Russia and Ukraine paused strikes on one another’s capitals over the weekend to permit United States President Donald Trump’s envoys to go to Moscow and make their first journey to Kyiv because the conflict started, as Washington makes an attempt to revive talks which have been stalled since February.
The journey by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner comes after a Russian air campaign battered Kyiv for 10 consecutive days, killing no less than 53 individuals. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned the conflict will possible proceed into winter, with no breakthrough introduced after the talks.
Because the conflict grinds on by way of its fifth 12 months, Al Jazeera visualises how either side has come to depend on drones over artillery, with assaults reaching additional and additional past the entrance line and civilian infrastructure and cities more and more caught within the crossfire.
Assaults on civilian infrastructure greater than doubled
The conflict, which started with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has seen each side more and more focusing on civilian infrastructure.
In keeping with an evaluation by Armed Battle Location and Occasion Knowledge (ACLED), Russian forces carried out 29,792 assaults on Ukraine in 2022. Of those, 1,635, greater than 5 p.c, hit civilian infrastructure, together with residential, power, healthcare and training services.
By August 2026, the variety of Russian assaults on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine had risen to 7,170, representing greater than 13 p.c of all Russian assaults on the nation.
The identical ACLED evaluation recorded 245 Ukrainian assaults in Russia in 2022, with 24 of these – about 10 p.c – focusing on civilian infrastructure. By August 2026, that determine had risen to three,560 assaults, or 27 p.c of all Ukrainian assaults in Russia.
Though a bigger share of Ukrainian assaults focused civilian infrastructure, Russia carried out way more assaults total.
The place is civilian infrastructure being focused?
Russia has persistently directed strikes at Ukraine’s power grid and has once more warned of “large strikes” on infrastructure within the run-up to winter, in retaliation for assaults on its oil and fuel services, in keeping with transmission system operator Ukrenergo.
In keeping with ACLED, the vast majority of Russian assaults on Ukraine have occurred alongside the entrance line in Donetsk, which has confronted greater than 3,652 assaults, adopted by Kharkiv (3,590), Sumy (2,969), Dnipropetrovsk (1,797), and Kherson (1,147). Exterior the jap and border provinces of Ukraine, the Kyiv area, together with the nationwide capital, has recorded 742 assaults.
About 68 p.c of Russian assaults on civilian infrastructure hit residential buildings in Ukraine, whereas greater than 19 p.c struck power services, adopted by training buildings (7.7 p.c) and healthcare services (5.1 p.c).
Ukraine, in flip, has used long-range drones to strike Russian oil and fuel services, logistics hubs and warehouses, together with these belonging to e-commerce firms Wildberries and Ozon.
On Friday, Zelenskyy mentioned Ukraine would launch no less than “1,000 drones” towards Russia every day, in contrast with the every day common of 300 or so till now.
The vast majority of Ukrainian assaults on Russia have occurred within the western area of Belgorod, which has skilled greater than 9,549 assaults, adopted by Kursk (1,035), Bryansk (297), Krasnodar (286) and Rostov (185).
About 69 p.c of Ukrainian assaults have hit residential infrastructure in Russia, whereas nearly 30 p.c have struck energy infrastructure. Lower than 2 p.c of strikes have focused training or healthcare infrastructure.
The graphic under compares Russian and Ukrainian assaults on civilian infrastructure because the begin of the conflict.
Drones dominate the conflict, however Russia nonetheless depends on missiles
Within the conflict’s early years, air and drone strikes made up solely a small share of assaults on each side, which relied primarily on shelling and artillery.
That has since reversed, with drone and air strikes now accounting for the lion’s share of assaults on each side.
In keeping with the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research (CSIS), Russia is on observe to launch 840 ballistic missiles at Ukraine this 12 months, 47 p.c greater than in 2025.
Russia has stepped up its use of ballistic missiles in current months, together with the primary confirmed fight use of its upgraded, longer-range Iskander-1000 towards Kyiv, in keeping with Ukraine’s Important Directorate of Intelligence.
Extra interceptors wanted
Ukraine’s state information company Ukrinform reported on September 1, quoting air drive spokesperson Yurii Ihnat, that they’d shot down all cruise missiles fired within the in a single day assault. Ukraine, nonetheless,”requires extra capabilities, notably extra Patriot interceptor missiles”.
Ukraine’s provides of costly, US-made Patriot missiles and German-made IRIS-T interceptors have dwindled, impeding its potential to shoot down ballistic missiles. Interception charges have consequently fallen from 24 p.c in 2025 to 10.2 p.c in 2026, in keeping with CSIS.
The rising risk of superior ballistic missiles is growing the necessity for classy antimissile defence techniques similar to Patriot, THAAD, AMRAAM, and IRIS-T, in keeping with CSIS.
Western assist has helped to broaden Ukraine’s drone and air defence capabilities. In June, the European Union supplied 3.9 billion euros ($4.53bn) in the direction of a 6 billion euros ($6.97bn) drone procurement bundle, whereas the UK introduced a 752 million kilos ($1.02bn) bundle to ship 150,000 drones and greater than 350 air defence missiles and radars by the top of the 12 months.
