ALSO SEE: Russia Launches Nearly 1,000 Drones in One of War's Largest Assaults, Killing 7 and Injuring 55

Shahed drones and ballistic missiles drain defenses for hours.

Over the past 24 hours, Russian forces launched nearly 1,000 drones and 36 missiles. A continuous drone attack that began in the evening escalated into one of the largest of the entire war.

The main targets included Lviv, Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Dnipro, Odesa Oblast, and frontline regions.

Meanwhile, Russian forces have intensified ground attacks along the entire front line in Ukraine, launching the spring-summer offensive of 2026.

A significant number of UAVs approached from the north via Chernihiv and Sumy Oblasts, according to the Ukrainian Air Forces.

A total of 15 impacts were recorded as a result of the attack.

Exhaustion and new tactics: waves of strikes stretching fear over time

Monitoring sources indicate that Russia may be using a new attack tactic — first exhausting air defenses overnight, followed by daytime drone strikes.

“All available air defense assets were engaged in repelling the attack — including manned aviation, anti-aircraft drones, electronic warfare systems, and ground-based defenses,” the Ukrainian Air Force reported.

During the night, most regions were attacked with Shahed drones and ballistic missiles.

Toward morning, cruise missiles launched from Tu-95MS bombers struck from multiple directions, heading west and toward Kyiv.

Odesa Oblast was also attacked in the evening, leading to the shutdown of a key power transmission line to Moldova. In Dnipro, a drone hit a 14-story residential building, injuring 12 people.

“The enemy is constantly changing tactics… A strategy of time-stretched strikes has now been chosen,” said defense advisor Serhii Flash.

Retaliatory strike and hidden cause

It was also reported that Ukraine’s military intelligence, the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR), struck a column of Bastion coastal missile system units that were moving to launch Zircon missile strikes.

The monitoring channel “Mykolaivskyi Vaniok” linked the massive drone attack to this strike.

According to the source, it may have been a response to the destruction of the missile systems, which never managed to carry out their planned attack on Ukraine.