by Admin
Feb 23, 2025
Russia carried out its most extensive drone assault on Ukraine on Saturday night, just a day before the third anniversary of the war, Ukrainian officials confirmed.
According to Yuriy Ignat, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Force Command, a record-breaking 267 Russian drones were deployed in a single, coordinated strike.
The attack targeted 13 regions across Ukraine, with air defenses repelling many of the drones. However, those that penetrated defenses inflicted significant damage to infrastructure and resulted in at least three casualties, emergency services reported.
President Volodymyr Zelensky commended Ukraine’s emergency responders for their swift actions and urged continued support from Europe and the United States to ensure “a lasting and just peace.”
Ukrainian authorities stated that this was the largest drone assault recorded in a single attack.
The Ukrainian air force reported intercepting 138 drones, while 119 believed to be decoys were neutralized without causing harm, likely due to electronic countermeasures. In Kyiv, the attack prompted six consecutive hours of air raid alerts.
In a statement, President Zelensky revealed that throughout the week, Russia had launched a total of 1,150 drones, 1,400 bombs, and 35 missiles.
First Lady Olena Zelenska echoed the devastation in a post on X, lamenting the overnight destruction caused by “hundreds of drones.”
“It was another night of explosions, burning houses and cars, and destroyed infrastructure,” she wrote. “Another night when people prayed for their loved ones to survive.”
Western intelligence and Ukrainian officials have long attributed Russia’s use of Shahed-136 drones kamikaze-style UAVs to Iranian supplies since their introduction in the autumn of 2022.
The drones were initially deployed against military targets in the Kharkiv region; these drones have since been increasingly used to strike civilian areas and energy infrastructure.
The overnight assault resulted in multiple civilian casualties. In Kherson, a strike on a residential building killed two people, including a man and a mother of twins, Ukrainian emergency services reported.
In Kryvyi Rih, regional authorities confirmed the death of one man and injuries to at least three others following another strike.
Further south, a 53-year-old woman in Zaporizhzhia was hospitalized after suffering injuries from a drone attack, while firefighters battled multiple blazes across Kyiv.
According to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, the capital endured several waves of drone strikes, damaging houses and vehicles. However, there were no immediate reports of casualties in Kyiv.
Drones were intercepted in at least 13 regions, including Kharkiv, Poltava, Sumy, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Mykolayiv, and Odessa, Ukrainian officials reported.
In addition to the drone attacks, the Ukrainian air force noted that Russia also launched three ballistic missiles overnight.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defense ministry stated on Sunday that it had “destroyed” 20 Ukrainian drones launched into Russian territory overnight. The cross-border exchanges underscore the escalating intensity of drone warfare in the ongoing conflict.