Russia launches another record drone attack on Ukraine

Russia fired a record 728 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight as well as 13 cruise and ballistic missiles the Ukrainian air force said Wednesday in the latest escalation after weeks of mounting Russian aerial and ground attacks in the more than threeyear warThe city of Lutsk which lies in Ukraines northwest along the border with Poland and Belarus was the hardest hit though 10 other regions were also struck Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saidLutsk is home to airfields used by the Ukrainian army Cargo planes and fighter jets routinely fly over the cityWestern regions of Ukraine are a crucial logistical backbone in the war as airfields and depots there receive vital foreign military aid before forwarding it to other parts of the country Russian longrange attacks have increasingly sought to disrupt those supply corridorsThe Russian Defence Ministry said that its forces took aim at Ukrainian air bases and that all the designated targets have been hitRussia has recently tried to overwhelm Ukrainian air defences by launching massive aerial assaults including adding more decoy drones to its attacksRussia launched its previous largest aerial assault late in the night of July 4 into the following day with the biggest prior to that occurring less than a week earlierRussias bigger army has also launched a new drive to punch through parts of the 1000kilometre 620mile front line where shorthanded Ukrainian forces are under heavy strainUS President Donald Trump said Tuesday that hes not happy with Russian President Vladimir Putin who hasnt budged from his ceasefire and peace demands since Trump took office in January and began to push for a settlementTrump said Monday that the US would have to send more weapons to Ukraine just days after Washington paused critical weapons deliveries to Kyiv amid uncertainty over the US administrations commitment to Ukraines defenceKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Trump has quite a tough style in terms of the phrasing he uses adding that Moscow hopes to continue our dialogue with Washington and our course aimed at repairing the badly damaged bilateral tiesZelenskyy said that the Kremlin was making a point with the overnight attack on western parts of Ukraine as USled peace efforts flounder He urged Ukraines partners to impose stricter sanctions on Russian oil and those who help finance the Kremlins war by buying itEveryone who wants peace must act Zelenskyy said The Ukrainian leader was due to meet Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday during a visit to ItalyTwo people were wounded in the Kyiv region during the overnight barrage officials said as emergency crews continued to assess the damagePoland scrambled its fighter jets and put its armed forces on the highest level of alert in response to Russias attack the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command wrote in an X postDanish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned Tuesday that Russia could pose a credible security threat to the European Union by the end of the decade She called for defence industries in Europe and Ukraine to be ramped up within five yearsUkraines air defences shot down 296 drones and seven missiles during the overnight attack while 415 more drones were lost from radars or jammed an air force statement saidUkrainian interceptor drones developed to counter Russias Shahed drones are increasingly effective Zelenskyy said noting that many targets were intercepted and that domestic production of antiaircraft drones is being scaled up in partnership with some Western countriesWestern military analysts say Russia is boosting its drone manufacturing and could soon be capable of launching 1000 drones a night at UkraineRussia continues to expand its domestic drone production capacity amid the evergrowing role of tactical drones in frontline combat operations and Russias increasingly large nightly longrange strike packages against Ukraine the Institute for the Study of War a Washingtonbased think tank said late TuesdayUkraine has also built up its own offensive drone threat reaching deep into Russia with some spectacular longrange strikesRussias Defence Ministry said Wednesday that air defences downed 86 Ukrainian drones over six Russian regions overnight including the Moscow regionFlights were temporarily suspended at Moscows Sheremetyevo airport and the international airport of Kaluga south of MoscowThe governor of Russias Kursk border region Alexander Khinshtein said that a Ukrainian drone attack on the regions capital city just before midnight killed three people and wounded seven others including a 5yearold boyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever