On the eve and the day of the third anniversary of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia launched a record number of attack drones against the country.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, over the past two days, Ukrainian forces managed to shoot down 251 of the 452 drones launched by Russia.
This was reported by The Moscow Times.
Massive Drone Barrage Targets Ukraine
Between February 22 (19:00) and February 23, Ukraine was targeted by 267 Shahed drones and drone decoys, as well as three ballistic missiles fired from the Iskander complex in Crimea. The Air Force reported that 138 of these drones were successfully intercepted.
Another 119 UAVs failed to reach their targets—most crashed without causing damage, while three veered toward Belarus and one toward Russia.
The strikes impacted multiple regions, including Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Poltava, Kyiv, and Zaporizhzhia, according to military sources.
Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat confirmed this was the largest drone attack recorded in a single raid since the war began.
President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Russia deliberately launched the strike ahead of the invasion’s anniversary. "This is the largest attack since Iranian drones started targeting Ukrainian cities and villages," he wrote on Telegram.
Russian strikes on February 23 resulted in casualties in Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, as well as in the Kyiv, Odesa, and Dnipropetrovsk regions, local authorities reported.
Second Wave
The Russian Armed Forces launched another large-scale drone attack on Ukraine during the night of February 24, this time deploying 185 Shahed drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles. Ukrainian air defenses shot down 113 of them, while 71 failed to cause damage and were lost.
The attack affected the regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Kyiv, and Khmelnytskyi, according to the military.
Since the start of the full-scale war three years ago, Ukraine's defense forces claim to have downed 26,525 airborne threats, including 14,286 attack drones, 6,900 reconnaissance drones, 3,066 missiles of various types, 370 aircraft, and 331 helicopters, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to target Russian military infrastructure.
The largest Ukrainian drone strike of 2025 occurred on January 24, when Russian air defenses intercepted and destroyed 121 drones over 13 regions, according to Russia's Defense Ministry. The attack also hit the Ryazan Oil Refinery, owned by Rosneft.
