Nearly 2,000 drones fired at Ukraine in one week as Russia draws out attacks

Russia launched nearly 2,000 attack drones, more than 1,600 glide bombs, and 31 missiles, including North Korean ballistic missiles, against Ukraine in just the last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel on Aug. 30.

Moscow has increasingly launched daytime kamikaze drone attacks against Kyiv, keeping the capital in a perpetual state of alert, with air raid alarms constantly turning on and off. Homes, businesses, and other civilian infrastructure have been hit, the president wrote.

Previously, Russia launched the brunt of its attacks at night but began a new tactic of launching prolonged daytime attacks earlier in the week. The capital is now entering its fourth day of near-constant drone attacks, with explosions and air defense fire heard by Kyiv Independent journalists during the morning and afternoon of Aug. 30.

The day before, attacks killed a 2-year-old girl in the capital and injured 12 more people, while a strike on an ammunition warehouse in Myla, a village just outside Kyiv, killed at least 38 people on Aug. 28.

Bracing for a new wartime reality, the government is finding solutions that will allow people to live more easily under prolonged air raid alerts, including keeping public transportation and businesses operating, some of which shut down during alerts, Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi wrote on Aug. 29.

"The enemy is trying to paralyze economic activity in the capital and major cities, so our approaches and response mechanisms must change," Koretskyi wrote.

"Prolonged air raid alerts not only affect the safety of people but also impact the work of businesses, logistics, transportation, schools, kindergartens, and other aspects of life."

At the same time, Ukraine is bracing for another winter under fire as the summer comes to an end. According to Russian state media TASS on Aug. 30, the Kremlin’s Defense Ministry is preparing for "massive strikes" on Ukrainian energy infrastructure for the country’s fifth wartime winter.

Over the last few months, Moscow has heavily bombarded regions in central, eastern and southern Ukraine, targeting businesses and critical economic infrastructure like ports, gas stations, and supermarket logistics centers.

The attacks have hampered Ukraine’s economic growth and made life harder for civilians by restricting access to fuel and food.

Ukraine has also stepped up attacks on Russia’s oil infrastructure and e-commerce giants like Wildberries and Ozon to cut cash flows to Moscow’s war machine. The attacks are worrying the Kremlin as Russians face fuel and goods shortages across the country.