Ukraine War29 September, 20263 min read
Vladimir Putin Signs Decree Adding 15,500 Soldiers as Russian Drone Attack Kills Woman in Kyiv
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Putin signs decree to recruit 15,000 additional Russian soldiers. Drone attack on Kyiv kills a woman near the National Academy of Sciences.
5 outlets told this the same way.
Kyiv Academy hit
President Volodymyr Zelensky reported an additional Russian mobilization and said “They (the Russians) also plan to involve foreigners more,” while the Russian drone attack on the Academy of Sciences in Kyiv killed a woman and injured six others. Zelensky said “Currently more than 8,000 North Korean soldiers are on Russian territory,” and he added that a contingent of another 10,000 soldiers was being prepared to be sent for training and relocation to Russia. Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday increasing the army’s personnel by another 15,500 soldiers, and the decree set the permissible manpower of the Russian armed forces at 2,441,630 people, including 1,550,500 military personnel.
Fire and smoke filled the Academy of Sciences building as firefighters tried to extinguish flames, and cars burned on the street in front of the complex in Kyiv. The Academy of Sciences condemned the attack as “Russian terror” and “barbarism,” and the German Foreign Office in Berlin condemned it “most strongly.”
Explosions and alerts
The Ukrainian Air Force warned on Telegram that “New ballistic missiles are heading for Kiev,” as early Tuesday morning explosions were heard in Kyiv and air defenses were activated during an air alert. On-site journalists reported a combined drone-and-missile attack, and the Kyiv Independent described several missiles striking the capital as part of an offensive led for several days by Russian forces against the capital. In the Solomyanskyi district, Kiev mayor Vitali Klitschko said a school was hit by a Russian missile, causing a fire, while debris from a missile fell in the courtyard of a residential building elsewhere in the district without a fire being reported.
Zelensky said the strategy aimed to paralyze the country’s economy and compensate for the absence of a major Russian territorial breakthrough on the military front, more than four and a half months after the start of the full-scale invasion. Zelensky also said the day after the Academy of Sciences attack, a Russian drone strike against the National Academy of Sciences left at least one dead and six injured, and the Academy condemned “the terror against peaceful people who were simply at their place of work.”
Mobilization and budget
Vladimir Putin’s decree increasing authorized military personnel by 15,500 came as Reuters documents shown on Monday projected Russia’s military expenditures in 2027 at 17.1 trillion rubles, about 178 billion euros, and defense spending totaling 50 trillion rubles over the next three years. The documents said the government doubled its forecast for the 2026 budget deficit to 3.2 percent of GDP after previously expecting 1.6 percent, and the government planned tax increases for 2027 including a new special tax for metal and mining companies expected to bring in about 200 billion rubles annually. Ukraine’s prime minister Serhii Korotetsky said Ukraine would postpone certain expenditure commitments, notably reconstruction work, due to delays in receiving aid from foreign supporters, and he said “all resources must be directed toward critical sectors.”
Korotetsky said defense and social protection were priorities, and he added that “Some of the international funding planned has not yet arrived,” partly because Ukraine had not met certain commitments with international partners. Zelensky said more than 8,000 North Korean soldiers were on Russian territory and that preparations were underway for 10,000 additional soldiers to be selected for training before deployment later to Russia, with Russia providing technological assistance for Shahed-type attack drones.