Russia and Ukraine trade massive drone attacks amid new arms deals

Shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced agreements with Western partners that would allow Kyiv to expand up drone manufacturing, Russia and Ukraine fired hundreds of drones at one other on Sunday, causing chaos in Russian air travel.

According to Russia’s Transport Ministry, hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled on Saturday and overnight due to Ukrainian drone strikes, with photos spreading on social media showing masses huddling at Russian airports, including important international hubs in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The flight interruptions occurred at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo and St. Petersburg’s main Pulkovo airports. Other airports in western and central Russia experienced difficulties.

Russian air defenses shot down 120 Ukrainian drones during the nighttime attacks, and 39 more before 2 p.m. Moscow time (1100 GMT) on Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said. It did not clarify how many had hit targets, or how many had been launched in total.

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Early on Sunday, Ukrainian drones injured two civilians in Russia’s Belgorod region near the border, its Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said Sunday.

Russia pounded Kyiv last week

The Ukrainian attacks came just days after Russia pummelled Kyiv with waves of drones and missiles overnight into Friday, in what Ukrainian officials called the largest such strike since Moscow’s all-out invasion. The seven-hour onslaught killed at least two civilians, wounded dozens more and caused widespread damage, Ukraine said, while Moscow ramped up its push to capture more of its neighbor’s land.

In total, Russia launched 550 drones and missiles across Ukraine that night, according to the country’s air force. The barrages have coincided with a concerted Russian effort to break through parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where Ukrainian troops are under severe pressure.

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Large-scale Russian drone strikes on Sunday injured three civilians in Kyiv and at least two in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast, officials said. A Russian attack involving Shahed drones also targeted port infrastructure in Mykolaiv in central Ukraine, according to local Gov. Vitaliy Kim. He reported warehouses and the port’s power grid were damaged but there were no casualties.

Hours later, Russia launched a glide bomb and a drone at the front-line town of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine, killing four civilians and injuring a fifth, the prosecutor’s office said. The drone struck a car in which a married couple were travelling, killing the 39-year-old woman and 40-year-old man on the spot, it said.

Ukraine seeks to ramp up drone production

Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Ukraine had inked deals with European allies and a leading US defense company to step up drone production, ensuring Kyiv receives “hundreds of thousands” more this year.

Zelenskyy did not name the US business in his nightly video address to Ukrainians, but said Ukraine and Denmark have also agreed to co-produce drones and other weapons on Danish soil.

His remarks came days after the US paused some shipments of military aid to Ukraine, including crucial air defense missiles. Ukraine’s main European backers are considering how they can help pick up the slack. Zelenskyy said plans are afoot to build up Ukraine’s domestic arms industry, but scaling up will take time.

Ukraine has previously used homemade drones to hit high-value military targets deep inside Russia, demonstrating its capabilities and denting Moscow’s confidence. Last month, Kyiv said it destroyed more than 40 Russian planes stationed at several airfields deep inside Russia in a surprise attack.

Outmanned and outgunned, Ukraine’s army has also turned to drones to compensate for its troop shortage and shore up its defenses. While Russia has ramped up offensives this summer on two fronts in Ukraine, analysts say the front isn’t about to collapse.

On Friday, Zelenskyy said he had a “very important and productive” phone call that day with US President Donald Trump, discussing possible joint drone production alongside U.S-led efforts to end the war.

Trump said his phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday left him “very disappointed,” adding he did not think Putin was serious about ending the fighting.