A wave of 137 Russian drones, including both Shahed attack UAVs and decoys, was launched at Ukraine overnight on March 18, marking one of the largest drone assaults in recent weeks.
Debris from a downed drone ignited a fire on the grounds of a school in Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district, according to local officials on Telegram.
The Kyiv Military Administration confirmed that all students were safely sheltered in the school’s bomb shelter during the attack, and no injuries have been reported so far.
“Debris from an enemy UAV was recorded falling on the grounds of an educational institution in the Desnianskyi district. A fire broke out in an open area, and emergency services are responding,” said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv Military Administration, on Telegram.
The fire was fully extinguished by 9:49 a.m., and damage assessments are ongoing, he added.
The drones were launched from four locations in Russia — Shatalovo, Kursk, Millerovo, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk — targeting cities across Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that 63 attack drones and 64 imitation drones were intercepted and destroyed by air defense and electronic warfare (EW) systems.
The aerial assault spanned a wide swath of Ukraine, with drones downed over Kharkiv, Poltava, Sumy, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, and Kherson regions.
In a separate drone attack on Odesa, Russian forces struck multiple civilian targets, including a warehouse, store, kindergarten, and private home, according to the State Emergency Service. A civilian vehicle was also hit, and one person was injured.
“The enemy strikes ignited a defunct warehouse, a store, and a civilian vehicle,” emergency officials said.
Russia has increasingly leaned on large-scale drone attacks to exhaust Ukrainian air defenses, using a mix of Shahed kamikaze drones and decoys to confuse and overwhelm radar systems.
