question Zelenskyy wants reserved for Putin is the one Russia has so far treated as already settled: who controls the Donbas.