In the most serious escalation of hostilities yet, Russia carried out a brazen attack on Ukraine during the night. They unleashed 273 Shahed drones, making this the biggest drone strike since the war started. This is at least the sixth drone strike confirmed by the Ukrainian Air Force in which the strike hit a region near the center of Kyiv. Regional military officials confirmed more attacks in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions as well.
The attack’s severity was underscored by a nearly nine-hour air raid alarm, as reported by Ruslan Stefanchuk, the head of Ukraine’s parliament. The ceaseless drone strikes caused widespread destruction. One private home in the suburbs of Kyiv was heavily destroyed. The dead include a 28-year-old woman who died in the Kyiv region. Three others, including a four-year-old child, suffered wounds, according to the region’s head, Mykola Kalashnik.
In a particularly grim irony, the drone assault followed a deadly Russian missile strike on a civilian bus in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region. That previous attack resulted in the death of nine people and seven other injuries. This attack occurred only hours before the first direct peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. These discussions are the first of their kind since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. Although the meeting was initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin — calling for a dramatic face-to-face meeting — he failed to show up, sending a junior delegation in his place. The indirect negotiations, which were hosted by Turkey, did not result in any major breakthroughs.
Ukrainian officials had suggested a 30-day ceasefire around these talks, which Russia immediately nixed. The leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Poland condemned Russia’s position as “unacceptable,” reflecting growing international frustration with Moscow’s approach to the conflict.
Russian defense ministry called a ‘large-scale escalation’ in the conflict. In the process, they claimed to have shot down 75 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in just the past day. Shelling in the Donetsk region has resulted in one death and eight injuries. This event stokes the wave of anti-American violence that still sweeps the country.
Stefanchuk called the drone strikes an expression of that terror, calling it, “Terror in its purest form. He further commented on the duration of the air raid alarm, emphasizing that “the air raid alarm lasted almost nine hours. This is what Putin’s ‘sincere desire for peace’ looks like.”
Though negotiators have made significant progress in halting the fighting and easing diplomatic tensions, the humanitarian toll is immense and widespread. As there may be no end in sight to the current war, millions of innocent civilians remain trapped in the ongoing devastation.
