Rescue workers try to put out a fire caused by the fragments of a Russian drone that hit a private house during an air attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 25, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP
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.
The escalation in aerial attacks comes amid a pause in U.S.-mediated talks between delegations from Moscow and Kyiv, as Washington’s attention is diverted by the Iran war and as Ukraine anticipates a spring offensive by Russia’s bigger army.
Alexander Drozdenko, Governor of the Leningrad region north of Moscow, said 56 drones were shot down there, and a fire broke out in the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga as the result of Ukraine’s attack.
Ukrainian forces also carried out a missile strike on the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine overnight, damaging energy infrastructure, its Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. “Power, water and heating supplies were disrupted,” he said.
The Ukrainian drone blitz caught public attention in the Baltic states, which lie northwest of Ukraine and relatively close to potential Russian targets in the Leningrad region, which includes St. Petersburg, where drones came down.
Officials in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which have been close allies of Ukraine in the war, said the drones likely didn’t target them.
Estonian media reported that a drone coming from Russia clipped a power plant’s chimney early on Wednesday (March 25) but said electricity production was not disrupted. The plant is around 31 miles from the port of Ust-Luga that Ukraine targeted.
Also Wednesday (March 25), the Latvian Defence Ministry said a drone had crashed in a region close to Russia. No injuries or damage were reported.
Lithuanian officials said a stray Ukrainian drone crashed into a frozen lake near the Belarusian border on Monday (March 23).
In Moldova, on Ukraine’s southwest border, authorities on Tuesday (March 24) urged citizens to spare electrical energy during peak hours, after Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid cut a key power line between Moldova and Romania.
Published – March 25, 2026 11:45 pm IST
