Russia’s overnight drone and missile onslaught leaves civilians dead as war intensifies
Russia launched a massive overnight assault on Ukraine using hundreds of drones and scores of missiles, Ukrainian authorities said on Saturday, killing at least three people, wounding dozens and damaging homes and infrastructure across the country as both sides step up long-range strikes.
- Advertisement -
What officials say happened
President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as “massive,” saying roughly 580 drones and about 40 missiles were fired at Ukrainian cities and industrial targets. Ukraine’s air force said air defences intercepted the vast majority—shooting down 552 drones and 31 missiles—while local officials reported casualties and damage in several regions.
Regional authorities said one person was killed and at least 26 were injured when a missile carrying cluster munitions struck a residential building in the central city of Dnipro. Two additional deaths were reported in the northern Chernihiv and western Khmelnytskyi regions. Reuters and other international outlets noted battlefield reports could not be independently verified.
“All night, Ukraine was under a massive attack by Russia,” Mr Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “Every such strike is not a military necessity but a deliberate strategy by Russia to terrorise civilians and destroy our infrastructure.” The Kremlin denies deliberately targeting civilians and Russia’s Defence Ministry said its strikes hit military-industrial facilities.
On-the-ground voices
In Kyiv, residents described long hours of alarms and fear. “I could hear the ‘Shahed’ getting closer and closer. I understood it was flying towards us. My child and I were very frightened,” said Yulia Chystokletova, a Kyiv resident, reflecting a common experience of families living under repeated night raids. “It should not be happening in the 21st century. We are all people. Agree… sit down at the negotiating table.”
How the war is changing
Analysts and officials say the scale of the attack reflects a tactical shift. Where earlier in the conflict Russia used dozens of long-range drones in a sortie, recent strikes have deployed swarms of hundreds in a single wave—an approach aimed at saturating Ukrainian defences and reaching cities far from the front lines.
Ukraine has responded in kind, using its own drones to strike deeper into Russian territory. Ukrainian forces said they hit two oil refineries in Russia’s Saratov and Samara regions overnight, triggering explosions and fires. Samara’s governor reported four civilian deaths from the strike there—one of the deadliest known retaliatory attacks on Russian soil since the conflict began.
Wider implications for Europe and NATO
Poland and allied NATO aircraft were scrambled to protect Polish airspace after some strikes approached western Ukraine near the NATO border, the Polish military command said. The assault follows other worrying incidents this month, including alleged violations of Estonian airspace by Russian jets—a claim Moscow denies—and reports that Russian drones have overflown Polish territory.
Those episodes have heightened fears in the alliance about unintended escalation. Western officials have repeatedly warned that attacks crossing into NATO airspace would carry serious consequences. For now, NATO members appear focused on bolstering air defences and logistical support for Kyiv while avoiding a direct military confrontation with Moscow.
Diplomacy under strain as fighting ramps up
The strikes come as Kyiv steps up diplomatic efforts at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Mr Zelensky said he plans to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the gathering to press for security guarantees and continued sanctions on Russia. Kyiv has said only a meeting between Mr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin could begin to chart a path to negotiated peace; Moscow has repeatedly rejected direct talks while hostilities continue.
“We expect sanctions if there is no meeting between the leaders or, for example, no ceasefire,” Mr Zelensky said in comments released by his office. “We are ready for a meeting with Putin. I have spoken about this. Both bilateral and trilateral. He is not ready.”
What this means going forward
Military experts say the rapid proliferation of relatively cheap attack drones has changed how the war is fought. Swarm tactics can overwhelm air defences, complicate logistics and increase the danger to civilians well behind front lines. That has a ripple effect across Europe: insurance and fuel markets, energy infrastructure, and the political calculus in capitals weighing how much support to provide Kyiv without widening the war.
For ordinary Ukrainians, the calculus is simpler and immediate: shelter, medical care and repairing what can be rebuilt. For policy makers, the questions are harder: Can improved air-defence systems and intelligence-sharing blunt drone swarms? Will sanctions and diplomatic pressure change Moscow’s course? And how far will both sides take this tit-for-tat escalation before a catastrophic mistake drags NATO states more directly into the conflict?
As dawn revealed shattered glass, scorched facades and exhausted residents, the attacks underscored the grim truth of a war that has entered a new phase—one defined by massed, remote-controlled weapons and the constant risk they pose to civilians far from the trenches.
Reporting from Kyiv and regional capitals; additional contributions from correspondents in Poland and Russia.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
