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Russia launches record 188 drones against Ukraine overnight, Air Force says

by Martin Fornusek November 26, 2024 12:45 PM 2 min read
Illustrative purposes only: A downed Shahed 136/131 drone at an exhibition showing remains of missiles and drones that Russia used to attack in Kyiv, Ukraine on May 12, 2023. (Oleksii Samsonov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
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Russia launched a record number of 188 Shaheds and other drones against Ukraine in a single night on Nov. 26, the Air Force said.

Ukrainian air defenses reportedly shot down 76 drones across 17 oblasts, while 95 were "lost," presumably thanks to electronic warfare means. Five drones flew to Belarus, according to the Air Force.

Russia has deployed cheap "kamikaze" drones, like the Iranian-made Shaheds, against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure since the first year of the full-scale war. Moscow has intensified the drone attacks in recent months, with air raid alerts sounding daily in major cities like Kyiv.

Russia’s Iranian Shahed drone strikes on Kyiv, other Ukrainian cities surge
As Russia launched another swarm of killer drones to attack Kyiv on one day in early November, one of them came dangerously close to Petro, a 55-year-old resident of a high-rise apartment building in downtown Kyiv. “I saw this motherf*cker just maybe 200 meters above my head, very low.

"During the overnight attack, Russia launched a record number of Shahed-type attack drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles of an unknown type from the directions of Orel, Bryans, Kursk, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia," the Air Force's statement read.

Moscow launched more than 2,000 strike drones against Ukraine in October, breaking the previous record set in September by nearly 700, according to Ukraine's General Staff.

Talking to the parliament on Nov. 19, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had set a goal of developing an effective countermeasure to Shahed-type drone attacks.

Ukraine was also attacked by four Iskander-M ballistic missiles overnight on Nov. 26, the Air Force said. At least two people were killed and over 40 injured in Russian attacks over the past day.

‘We are exhausted’ — how Ukrainians cope with nightly Russian drone attacks
Marharyta Koldanova was standing at a bus stop in a residential area in Kyiv when a sudden loud noise went off, prompting her to take out a tourniquet from her bag and prepare to quickly apply it in case she got injured by an aerial attack. “I was overwhelmed with

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