What did 22 October 2025 reveal about the war?

What did the reports of 22 October 2025 show about the shape of the war? Looking back from the vantage of 24 October 2025, the days before it were marked by strikes on civilian and energy sites in Ukraine, and by an incident inside Russia.

In Kharkiv, Russian drone strikes hit a kindergarten in the Kholodnohirskyi District. One person was killed and six others were injured. In Kyiv, Russian strikes on power plants killed six people and injured several others.

The same day, three soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces were killed in an operation in Stavropol, in Stavropol Krai, Russia.

Fronts beyond the front line

The Stavropol incident belongs to a category of events described as attacks in mainland Russia since the full-scale invasion of 24 February 2022. The main targets of such attacks have been the military, the arms industry and the oil industry. Many have involved drone strikes, firebombing and rail sabotage. Ukrainian intelligence services have acknowledged carrying out some of them, while others have been carried out by anti-war activists in Russia.

What the pattern showed

Taken together, the reports of 22 October 2025 covered three different kinds of target: a children's facility in a regional city, energy infrastructure in the capital, and Russian military personnel far from the front. The Kyiv toll of six dead and the casualties in Kharkiv showed that Russian strikes were reaching both cities and the power plants serving them.