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Russia launched a record 5,337 drones against Ukraine across the month of June, according to the data from Ukraine’s Air Force, or about a quarter more than Moscow’s previous barrage of 4,198 UAVs in March.
Moscow has significantly intensified its aerial strikes at Ukraine since May, with the drone and missile attacks and bombardments becoming more frequent and more intense.
Over the past year and a half, there were only two days when Russia did not attack Ukraine with missiles and drones, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said at the press conference with his German counterpart Johannes Wadephul in Kyiv on Monday.
According to the total number of drones launched at Ukraine in June only, Russia is now capable of launching in a single night as many drones as it did over an entire month in early summer 2024.
Russia’s biggest and deadliest attack against Ukraine
In June last year, the total number of drones launched by Moscow was 332. On 29 June of this year, Moscow launched 477 drones against Ukraine – its most significant aerial attack since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
On 17 June, Russia launched its deadliest attack on Ukraine’s capital since February 2022, killing 30 people and injuring 172 during an attack which lasted for nine hours.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on 24 June that, in total, Russia has launched around 28,000 Shahed-type drones against Ukraine since early 2022.
Shahed-type drones in mass attacks
Since 2022 Russia has been using Shahed drones, made in and imported from Iran. Moscow later introduced Geran UAVs, which are exact copies of Shahed drones, but made in Russia.
More recently, the Garpiya-A1s have also been used. They resemble Shahed’s but utilise Chinese components.
Apart from that in each and every attack Russia is using Gerbers – “dummies” which resemble Shaheds but do not carry explosives and are supposed to distract Ukraine’s air defence.
In recent attacks, they make up to half of all the drones launched against Ukraine.
Typically, Russia launches these drones and decoys at the beginning of an aerial attack, followed by coordinated strikes together with cruise and ballistic missiles, in an attempt to overwhelm Ukraine’s radars and air defence capabilities.
Overnight on Tuesday, Russia attacked Ukraine with 52 Shahed-type drones and decoys of various types.
Ukrainian air defence said it had neutralised 47 of them, with 14 downed and 33 jammed with electronic warfare.
At least our civilians were killed and 15 got injured according to the regional authorities in Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia regions.
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