Russia and Ukraine have each promised to step up strikes on the other’s infrastructure, an escalation that has coincided with an unannounced visit to Kyiv by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on October 4.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said in a statement that attacks on military and military-industrial facilities, and on related infrastructure in Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions, would be intensified. It presented the decision as a direct answer to the Ukrainian President.
Volodymyr Zelensky had told Reuters that Ukraine would double down on attacks against Russian oil refineries. He said this was a response to a new Russian approach of mass air strikes intended to drive people out of Kyiv and other cities, and that Ukrainian forces would not target civilians.
Both sides deny striking civilian targets. Moscow says its recent bombardment answers Ukrainian attacks inside Russia, among them alleged drone and missile strikes on local electoral commissions during the Duma elections that killed six people.
Russian forces have concentrated on bridges over the Dnipro in recent days, with a drone hitting the roadway of Kyiv’s Northern Bridge on the morning of October 4. Zelensky said Moscow had moved from warehouses to bridges and that Kyiv had replied in kind.
Merz, who travelled to the capital by train, announced a package worth more than €1.3 billion. About €1 billion of that is military aid, including long-range strike weapons, combat drones and satellite technology, with the remainder directed at the energy sector before winter.
Zelensky said 15 agreements and documents worth more than €8.5 billion had been signed. Most cover security cooperation, weapons production and procurement, Ukrainian orders placed with German industry and joint projects inside Ukraine, among them an expansion of counter-drone work.
Germany is Ukraine’s largest donor after the United States, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. The commitments were made as Kyiv presses EU capitals to bring forward a loan to cover a funding gap it puts at $27 billion for 2026 and 2027.
Russia’s foreign ministry had warned foreign nationals and accredited diplomats to leave the capital, citing the risk of further massive strikes. EU ambassador to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová said the EU delegation, its advisory mission and the embassies of 25 member states would remain in place.
“We are staying,” she wrote, adding that the threats were an attempt to frighten Europe into reducing its support for Ukraine.
Restraint on energy targets has been under discussion since US President Donald Trump said in September that both sides had agreed to spare each other’s facilities, a claim neither confirmed. Ukraine treats Russian refineries as legitimate targets because oil revenues fund the invasion.
