Ukraine's Air Force intercepts record 138 drones in massive Russian assault
On the night of February 23, Russian forces launched an unprecedented drone assault against Ukraine, deploying 267 "Shahed" attack drones and various decoy drones, according to the Air Force. The attack affected several regions, including Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa, Poltava, Kyiv, and Zaporizhzhia, as well as the cities of Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia themselves. Of the total drones deployed, 138 were shot down across Kharkiv, Poltava, Sumy, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, Mykolaiv, Odesa, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. However, 119 "Shaheds" were unaccounted for.
Colonel Yuriy Ignat, head of communications for the Ukrainian Air Force Command, called the deployment of 267 drones in a single attack a record in the full-scale war's history.
Lieutenant Andriy Kovalenko from Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council's information center pointed out Russia's ongoing increase in drone and other weaponry production. He cautioned that without oversight of the Russian defense industry and reducing missile production, claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin of wanting peace are misleading.