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What the week before 7 October 2025 showed
Summary
A look back at the Russian strikes, drone attacks and sanctions decisions reported in the days leading up to 7 October 2025.
What did the security picture in Ukraine look like on 7 October 2025? The reports from the preceding days describe a week dominated by large-scale Russian strikes, attacks on civilian targets and moves on sanctions.
Strikes on cities and trains
On 5 October 2025, at least five people were killed in Lviv during an overnight Russian attack involving 53 ballistic and cruise missiles and 496 drones. The day before, on 4 October, Russian drone strikes on two passenger trains at a rail station in Shostka, Sumy Oblast, killed one person and injured at least 30.
On 3 October, French journalist Antoni Lallican was killed and photographer Hryhoriy Ivanchenko was injured by a Russian drone strike in Donetsk Oblast.
Nuclear safety and energy infrastructure
On 1 October 2025, Ukraine's energy ministry declared an emergency situation at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The New Safe Confinement structure, designed to prevent radioactive material from spreading into the environment, suffered a three-hour power outage. The cause was a Russian drone strike on an energy facility in nearby Slavutych, Kyiv Oblast.
Strikes on the Russian side
On 1 October, Volodymyr Leontiev, the former Russia-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike. On 4 October, a Russian Buyan-class corvette was allegedly attacked near Lake Onega in Karelia, Russia, and reportedly sustained damage to the right side of its power plant compartment.
Sanctions deadline
On the sanctions front, the U.S. Department of the Treasury on 1 October postponed sanctions on the Serbian oil company Naftna Industrija Srbije until 8 October 2025. Russian state-owned companies Gazprom and Gazprom Neft hold a majority of its shares. The postponement left the decision pending as 7 October began.
Taken together, the reports show a conflict in which long-range missile and drone attacks hit cities, transport and energy sites, while both sides reported strikes deep behind the front line, and the sanctions pressure on Russian oil interests in the region was still unresolved.
