Sanctions and a drone strike: Ukraine's news of 13 September
A look back at two reports from 13 September 2026 that were still shaping coverage on 15 September.
What was Ukraine's political and security picture on 15 September 2026? Two reports from 13 September, two days earlier, framed it: a new round of presidential sanctions and a drone strike on a train in the west of the country.
Sanctions on alleged propagandists
On 13 September, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sanctioned his former press secretary, Iuliia Mendel, and nine others. The allegation was that they had spread Russian propaganda and supported Russia in its war against Ukraine. The sanctions run for 10 years and include asset freezes and trade restrictions.
The measure sat within the wider information war around the invasion. As background, Russian state and state-controlled media have spread disinformation against Ukraine, and so-called Russian web brigades have promoted it using fake profiles on social media. The Ukrainian state and media have also used propaganda and deception, though on a more limited scale than the Russian campaign.
A train at Yahodyn
The same day, a Russian drone attacked a train bound for Warsaw, Poland, at Yahodyn station in western Ukraine. The strike came shortly after former UK prime minister Boris Johnson and top EU security officials had passed through the airspace. Former U.S. CIA director David Petraeus was at the station at the time and was unharmed.
The wider setting
Both events belonged to a war that began on 24 February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, escalating a conflict that started in 2014. By the background account, Russian troops occupy roughly 20% of Ukraine, about 8 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced, and 6–7 million have fled the country.
Taken together, the two reports from 13 September showed the war being fought on two fronts: in legal and financial measures against alleged propaganda, and in strikes reaching a station in the west of the country.
