Russia launched its biggest aerial attack against Ukraine overnight, a Ukrainian official said Sunday, part of an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the three-year-old war.
Russia fired a total of 537 aerial weapons at Ukraine, including 477 drones and decoys and 60 missiles, Ukraine’s air force said. Of these, 249 were shot down and 226 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.
Ukraine lost its third F-16 fighter jet since the start of the war while repelling the attack, the military said.
Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for Ukraine’s air force, told the Associated Press that the overnight onslaught was “the most massive air strike,” on the country, taking into account both drones and various types of missiles. The attack targeted regions across Ukraine including western Ukraine, far from the frontline.
Russia again escalated its air attacks on Ukraine over the weekend, targeting more than 30 cities and towns with missiles and drones, including the capital as it celebrated Kyiv Day. The attacks killed at least a dozen people, some of them children, according to Ukrainian officials.
Industrial facilities were hit in the southern Ukrainian Mykolaiv and central Dnipropetrovsk regions, officials say.
Local authorities published photos of multi-story houses with charred walls and broken windows and rescuers evacuating residents.
The governor of the Lviv region in the west of the country said the attack targeted critical infrastructure. However, he did not report on the aftermath.
Poland and allied countries scrambled aircraft to ensure the safety of Polish airspace, the Polish air force said Sunday.
One person died in a drone strike in the Kherson region, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said, while another was killed when a drone hit a car in the Kharkiv region, according to its Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. Six people were wounded in Cherkasy, including a child, according to regional Gov. Ihor Taburets.
The fresh attacks follow Russian President Vladimir Putin saying Friday that Moscow is ready for a fresh round of direct peace talks in Istanbul. However, the war shows no signs of abating as U.S.-led international peace efforts have so far produced no breakthrough. Two recent rounds of talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul were brief and yielded no progress on reaching a settlement.
Long-range drone strikes have been a hallmark of the war, now in its fourth year. The race by both sides to develop increasingly sophisticated and deadlier drones has turned the conflict into a testing ground for new weaponry.