Early in the morning of September 18, 2025, the night sky of Ukraine could not withstand the dawn, Russia launched the most violent airstrike since the war, for a total of 12 hours, 595 drones and 48 missiles were rotated, Kiev was directly targeted.
Zelensky was furious, openly vowed to "blood debt blood pay", and called on the Western countries to stop "spelling inexercise", this airstrike was not only a military assault, but more like a geopolitical heavy kick, striking on the Ukrainian defense line, but also on the nerves of the international community.
Drones + hypersonic missiles, Russia is fighting a "combination punch" of modern warfare
Russia's move this time is by no means simply "dropping bombs". From a tactical perspective, this is a highly coordinated military exercise. 595 drones pounced on the Ukrainian defense line wave after wave like a tide. Although Ukraine The air defense force claimed to have shot down 611 targets (including missiles), but the core logic of a saturation attack is to keep you overwhelmed.
These drones are not expensive, but amazing numbers, and for Ukraine’s radar systems and missile interceptor systems, it is like playing a “unbeatable defense” consumption war, a military commentator said directly: “This is not a war, it is the sudden death of the air defense system.”
From the very beginning of the name, the missile is filled with a feeling of oppression, it flies fast, turns sharply, and trajectories are difficult to measure, and existing air defense systems cannot stop it at all.
In this air strike, it was directly targeted areas, to Ukraine's military-industrial facilities and energy systems came a few bad news, even the facilities were completely paralyzed in the explosion, the People's Network earlier pointed out that the emergence of high-speed hypersonic weapons, is making the traditional defense system "collectively unemployment".
Of course, Ukraine is not unprepared. They have been desperately importing air defense equipment from the West in the past two years. Various radars and anti-missile systems can basically deal with conventional attacks, but they cannot stand Russia's "wheel warfare", especially this time, missiles and drones. Attacks in batches, for example, are like having ten thieves queuing up to break into your door. You have two locks. If you can prevent the first two, the rest can only rely on luck.
Worse, the airstrikes were not just aimed at military targets, but Kiev’s power systems, transport hubs, and medical facilities were damaged to varying degrees.
Some hospitals can only rely on spare power supply to maintain emergency assistance after power outages, the subway stops, citizens are trapped in underground shelters for more than 8 hours, refugees flood again, many families are displaced overnight.
At the international level, this attack method has also attracted attention. Some scholars pointed out that this air strike is actually a "technology show" of modern warfare, showing a new paradigm of unmanned, intelligent and high-speed warfare, but the question also follows. Who will set limits on technology abuse? Which attacks are legitimate? This is not something that can be solved by one or two condemnation statements alone.
Zelensky's angry criticism of Russia is behind the "overtime" of diplomatic war
Just after the air strike, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's response came, "This is a coward's behavior, and Russia will pay for every missile." As soon as this sentence came out, the Ukrainian media collectively swiped the screen, and his next action was even more direct, calling for more assistance from the United States, the European Union and the G7 overnight, especially the new air defense system and the escalation of sanctions against Russia.
Zelensky's strategy, which has always been "front war, back shouting", this time is no exception, he asked Western countries to freeze Russia's overseas assets, restrict Russian energy exports, and made it clear that "Russia cannot buy missiles to bomb us by selling the money earned from oil."
Although President Trump has a tough attitude in the campaign, but he took the "finished calculation" strategy on foreign military aid after taking office, Treasury Secretary Bessent openly said: "The United States can not pay unlimited for the war of another country."
Russia's defense ministry said all targets were "military facilities" intended to counter Ukraine's recent attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.
In other words, this air strike was "tit for tat", and the Russian media also publicized this "successful counter-action" in China, trying to portray itself as the party forced to fight.
But the response from the international community did not pay off, with the EU condemning Russia’s “undifferentiated attack” and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressing “serious concern about civilian casualties.”
Chinese representatives, on the other hand, called on all sides to maintain restraint, stressing that resolving differences through dialogue and avoiding further out of control of the situation, a position that is neither opposed to the escalation of war nor blind andins strategic stability.
In the global energy market, this conflict is not silent. Ukraine previously attacked Russia's natural gas pipelines and oil ports. Russia obviously retaliated "with interest" this time. As a result, global oil prices soared overnight. European market gas prices jumped again, and the energy ministers of Germany and France held an emergency meeting to discuss winter energy security.
This forms an infinite loop. You attack my energy, I blow up your city, civilians suffer, the market panics, and then each person increases their weight. No one wins, and everyone loses.
Behind the escalation of conflict is the vacuum left after a peaceful absence.
This round of air strikes brought with it not only ruins, but also an increasing humanitarian burden, with data showing that in Kiev alone, more than 20 districts with power disruptions, more than 1,000 people forced to be relocated, food and medicine shortages, refugee camps again exploded, UNHCR warned “Ukraine will see a new round of internal displacement.”
In addition to the humanitarian issue, the greater challenge is reconstruction, a Ukrainian engineer who wrote relentlessly on social media: “The power plant we just rebuilt has exploded again.”
Reconstruction requires money, technology, and human resources, and Ukraine is now lacking in all three, and despite the abundance of international assistance, efficiency and landing have always been a problem.
The "outflow effect" of this war is also changing the global political landscape, Russian-US relations continue to deteriorate, NATO's Eastern expansion issue has warmed again, Poland and the Baltic countries have demanded an increase in U.S. troops, and Chinese representatives have repeatedly emphasized "security and indivisibility", reminding countries not to trigger regional conflicts into a global crisis.
One of the biggest problems at the moment is the lack of progress in the delay in peace talks, Ukraine insists that Russia must withdraw its troops, while Russia stresses that “security guarantees” are a prerequisite.
Both sides have mutual distrust, and the negotiating table is fake, unless there is a third party that can propose a framework that both sides can accept, otherwise it is difficult to break through in the short term.
But even in the darkest moments, there are some notable signals that the UN Secretary-General has proposed a “humanitarian ceasefire window” and Chinese representatives are also pushing for the idea of an “energy neutral zone” to try to exclude energy facilities from the list of attacks.
Those initiatives, although not yet grounded, at least prove the fact that peace is never without a voice, but requires someone to persist.
From a technical point of view, the air strike also ringed the alarm clock again, the rapid popularity of drones and hypersonic missiles has gone far in the forefront of international regulations, Xinhua said that the current lack of clear regulations for such weapons, many countries are in border vague zone operation, in the future if not as soon as possible to formulate rules, similar attacks will only be more and more.
Technology changes the war, but it should also change the way war is controlled, and in the future, if the international community cannot form a consensus, the war will no longer be the confrontation of tanks and cannons, but the match of algorithms and speed, ultimately the victim, will only be the handless ordinary people.
This airstrike is both an escalation of military violence and a collapse of diplomatic trust, with Russia’s tricks, Ukraine’s anger, Western hesitations and China’s persuasion drawing together a map of Europe in the depths of conflict, peace is not stacked by screaming slogans, it requires real dialogue, rules, trust and conciliation.
12 hours of bombing can destroy a city, but can not destroy the will of a nation to persist in survival, but the space of peace is still worth our death and death to guard.