
Russia says it shot down almost 400 Ukrainian drones as Moscow, Kyiv escalate aerial barrages
The Hindu
Russia claims to have shot down nearly 400 Ukrainian drones amid escalating aerial attacks, highlighting intensified conflict between Moscow and Kyiv.
Russian air defences downed 389 incoming Ukrainian drones, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday (March 25, 2026), in what was the largest reported overnight attack on Russian regions and Crimea since Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine more than four years ago.
The drones were stopped over 13 Russian regions as well as the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The attack underlined the growing capability of Ukraine’s domestically developed and manufactured long-range drones.
It came a day after Russia fired almost 1,000 drones and 34 missiles at civilian areas of Ukraine in the space of 24 hours, extending its usual nighttime barrage into daylight hours in one of its biggest aerial attacks of the war.
At least six people were killed and around 50 people were injured, Ukrainian authorities said.
The United Nations cultural organisation UNESCO on Wednesday (March 25) said it was “deeply alarmed” by Russia hitting a World Heritage site in the western Ukraine city of Lviv during that bombardment.

When the conflict in West Asia, which began with the U.S. and Israel’s attack on Iran on February 28, escalated into a regional war, analysts said that the war would last as long as Iran had missiles or until the Gulf nations ran out of interceptors. However, with “emergency” military sales, piling monetary costs and a strained supply chain, is the U.S. becoming too constrained in its effort to keep the war going — both militarily and monetarily?












