Ukraine hit by largest drone attack since war began, says Zelenskyy

Russia attacked Ukraine on Saturday night with a barrage of drones that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said was the single biggest drone strike since Moscow’s war began almost three years ago.

According to Ukraine’s Air Force Command, a record 267 Russian drones were launched in a single strike. Around 138 were intercepted, while 119 were destroyed after being jammed without causing harm, Yuriy Ignat, an Air Force spokesperson, said in a Facebook message.

Although many were repelled, emergency services said the overnight strikes caused fires and destruction.

One of the cities impacted was the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia. According to Ivan Fedorov, head of the regional military administration, a 53-year-old woman was injured and is now hospitalised.

The strike damaged homes and cars in the city’s Shevchenkivskyi district. One house caught fire, but emergency services quickly extinguished it, Fedorov said.

One resident said they had woken up to smashed windows. “We got up, went out, and everyone was safe,” Uliana Prylutska said.

Russia’s invasion enters nears third year

The attacks come just as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin launched on 24 February 2022, is about to enter its third year.

The heightened tempo of Russia’s onslaught also comes amid what has been a tumultuous past week for Kyiv and its relationship with Washington.

The country’s hoped-for path to fair and lasting peace seemed to have been thrown into jeopardy by the administration of US President Donald Trump.

Trump falsely blamed Ukraine for starting the war that has cost tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives, causing outrage and alarm in a country that has spent nearly three years fighting back a much larger Russian military.

The US president also called Zelenskyy “a dictator” and claimed his support among voters was near rock bottom.

Zelenskyy has said the disinformation is coming from Russia, and some of Trump’s statements echo Russia’s narrative of the conflict. EU allies have backed Zelenskyy, rejecting Trump’s claims.

Early 2022 was not the first time Russia had invaded its western neighbour. In 2014, the Kremlin illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula and started an armed aggression in the eastern Ukrainian region of the Donbas that grew into a long-running conflict that left thousands dead.