Charting the past year of Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine

On Sunday, Russia launched its largest drone and rocket onslaught since the warfare began, firing a full of 823 projectiles into Ukraine.

The onslaught killed astatine slightest 4 people, wounded 44, and caused harm to a cardinal gathering successful Kyiv’s authorities district, making it the archetypal connected the tract since the full-fledged warfare began successful February 2022.

Ukraine’s aerial unit said Russia fired 810 drones and decoys, arsenic good arsenic 13 cruise and ballistic missiles. They added that 9 missiles and astir 60 drones had made it done their aerial defences and landed successful Ukraine.

Smoke rises implicit a Ukrainian authorities gathering aft Russian drone and rocket strikes successful Kyiv connected September 7, 2025 [Serhii Korovainyi/Reuters]

The aerial unit said 33 locations were struck crossed Ukraine, with officials saying that Russian strikes damaged civilian and residential infrastructure successful Kyiv, Sumy, Dnipro, and Zaporizhzhia cities; Kremenchuk successful Poltava province; Kryvyi Rih successful Dnipropetrovsk province; Sloviansk successful Donetsk province; and parts of Chernihiv and Cherkasy provinces.

How galore drone strikes has Russia launched?

Since the commencement of the year, Russia has launched astatine slightest 37,000 aerial attacks connected Ukraine, according to a tally by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russia has intensified drone strikes pursuing Ukraine-Russia bilateral talks successful Istanbul, Turkiye, connected May 15. The talks, pushed by United States President Donald Trump, did not output immoderate breakthrough.

Between January and May 2025, Russian drone strikes averaged astir 120 strikes per day. From May to August, drone strikes averaged 185 per day.

What types of drones is Russia using?

Russia is chiefly utilizing Shahed-type drones successful their attacks. At the commencement of the war, these low-cost weapons were chiefly supplied by Iran.

The fig of Russian drones has risen significantly, with Moscow scaling up its accumulation of Shahed-type drones, known arsenic Gerans (Russian analogues of the Iranian missiles), Garpiyas (made with Chinese components), and Gerberas (low-cost decoys that mimic Shaheds connected radar but transportation small oregon nary explosives, intended to deplete Ukraine’s costly interceptor missiles).

Russia is producing these drones successful Tatarstan and has opened a caller accumulation enactment astatine the Izhevsk Electromechanical Plant, wherever it already produces Garpiya drones, according to the ISW.

In June 2025, Ukrainian defence quality suggested that Russia was susceptible of producing an mean of 170 Shahed-type drones per time (about 5,100 per month) and planned to summation accumulation to 190 drones per time by the extremity of 2025.

The Russian-made Geran-1 (also known arsenic Shahed 131) and Geran-2 (also known arsenic Shahed 136) are low-cost, with a terms scope of $20,000-$50,000 for home production, but person a precocious impact.

The Shahed-131 is simply a smaller munition with a scope of 700-900km (435-560 miles), portion the larger Shahed-136 has a scope of astatine slightest 2,000km (1,243 miles). They are known for flying astatine debased altitudes and dilatory speeds. That means they tin beryllium changeable down by idiosyncratic soldiers, but they tin besides beryllium utilized against front-line positions and are much manoeuvrable than faster missiles.

Some of Russia’s homegrown drones see the Lancet kamikaze drone, designed for precision strikes, the ZALA household of reconnaissance and onslaught drones, and respective reconnaissance models specified arsenic the Orlan-10, Supercam and Merlin-VR.

However, Russia is predominantly relying connected Shahed-type drones, and — alongside those — is besides utilizing cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.

Russian soldiers hole a Lancet drone for enactment successful an undisclosed determination successful Ukraine [Russian Ministry of Defence via AP]

What benignant of aerial defence strategy has Ukraine utilized against Russian aerial attacks?

Ukraine has employed respective tactics and weapons to instrumentality down oregon disable drones, including modern aerial defence systems alongside mobile occurrence teams and physics warfare.

Man-portable aerial defence kits (MANPADS), dense machineguns and German-made IRIS-T and US-made NASAMS and SHORAD rocket defence systems person besides been utilized against drone attacks, intensifying successful recent weeks.

Ukraine has had the astir occurrence successful downing drones with the German radar-assisted Gepard anti-air 35mm weapon and domestically-developed interceptor drones, according to Ukrainian drone warfare adept Olena Kryzhanivska.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz gets disconnected a German self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon Flakpanzer Gepard during a sojourn to the grooming programme for Ukrainian soldiers adjacent Oldenburg, Germany, connected August 25, 2022 [Axel Heimken/Pool via Reuters]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made domestically produced weapons a apical priority, saying successful July that wrong six months, the country’s home arms accumulation should purpose to scope 50 percent of its needs.

Ukraine has besides utilized the US-made Patriot strategy against ballistic and cruise missiles, providing a captious furniture of defence against long-range attacks, including from immoderate of Russia’s astir precocious missiles.

What are the latest developments connected the ground?

Currently, Russia controls one-fifth – 114,500sq km (44,600sq miles) – of Ukrainian land, with astir 88 percent of the Donbas nether its power and three-quarters of Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts.

For astir of this year, the warfare has settled into a grinding impasse with dense losses connected some sides; however, successful August, Russian forces made important gains, advancing astir 10km (6 miles) beyond the beforehand lines.