# Night of 153 Drones: Russia’s Largest Jet-Powered Shahed Barrage Tests Ukraine’s Air Defenses

*Sunday, October 25, 2026 at 8:05 AM UTC — Hamer Intelligence Services Desk*

**Published**: 2026-10-25T08:05:58.743Z (28h ago)
**Category**: conflict | **Region**: Eastern Europe
**Importance**: 10/10
**Sources**: OSINT
**Permalink**: https://hamerintel.com/data/articles/21488.md
**Source**: https://hamerintel.com/summaries

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**Deck**: Russia launched 153 attack drones at Ukraine overnight, including 92 jet-powered Shaheds, in one of the largest such barrages reported so far. Ukraine says it intercepted or suppressed 119 targets, but strikes still hit civilian housing, energy infrastructure, and a shopping center, forcing air defenses and emergency crews into another exhausting night.

A massive Russian drone assault overnight forced Ukraine’s air defenses into a sustained fight across several regions, as waves of jet-powered Shahed attack drones pushed both military systems and civilian services harder into the red.

Ukraine’s military reported on 25 October that Russia launched 153 drones, including 92 of a jet-powered Shahed variant, during the night. By 08:00 local time, defenders said they had shot down or suppressed 119 of them, among them 64 of the faster jet-propelled models. Nine attack drones were still airborne at that hour, with air defense and electronic warfare units still tracking and engaging targets.

The volume of incoming drones and the high proportion of jet-powered systems mark this as one of the most demanding nights for Ukraine’s air defense network since Moscow began large-scale use of Shaheds. Faster drones shorten the time between detection and impact, forcing fire-control officers to make split-second choices about which targets to prioritize around cities, power plants, and transport hubs.

Even with a high reported interception rate, debris and surviving drones caused damage on the ground. Regional authorities in Dnipropetrovsk said a Russian drone strike on the town of Synelnykove killed at least four people and wounded 13 more. A fire broke out on the fourth floor of a multi-story apartment building, a store and several cars were damaged, and among the injured was an 11-year-old girl. Officials said four of the wounded remained in serious condition in hospital.

In Zhytomyr region, local administration reports said drones hit an energy infrastructure facility, an outpatient medical clinic, a residential building, and a private civilian enterprise in Korosten and Zhytomyr districts. Those strikes cut into power resilience and basic healthcare access in communities that had already been through multiple rounds of Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure.

Kharkiv faced its own blow as Russian Geran-4 jet drones struck an Epicentr construction hypermarket and two other logistics and distribution centers in the city and nearby Vasyshcheve. Footage from the scene showed the mall in flames. Ukrainian services described the hypermarket as destroyed and said that a second strike hit while firefighters were working, injuring three rescue workers and destroying a water tanker. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed, without independent verification, that the Epicentr site was being used to store dual-purpose goods for the Ukrainian military.

For Ukrainian civilians, the pattern is increasingly familiar: nights broken by sirens, shelters, and the thud of air defenses attempting to thin out incoming swarms. For air defense crews, each large wave requires careful rationing of interceptor missiles, integration of mobile fire units, and heavy reliance on electronic warfare and guns to deal with cheaper drones that are meant to saturate radar and missile batteries.

Strategically, Russia’s use of larger numbers of jet-powered Shaheds points to an evolving doctrine. By combining speed with relatively low cost, Moscow can probe Ukraine’s air defense coverage, exhaust ammunition, and target infrastructure without expending expensive cruise or ballistic missiles every night. For Kyiv and its backers, this raises pressure to secure steady supplies of interceptors and to accelerate deployment of layered defenses that mix high-end systems with more affordable counter-drone solutions.

The most telling indicators in the coming days will be how Ukraine allocates scarce air defense assets between front-line support and rear-area protection, whether Russia repeats large jet-Shahed waves or treats this as a test, and how much additional international support Kyiv can line up to keep shooting down drones faster than Moscow can build and launch them.