Russia Launches 453 Drones in Mass Overnight Attack as Ukraine Reports 409 Targets Downed or Suppressed
Ukraine’s Air Force says Russia launched 453 attack drones overnight, including Shaheds, Gerberas, decoys and S8000 Banderol mini cruise missiles. Air defenses reportedly downed or suppressed 409 targets, but strikes still hit 13 locations and debris fell on seven more.
Ukraine’s Air Force reported one of the largest drone attacks of the war overnight, saying Russia launched 453 attack drones in a single operation that left multiple sites hit despite a high interception rate.
According to the Air Force, Russian forces used a mix of Shahed‑type drones, Gerberas, decoys and S8000 Banderol mini cruise missiles. Ukrainian air defenses said they downed or suppressed 409 of those targets. Even so, hits were recorded at 13 locations, and debris from destroyed drones fell on seven others.
Regional authorities in western Ukraine reported that air defenses were active over Ivano‑Frankivsk region, where enemy attack drones were in the airspace. In Khmelnytskyi region, falling wreckage from a downed drone caused a fire at an industrial enterprise, according to local officials. They did not immediately report casualty figures, but the incident underlined that even intercepted drones can start fires and damage infrastructure.
The reported scale of the salvo shows how Russia is using large numbers of drones, including decoys, to test and stretch Ukraine’s air defenses. Each wave forces Ukrainian units to expend interceptor missiles, ammunition and crew time to keep the number of successful strikes down.
For people on the ground, such mass attacks translate into repeated air‑raid alerts, time in shelters and the risk that a small fraction of drones that get through—or their debris—can still damage factories, power facilities or homes.
Key developments to track next will be whether Ukraine reports any adjustment in its air‑defense posture, whether Russia maintains this scale of drone use in coming nights, and how often secondary fires from falling debris are recorded in urban and industrial areas.
Sources
- OSINT