Russian forces struck rear-area cities and all three active fronts on September 14, killing at least ten civilians and wounding dozens more. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s political crisis over a scam call-center scandal reached the country’s top prosecutor, and a weekslong warning from the finance minister that Kyiv’s state budget was nearing collapse culminated in a fresh appeal from the prime minister to parliament.
Kyiv and its surrounding region came under another wave of jet-powered Russian drone attacks, though no impacts or casualties were confirmed in the capital. In Chernihiv Oblast, a Russian drone struck warehouse buildings belonging to an agricultural enterprise in Pryluky, sparking a fire that killed three people and injured 13, according to an updated toll from the regional emergency service.
In Sumy Oblast, a Russian drone struck a repair crew’s vehicle the previous evening as workers responded to a damaged power line in the Konotop district, killing a 53-year-old driver and wounding a 50-year-old electrician.
On the eastern front, Russian forces struck Kharkiv and seven surrounding settlements with KAB glide bombs and drones, wounding four people, including a two-month-old infant, regional administration head Oleh Syniehubov reported. Ukraine’s General Staff said troops repelled six Russian assaults near Kozacha Lopan and Hrafske and three more near Kivsharivka in the Kupiansk direction.
In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Russian drones struck the Nikopol, Pokrovske, and Myriv communities and the Petropavlivka community in the Synelnykove district, wounding two women, ages 34 and 39. A separate drone strike damaged infrastructure in Kryvyi Rih.
Donetsk Oblast came under 27 separate shelling attacks over 24 hours. The heaviest struck Kramatorsk, where Russian forces killed two people and wounded ten using three KAB-250 glide bombs and drones. The attack damaged seven apartment buildings and three private homes, regional administration head Vadym Filashkin reported. An FPV drone strike killed a third person in Druzhkivka, echoing an earlier Kramatorsk strike this month. In total, 40 civilian structures were damaged across the oblast.
On the southern front, Zaporizhzhia Oblast came under 876 strikes, including 19 airstrikes, across 54 settlements, killing one person and wounding four in the Zaporizhzhia district, regional defense council co-chair Ivan Fedorov reported. In Kherson Oblast, Russian drone, artillery, and airstrikes hit 42 settlements, killing two people and wounding 14. The attacks damaged seven apartment buildings, 13 private homes, administrative buildings, and ambulances, regional administration head Oleksandr Prokudin said.
Ukraine’s General Staff reported that Russian forces lost approximately 1,700 personnel over the previous 24 hours, bringing estimated Russian losses since the invasion began to 1.51 million. Ukrainian losses were not disclosed.
In political developments, President Volodymyr Zelensky suspended Ruslan Kravchenko as prosecutor general on September 14 following an investigation by Ukraine’s anticorruption agencies into a criminal network inside the Prosecutor General’s Office accused of protecting scam call centers.
He left the country with his wife overnight after signing a notice of suspicion against the anticorruption bureau’s director, a move critics called an attempt to avoid accountability. Zelensky has asked parliament to formally remove him.
Separately, the Cabinet of Ministers dismissed Karnaukh as acting head of the State Tax Service without publicly stating a reason.
The shakeup came amid weeks of warnings from Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko about Ukraine’s finances. On September 4, Marchenko told Euronews that Ukraine had not faced such a tense budget situation since the invasion began in 2022. He said the government could face a deficit of up to $32.6 billion and possible delays in nonmilitary payments.
On September 10, Marchenko told the Rada’s finance committee that delayed international financing was forcing the ministry to restrict spending. He did not rule out delays in public-sector salaries or “monetary financing” of the budget, meaning printing hryvnia, which he warned would cause devaluation and inflation.
On September 14, Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi and Zelensky repeated that warning, urging lawmakers to pass legislation tied to Ukraine’s international financial commitments. They cautioned that Ukraine risks losing $29.5 billion in planned international financing if parliament misses its deadlines. Among the stalled measures is a disputed tax on parcels valued below 150 euros, a condition of Ukraine’s commitments to the International Monetary Fund.
Following major Russian strikes near a Polish-Ukrainian border crossing and a passenger train, echoing earlier train strikes this month, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that Russian attacks could intensify in the coming months.
Ukraine’s national railway confirmed that a train carrying security advisers from several European Union countries and former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had left the area shortly before a Russian drone struck nearby.
The strikes potentially sought to “disorganize, paralyze, and perhaps also destroy Ukrainian border crossings,” Tusk said. He called on Poland to adopt a posture of “maximum preparation” against future Russian attacks.
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