Russia Launches Largest Aerial Attack on Ukraine as U.S. Reverses Weapons Policy
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia launched a staggering 728 drones and 13 missiles overnight, with 711 drones and at least seven missiles intercepted by Ukraine’s air defense systems.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — Russia carried out its most extensive missile and drone barrage on Ukraine since the war began more than three years ago, Ukraine’s military said Wednesday, in what Ukrainian officials described as a direct response to renewed U.S. support for Kyiv’s armed forces, according to AFP.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia launched a staggering 728 drones and 13 missiles overnight, with 711 drones and at least seven missiles intercepted by Ukraine’s air defense systems. Explosions and the hum of drones were heard across Kyiv as air raid sirens rang out in the capital. The volume of the strike surpasses a previous Russian record set just last week when 550 drones and missiles were used in a single assault.
"This is a telling attack — and it comes precisely at a time when so many efforts have been made to achieve peace, to establish a ceasefire, and yet only Russia continues to rebuff them all," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.
Zelensky urged Ukraine’s allies to intensify sanctions against Moscow, with particular emphasis on the Russian energy sector, which continues to fuel the Kremlin's war machine. “Our partners know how to apply pressure in a way that will force Russia to think about ending the war, not launching new strikes,” he added.
The massive strike comes just days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would increase weapons deliveries to Ukraine, walking back an earlier U.S. policy decision to scale down military aid. Trump also made headlines by dismissing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justifications for the war as “bullshit,” signaling a potential shift in the U.S. political stance toward a more assertive posture in support of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, linked the timing of the attack to the U.S. policy reversal. “It is quite telling that Russia carried out this attack just as the United States publicly announced that it would supply us with weapons,” Yermak wrote.
In the western city of Lutsk, far from the front lines, Mayor Igor Polishchuk reported fires breaking out at a local enterprise, although no casualties had been confirmed at the time of reporting.
Despite ongoing international calls for peace and several rounds of talks between Kyiv and Moscow—primarily yielding prisoner exchanges—Russia has continued to resist ceasefire proposals from both Ukraine and the United States. The Kremlin has declared it sees "no diplomatic path forward" and has reaffirmed its original war aims: occupying Ukraine and replacing its political leadership.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has expanded its operations across the border, targeting infrastructure and military assets within Russia. Moscow's defense ministry claimed Wednesday that Russian air defense systems shot down 86 Ukrainian drones, mostly over the country’s western regions.
The intensifying conflict underscores the continued volatility of the war, now entering its fourth year, and highlights how diplomatic deadlocks and renewed international alignments are shaping its future trajectory.