Russia's Biggest Drone Wave Hits Schools, Data Centres

Russia launched one of its largest drone barrages of the war, firing 162 Shahed-type drones at Ukraine, killing seven people and wounding 59 across 27 locations. Two schools were hit: a drone struck a two-story preschool in Kyiv's Obolon district, sparking a fire, and another hit Ivankiv Lyceum No. 2 in Kyiv Oblast, burning over 300 square metres of a 1,100-pupil school; no students were inside. Zelensky said Russia is now also striking data centres, aiming to cut Ukrainians off from communications, education and work. The barrage landed amid tense diplomacy. Bloomberg reported Trump asked Zelensky at their Sept. 22 New York meeting to go to Moscow for talks with Putin; Zelensky refused, and Kyiv's Presidential Office denied the account, saying talks are still expected in the UAE. Putin accused Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania of systematically violating Russian speakers' rights, rhetoric echoing past pretexts for Russian military action, and claimed without evidence that Ukraine struck polling stations near Moscow during local elections. Germany linked a recent Munich arson attack to Russian intelligence. Elsewhere, twelve EU states resisted proposed caps on defence spending in the bloc's rearmament plan, UK police broke up a stolen-phone smuggling network, Manchester mayor Andy Burnham ruled out an early election, and U2 marked 50 years with new music and a world tour.