Russia has carried out the largest aerial assault on Ukraine since the start of the war, launching nearly 1,000 drones and missiles across the country within a 24-hour period, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine’s Air Force reported that Russia deployed a total of 948 drones during the massive attack. Of those, 556 drones were launched after 09:00 local time on Tuesday in an unusual daytime offensive that struck multiple cities and regions.
The attacks killed at least three people and injured dozens more, while damaging homes, historic landmarks and critical infrastructure.
In the western city of Lviv, a residential building near the 16th-century Bernardine Monastery caught fire after being hit during the strikes. The monastery is part of Lviv’s historic center, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Local authorities said at least 32 people were injured in the Lviv region during the attack.
Further west, in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, Russian strikes hit several buildings including a maternity hospital in the regional capital. Two people were killed and four others were injured, including a six-year-old child.
In the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, one person was killed and 13 others were wounded after Russian drones struck residential areas.
Another western city, Ternopil, also reported direct hits on infrastructure, although no casualties were confirmed there.
The daytime bombardment followed a separate overnight wave of attacks in which Ukraine said Russia launched 392 drones and 34 missiles across 11 regions. Those overnight strikes killed at least five people.
Ukraine’s Air Force said it managed to shoot down many of the incoming drones and missiles but confirmed that several direct hits still occurred.
Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said many of the drones entered Ukrainian airspace from the north in coordinated formations.
“A large number of drones moved into the country effectively in columns,” Ihnat said, noting that the scale and geographic spread of the attacks made it one of the most intense 24-hour assault periods of the war.
President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the bombardment in his nightly address, saying the scale of the attacks shows Russia has no intention of ending the conflict.
“The scale of these attacks clearly shows that Russia has no intention of really ending this war,” Zelensky said.
Russia’s military has not publicly commented on the latest strikes.
While Ukraine’s eastern regions near the Russian border have faced the heaviest fighting since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, western cities such as Lviv have historically been struck less frequently.
The escalation comes as international efforts to negotiate a ceasefire remain stalled. U.S.-brokered peace talks aimed at ending the conflict have struggled to gain momentum, particularly amid growing global tensions following the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Russian officials reported that a Ukrainian drone attack on an agricultural enterprise in Russia’s Kursk region killed one person and injured 13 others on Tuesday.
Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska urged the international community not to ignore the human toll of the war.
“Amid the news the world is drowning in every day, we will not let Ukrainian grief get lost or become just another statistic,” she wrote on social media.