Did Kyiv and Damascus restore ties on the UN sidelines?
Ukraine and Syria re-established diplomatic relations in New York, while Lithuania widened its powers against unauthorised drones.
What changed in Ukraine's diplomacy in the days before 25 September 2025? On 24 September, Ukraine and Syria restored diplomatic relations as Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ahmed al-Sharaa met on the sidelines of the eightieth session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The two countries had been without formal ties since June 2022. Ukraine broke relations then, after the government of Bashar al-Assad recognised the Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk territories as independent.
Lithuania widens drone rules
A related security development came a day earlier. On 23 September, Lithuania's parliament authorised its military to shoot down any unauthorised drones in the country's airspace. The decision followed recent incursions by Russian drones. Before the change, only drones judged to be armed, or to pose an imminent threat to critical state assets, could be targeted.
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, states near the conflict, particularly NATO members, have reported numerous violations of their airspace. Most were attributed to Russian equipment such as drones and aircraft, though Ukrainian equipment was also responsible on several occasions, most notably in the 2022 Przewodów explosion that killed two Polish civilians.
