Russia launches a record-high 188 strike drones into Ukraine
Source: Ukraine’s Air Force
Russia unleashed a record-breaking 188 drones in a massive overnight assault targeting Ukrainian cities on Monday night and Tuesday morning. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, the attack began at 7:30 pm on November 25 and continued into the early hours of November 26, marked an escalation in the use of unmanned aerial weapons.
The barrage included four Iskander-M ballistic missiles launched from Russia’s Voronezh and Kursk regions, along with 188 Shahed drones and other unidentified drones that came in swarms from multiple locations, including Oryol, Bryansk, Kursk, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk.
By morning, Ukrainian air defense systems had downed 76 drones across a wide swath of the country, including Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and 11 other regions. Meanwhile, 95 drones were reportedly lost in flight impacted by electronic warfare jamming, and five more went astray, toward Belarus.
Despite some defensive successes, Ukraine’s Air Force confirmed hits on critical infrastructure. The attack also caused damage to private and multi-story residential buildings in several regions. Morning reports show there were no casualties or injuries.
Ukraine’s defense response was a cooordinated effort of aviation, anti-aircraft missile units, electronic warfare systems, and mobile fire teams from the Air Force and other defense forces.
In 2025, the deadliest year yet for civilians, Ukraine’s three largest charitable foundations raised a record 105.9 billion hryvnias. It is more than the years 2022–2024 combined. According to the UN, humanitarian aid in Ukraine was delivered by more than 450 organisations, reaching five million people over the course of the year. Civic foundations hold licences to purchase lethal weapons, which is a function states have monopolised for centuries. These record sums were underwritten by international government grants, which means foreign states now channel billions directly through Ukrainian civic funds, bypassing inter-state channels. It is hard to imagine a stronger institutional trust in civil society.
During the GLOBSEC Defence Forum 2026 in Prague, representatives of “Steel Front”, an initiative by Rinat Akhmetov, discussed with NATO delegations, military officials, and representatives of the European defense industry the lessons learned from Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
After the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine witnessed an unprecedented wave of private support for the army. Citizens, big businesses, charitable foundations, and international philanthropists began financing the country’s defense alongside state assistance provided by international partners. Estimates of total private contributions range from tens to hundreds of billions of hryvnias. However, determining the exact amount remains difficult. In many cases, companies combine military aid, humanitarian programs, tax payments, social spending, and employee support in their reporting.
Rinat Akhmetov’s military initiative, “Steel Front”, has delivered a batch of drones worth UAH 214 million to the 1st “Azov” Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine. This shipment is part of the Metinvest Group’s ongoing support for the unit in 2025.
On October 6, the Administrative Cassation Court within the Supreme Court of Ukraine continued hearing case No. 990/80/25, in which the fifth President and leader of the party “European Solidarity”, Petro Poroshenko, seeks to have Presidential Decree No. 81/2025 from February 12, 2025 — enacting sanctions by the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) — declared illegal and annulled. The plaintiff claims the document was falsified and that the sanctions are a tool of political persecution of the opposition, contrary to international norms. Government representatives deny the allegations and insist their actions were lawful. Journalists of Bukvy were present at the hearing.