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Russia launches rare daytime mass drone attack on Ukraine, around 200 already reportedly shot down

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Russia launches rare daytime mass drone attack on Ukraine, around 200 already reportedly shot down
People take shelter at a metro station during an air strike alarm in Kyiv on March 24, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Tetiana Dzafarova / AFP via Getty Images)

Russia on March 24 launched a rare daytime mass drone attack on Ukraine, with hundreds of kamikaze drones targeting Kyiv and cities across the country.

Ukraine's Air Force reported at 11:07 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 12:36 p.m. that drones were flying towards Kyiv Oblast and the city of Kyiv from the northern direction. At 12:35 p.m. an air alert was announced in Kyiv, according to the Kyiv City State Administration.

At 2:23 p.m., the Air Force said that the attack continues with "a large number of Russian drones" flying over the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Kherson, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.

"The attack on Ukraine is ongoing. I suppose we will see some more missiles today,"‌‌ Ukraine's Defense Ministry advisor Serhii Flash, said, adding that Russia is constantly changing its tactics for massive strikes, "trying to find vulnerabilities," and break through Ukraine's air defenses.

"The current strategy is to launch strikes spread out over time," he wrote on Facebook.

Monitoring channel, Kyivske nebo (the sky of Kyiv) said that as of 1:58 p.m. "possibly 200 drones" had been shot down.

Explosions were heard in the western city of Lviv around 4:24p.m. local time, Kyiv Independent reporters on the ground reported.

Kyiv city authorities have not reported damage or casualties as a result of the attack so far, though monitoring channels reported several drones flying over different districts of the capital.

Article image
Map showing Russian drones flying towards Kyiv on 24 March, 2026. (Monitor / Telegram)

Just hours earlier, Russia launched a large-scale missile and drone attack on multiple Ukrainian cities, killing at least four people and injuring 21 others, local officials reported.

Air raid alerts were issued in nearly all of Ukraine's oblasts overnight, with Russian drones targeting various regions of the country — including reports of drones flying in the country's far-western regions.

Explosions rang out in Kyiv amid a drone attack on the capital. Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground reported hearing multiple blasts beginning around 12:30 a.m. local time.

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Yuliia Taradiuk

Reporter

Yuliia Taradiuk is a Ukrainian reporter at the Kyiv Independent. She has been working with Lutsk-based misto.media, telling stories of Ukrainian fighters for the "All are gone to the front" project. She has experience as a freelance culture reporter, and a background in urbanism and activism, working for multiple Ukrainian NGOs. Yuliia holds B.A. degree in English language and literature from Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, she studied in Germany and Lithuania.

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