Ukraine’s air force said 88 Shahed-type drones were shot down while 128 others vanished from radar, apparently crashing, running out of fuel or serving as non-explosive decoys designed to swamp air-defense radars.
The remaining machines hit targets in the capital area and the eastern Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.
Air-raid sirens sounded for nine consecutive hours. A 28-year-old woman died when debris struck a tent shelter in Kyiv’s outskirts; a four-year-old child was among the injured, regional governor Ruslan Kravchenko said.
The previous record attack came on 23 February, when Russia fired 267 drones on the eve of the war’s second anniversary. Defense analysts say Moscow is mass-producing plywood-and-foam decoy drones fitted with Lüneburg lenses to mimic cruise missiles, forcing Ukrainian gunners to reveal air-defense positions.
Diplomatic backdrop
The barrage followed Friday’s first direct Russia-Ukraine talks in three years, a 100-minute Istanbul meeting that yielded only an agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who pushed for the session, said he will speak separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday to press for a ceasefire.
“It’s been a tough night. The Russians always use attacks to intimidate during negotiations,” said Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation.
On Saturday, a Russian drone strike on a minibus in the Sumy region killed nine civilians. Kyiv called it deliberate; Moscow said it had targeted a military facility.
Expanding drone war
Western intelligence believes Russia’s Alabuga complex in Tatarstan now turns out thousands of Iranian-designed Shaheds and look-alikes each month.
Ukraine has responded by accelerating its own long-range drone production and requesting more Patriot and IRIS-T batteries from allies.
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Source: AP News, The Guardian, Reuters