Russia Launches Massive Daytime Drone Attack on Ukraine, Largest of the War

A National Guard soldier and his 15-year-old daughter were at a maternity ward in Ivano-Frankivsk, visiting his wife who had given birth just days earlier, when Russian drones struck the city on Tuesday. Both were killed. That moment, drawn from the account of Ivano-Frankivsk mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv, crystallizes what Ukrainian officials described as one of the most destructive aerial assaults of the war.

Russia carried out one of the largest aerial attacks since the start of its war on Ukraine, launching 948 drones in a 24-hour period. During the day on March 24 alone, Russia launched 556 attack drones, with Ukrainian air defenses downing 541 of them as of 7 p.m. From 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., more than 400 attack drones entered Ukrainian airspace from the south, north, and across the contact line, while 392 Russian drones were recorded between 6 p.m. on March 23 and 9 a.m. on March 24.

"This was one of the largest attacks over the course of the day," with drones directed towards central and western Ukraine, Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yuriy Ignat said. Ukraine's Defense Ministry advisor Serhii Flash said Russia is constantly changing its tactics for massive strikes, "trying to find vulnerabilities," and break through Ukraine's air defenses.

The attacks left at least 40 people in the country injured, including five children, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Zelensky said the scale of the Russian attack makes it "abundantly clear that Russia has no intention of actually ending this war."

The human toll spread across western and central Ukraine. At least two people in Ivano-Frankivsk were killed, according to regional governor Svitlana Onyshchuk. The victims included a National Guard soldier and his 15-year-old daughter, who were at a hospital maternity ward visiting the soldier's wife, who had given birth to a son just days prior. Four others, including a 6-year-old, were injured. A maternity hospital in the city also sustained damage, according to Ukrainian officials. In Vinnytsia, a 59-year-old man was killed and 11 others were injured, according to Mayor Serhiy Morgunov.

Lviv, a city of more than 700,000 people less than 40 miles from the Polish border, bore some of the heaviest damage. Russian forces launched a drone attack in broad daylight on the center of Lviv, a historic city in western Ukraine that had been spared much of the war's fighting. In his evening address, Zelensky said the Russians used Iranian-manufactured drones to attack Lviv and that one of these weapons badly damaged the historic 17th-century St. Andrew's Church, a UNESCO heritage site. "Iranian Shaheds, modernized by Russia, hit a church in Lviv — its absolute perversion," Zelensky said. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliya Svyrydenko accused the Russians of deliberately targeting civilians. "Russia is attacking a crowded city centre in broad daylight," she posted.

Lviv was one of nearly a dozen regions across Ukraine hit in the barrage, which included more than 930 drone strikes and 34 missile attacks on other cities and key infrastructure, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Apartment buildings were struck, civilian infrastructure was damaged, and even a train was targeted.

Following a massive overnight barrage, Russia continued its attack during the day in a rare daytime wave of over 550 attack drones targeting central and western regions. Kyiv and the areas around the capital were also targeted, with Ukraine's Air Force registering drones flying toward Kyiv from the north. Drone attacks on Ukraine's capital have historically been conducted at night, when the aircraft are harder to detect, making Tuesday's daytime push a deliberate escalation in tactics.

The assault came as Ukraine faces what Zelensky described as a deficit of air defense missiles, with Washington's attention drawn elsewhere. The timing coincided with Russia moving troops and equipment to the front line in what appeared to be the start of a new offensive. With nearly 1,000 drones launched in a single day, the attack set a grim new threshold in a war that has already endured more than four years of aerial bombardment.