Russia unleashed its largest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukrainian officials said Sunday, targeting multiple regions and leaving at least one person dead and several others injured.
Ukraine’s air force reported that 273 drones were launched by 8:00 a.m. local time, striking areas in and around the capital Kyiv, as well as the eastern regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk. The military said that 88 of the drones—many of them Iranian-made Shahed attack drones—were intercepted, while another 128 failed to hit targets and caused no known damage.
Officials said a woman was killed and at least three people were injured in the Kyiv region following overnight strikes.
The scale of the attack surpassed the previous record set in February, when Russia launched 267 drones on the third anniversary of its full-scale invasion. Ukrainian authorities condemned the renewed bombardment as a sign that Moscow remains committed to continuing the war despite increasing calls for a ceasefire.
“For Russia, the negotiations in Istanbul are just a pretence. Putin wants war,” said Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The attacks came just a day after rare, direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Turkey. The discussions marked the first face-to-face diplomatic contact between the two sides in over three years. While the meeting led to an agreement on a new prisoner exchange, it yielded little progress on broader issues such as a ceasefire.
Meanwhile, the international diplomatic backdrop continued to shift. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Sunday that he would join leaders from Britain, France, and Poland in a virtual meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump before Trump’s scheduled call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday morning. Trump has reportedly been pressing both sides to agree to a temporary ceasefire.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had been attending Pope Leo’s inauguration mass at the Vatican, held a private audience with the pontiff on Sunday. He also briefly met U.S. Vice President JD Vance in Rome.
As diplomatic efforts intensify, Ukraine’s leadership remains firm in its message: Russia’s actions over the weekend show no indication of de-escalation.
