A Russian drone and missile strike kills at least 24 in Kyiv with search and rescue efforts still ongoing. Russian drones strike a UN aid vehicle in Kherson. Russia copies Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, increases drone presence on the battlefield, Brovdi says.
Russian drone and missile strike kills at least 12 in Kyiv with search and rescue efforts still ongoing
Russia carried out a major missile and drone attack on Kyiv overnight into Thursday, killing at least 24 people, including 3 children, and wounding 48 others. In the Darnytskyi district, a whole section of a nine-story building was wiped out. At least 28 people were rescued from the rubble, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. The search and rescue operation was still underway on Thursday evening.
Russia launched one of the largest aerial strikes of the war overnight on Thursday, Head of the Communications Directorate for Ukraine’s Air Force Command, Colonel Yuriy Ihnat said on national television.
“The work of the air defenses today was extremely intense. It is impossible to shoot down such a large number of aerial targets with a limited number of [weapons],” Ihnat said.
Russia used cruise and ballistic missiles as well as drones of various types, including jet-powered, Shahed, Gerbera and other types of unmanned aerial systems to attack Ukraine. It launched a total of 56 drones and 675 missiles. The main target for the attack was Kyiv. Ukraine’s air defenses shot down or otherwise neutralized 41 missiles and 652 drones, the country’s Air Force said.
First responders continue to work on the sites of the attacks in the Obolonskyi, Darnytskyi and Holosiyivskyi districts.
The teams include investigators, explosives disposal technicians, rescue workers and medics. Law enforcement specialists are documenting the consequences of the attack.
A substation and a high-voltage power line of the DTEK company were damaged in Kyiv during the attack on Thursday. More than 14,000 households in Kyiv region were without power. On Thursday morning, some households in the capital and in 11 regions lost power as a result of the strikes.
Consumers also lost power in the regions of Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Lviv, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Khmelnytskyi and in Volynska region.
Repair works were underway, the company said.
At least 180 sites sustained damage in Russia’s overnight attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said in a post to social media on Thursday afternoon. More than 50 of them are apartment buildings, he added.
Ukrainian air defenses shot down more than 93 per cent of the incoming aerial targets, Zelenskyi said. “Of course, it needs to be higher. And of course, the most difficult challenge is defending against ballistic missiles. I thank everyone who is helping us with this. There must be a just response to all these strikes,” he said on X.
Russian drones strike UN aid vehicle in Kherson
Russia struck a vehicle of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Kherson on Thursday, head of the regional military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin said on social media.
“In violation of all provisions of international law, Russian [forces] struck a humanitarian mission’s vehicle with a drone in the Korabelnyi district of Kherson,” Prokudin said.
The vehicle was damaged, while reports of injuries are being clarified, he added.
“The terrorists continue to wage a war even on those who are helping others,” Prokudin said.
Reacting to the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on X: “During a humanitarian mission in Kherson, the Russians twice attacked a vehicle of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs with FPV drones, and the Russians could not have been unaware of which vehicle they were targeting. The Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and eight other staff members were inside. Fortunately, no one was injured. The mission personnel have been evacuated.”
Russia copies Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, increases drone presence on battlefield, Brovdi says
Russia is copying the model of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, Commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, Major Robert Brovdi who goes by the call sign Magyar told Ukrainska Pravda in an interview published on Thursday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the English-language version of the article.
Brovdi said Russia has some experience of its own in drone warfare, but is mostly adopting Ukrainian solutions and following a well-trodden path.
He added that Russia is establishing its own Unmanned Systems Forces group, which is expected to include most of its drone units. Brovdi believes this will not enable all its UAVs to be controlled remotely, but will improve command over such formations and allow Russia to increase centralised production of equipment and expand its numbers on the front.
As an example, he referred to the modernisation of Molniya drones. Brovdi said the Russians have reduced their cost to about US$1,500, increased the warhead to 10 kg and ordered 1.1 million of these drones.
“Do you know what this has already led to? An average brigade catches up to 60 Molniyas a day in its area of operations. They have become cheap; the state has intervened to control the price, placed a huge order and launched them into mass use. With such numbers, you cannot catch them all. This is therefore a vivid example of a centralised approach by the enemy to equipping crews and supplying them with assets, which creates additional problems for us.”
Brovdi also pointed to Russia’s mass use of Shahed-type drones, up to 300-400 a day, which he said demonstrates Russia’s capabilities in terms of production, logistics and military operations.
He also mentioned the mobile electronic warfare systems used by Russian assault groups during attacks. Brovdi explained that Russian forces place several portable electronic warfare systems at their positions, making it harder for Ukrainian FPV drones to hit infantry. He said this is the result of a large manufacturing production order with which Russia is saturating the front.
In early May, Brovdi reported that a negative ratio between recruitment and personnel losses in the Russian Armed Forces has been maintained for the fifth consecutive month, starting from December 2025.
In January, Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said that one of Ukraine’s strategic goals is to inflict up to 50,000 casualties on Russian forces each month, making the war unsustainable for Russia.
