Russia has carried out its largest aerial assault on Ukraine since the start of the war, launching a record 948 drones over a 24-hour period, according to Ukrainian officials.
More than 400 of those drones were deployed in a rare daytime barrage on Tuesday, intensifying strikes across multiple regions and marking an unusually sustained level of aerial pressure. Ukrainian authorities said the wave of attacks killed and injured civilians across the country, with the heaviest impacts reported in western areas.
The overnight phase of the assault had already left at least five people dead before the daytime strikes began.
In the western city of Lviv, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said 22 residents were injured, warning that the toll could still rise. Regional officials also reported damage to the historic Bernardine monastery, a 16th-century UNESCO-listed site, after fires spread to nearby residential buildings.
Further west, the Ivano-Frankivsk region reported two deaths and multiple injuries, including a six-year-old child. Officials said residential buildings and a maternity hospital were among the damaged sites. In Vinnytsia, one person was killed and 11 others injured in strikes carried out during the afternoon wave.
Other cities, including Ternopil, were also targeted as drones struck widely across western Ukraine—an area that has generally experienced fewer attacks compared with regions closer to the eastern front line.
Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said a “large number of drones” entered from the north and moved in coordinated formations.
“The geography of the strikes during the daytime was broader than at night,” he said, adding that it was “one of the largest attacks within a 24-hour period” since the invasion began.
The unprecedented scale of the drone assault underscores an escalation in aerial warfare, with Ukraine facing sustained attacks across both day and night.
via BBC
