Russia sets new drone attack record in overnight Ukraine barrage
A record-high 188 drones attacked Ukraine, the air force said.
LONDON -- Russia launched a record-high 188 strike drones into Ukraine on Monday night and Tuesday morning, expanding its long-range campaign against Ukrainian infrastructure to coincide with the onset of winter.
Ukraine's air force said on Telegram that it downed 76 drones. Another 95 were lost in flight -- possibly due to jamming efforts -- and five flew into Belarus.
Russia also fired four Iskander-M ballistic missiles as part of the assault, the air force said. None were shot down.
"Unfortunately, critical infrastructure objects have been hit, and private and multi-apartment buildings have been damaged in several regions due to a mass attack by UAVs," the air force wrote.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram that the strikes caused "damage to our critical infrastructure."
Each Russian drone, Zelenskyy added, "contains 85 foreign components. That's almost 16,000 components without which they wouldn't fly. Such attacks are possible only because the criminal circumvents sanctions, Russia circumvents sanctions through various schemes."
"Thanks to everyone in the world who is blocking such supplies, but we need more work together to make the sanctions work and force Russia to stop this war," Zelenskyy added.
Recent weeks have seen a clear intensification of Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine, with the scale and regularity of such attacks on the rise. The previous largest attack of 145 drones occurred on Nov. 10.
As in previous winters, Russia is attacking critical energy infrastructure in a bid to deny Ukrainians power and warmth through the coming freezing months. Temperatures in Ukraine have already fallen below freezing and will remain low until early spring.
Monday night's drone attack damaged energy infrastructure in the western city of Ternopil, Serhii Nadal -- the head of the local regional defense body -- said on Telegram.
Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, reported the downing of at least 40 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions on Monday night. The ministry reported no damage or casualties.