KYIV, Ukraine (news agencies) — Russia fired a record 728 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight, as well as 13 missiles, the Ukrainian air force said Wednesday, in the latest offensive escalation amid mounting Russian aerial and ground attacks in the more than three-year war.
The city of Lutsk, which lies in Ukraine’s northwest along the border with Poland and Belarus, was the hardest hit, though 10 other regions were also struck, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Lutsk is home to airfields used by the Ukrainian army. Cargo planes and fighter jets routinely fly over the city. No casualties were immediately reported, as emergency crews continued to assess the damage.
Western regions of Ukraine are a crucial logistical backbone in the war, as airfields and depots there receive vital foreign military aid before forwarding it to other parts of the country. Russian long-range attacks have increasingly sought to disrupt those supply corridors.
Russia has recently sought to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses by launching massive aerial assaults, including adding more decoy drones to its attacks. Russia launched its previous largest aerial assault late in the night of July 4 into the following day, with the biggest prior to that occurring less than a week earlier.
Russia’s bigger army has also launched a new drive to punch through parts of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where short-handed Ukrainian forces are under heavy strain.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he’s “not happy” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who hasn’t budged from his ceasefire and peace demands since Trump took office in January and began to push for a settlement.
Trump said Monday that the U.S. would have to send more weapons to Ukraine, just days after Washington paused critical weapons deliveries to Kyiv amid uncertainty over the U.S. administration’s commitment to Ukraine’s defense.
Zelenskyy said that the Kremlin was “making a point” with the attack, as U.S.-led peace efforts flounder. He urged Ukraine’s partners to impose stricter sanctions on Russian oil and those who help finance the Kremlin’s war by buying it.
“Everyone who wants peace must act,” Zelenskyy said.
Poland scrambled its fighter jets and put its armed forces on the highest level of alert in response to Russia’s attack, the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command wrote in an X post.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned Tuesday that Russia could pose a credible security threat to the European Union by the end of the decade. She called for defense industries in Europe and Ukraine to be ramped up within five years.
Ukraine’s air defenses shot down 296 drones and seven missiles overnight, while 415 more drones were lost from radars or jammed, an air force statement said.
Ukrainian interceptor drones, developed to counter Russia’s Shahed drones, are increasingly effective, Zelenskyy said, noting that most targets were intercepted and that domestic production of anti-aircraft drones is being scaled up.
Western military analysts say Russia is boosting its drone manufacturing and could soon be capable of launching 1,000 drones a night at Ukraine.
