Kyiv and Moscow trade overnight drone strikes as Ukraine downs most Russian UAVs
Ukraine’s air defenses intercepted 50 Russian drones during a massive attack overnight on 24 November 2024, the country’s Air Force reported.
Russia continues its deliberate daily air attacks on residential areas and civilian infrastructure, often combining UAV barrages with missile strikes to amplify their impact. Since October 2022, it has systematically targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with large-scale missile and drone assaults, aiming to disrupt civilian life, particularly during winter. Drone exchanges have been a hallmark of the past two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with their scale and frequency steadily increasing.
According to Ukraine’s Air Force, Russian forces launched the attack at 00:30 using Shahed-type one-way attack drones and other unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles from Oryol and Bryansk regions. The military tracked a total of 73 enemy drones.
Kyiv City Military Administration said this morning more than a dozen drones targeted the Ukrainian capital, with air raid alerts lasting over three hours after being announced at 3:25 a.m. The drones approached Kyiv from various directions, but caused no damage or casualties in the city, according to the Administration.
The Air Force said the drones were shot down across multiple regions including Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava, and Zhytomyr oblasts. Additionally, 19 drones disappeared from radar, likely “due to electronic warfare countermeasures,” while four Russian drones remained airborne at the time of reporting.
In recent weeks, Russia has increasingly deployed cheap aerial decoy drones in large numbers to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses, increasing the likelihood of drones carrying warheads penetrating protected areas. The “locationally lost” drones mentioned in Air Force reports are most likely these decoys.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed it had shot down 36 Ukrainian drones overnight on 23-24 November.
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