Russia launches record drone and missile assault on Ukraine

Russia launched the largest drone and missile assault of the war against Ukraine across May 13 and into the early hours of May 14, 2026, sending 1,567 strike drones alongside ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and aeroballistic weapons in a sustained two-day attack that combined mass Shahed-type drone waves with a coordinated missile strike targeting western regions and Kyiv.

Ukraine’s Air Force published a detailed accounting of the full assault. The day attack on May 13, running from 08:00 through 18:30, involved 753 strike drones of the Shahed, Gerber, Italmas, and Parody decoy types, including jet-powered variants. Combined with the overnight wave of 139 drones reported earlier, total drone launches across the 24-hour period of May 13 exceeded 892 unmanned weapons of those types. Ukrainian air defenses shot down or suppressed 710 of those drones by 18:30, with 27 strike drones confirmed as hitting their targets and debris from intercepted drones falling across 26 additional locations.

The main axis of the May 13 daytime attack was western Ukraine, and the Air Force statement highlighted a recurring tactical pattern: Russia used the territory of Belarus and Moldova as transit corridors for strike drones approaching Ukrainian airspace. Belarus has served as a launch and transit corridor for Russian strikes since the earliest phases of the full-scale invasion, but the use of Moldovan airspace, if confirmed by subsequent investigation, would represent a serious violation of a neutral state’s sovereignty. Ukraine’s air defense response involved aviation, surface-to-air missile units, electronic warfare units, unmanned systems elements, and mobile fire groups of the Defense Forces operating across nearly all regions of the country.

Russia did not pause after the daytime wave ended. Beginning at 18:00 on May 13, immediately following the conclusion of the nearly 800-drone daytime assault, Russian forces launched a combined strike using drones, air-launched cruise missiles, and ground-based ballistic missiles with Kyiv as the primary target. Ukraine’s radar troops tracked and escorted 731 aerial attack weapons during the night phase: 56 missiles and 675 drones, according to the Air Force’s preliminary data as of 08:00 on May 14.

The missile component of the night attack drew from multiple tiers of Russia’s strike arsenal. Three Kh-47 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles were launched from the Lipetsk region of Russia. The Kinzhal is a hypersonic aeroballistic weapon air-launched from MiG-31K aircraft, capable of speeds exceeding Mach 10 in its terminal phase and presenting an interception challenge that few Western air defense systems have been certified to address. None of the three Kinzhal missiles were intercepted, per the Air Force’s preliminary figures. Eighteen ballistic missiles of the Iskander-M and S-400 types were launched from the Bryansk and Kursk regions, with 12 of those 18 intercepted. Thirty-five Kh-101 cruise missiles were launched from Russia’s Vologda region, placing the launch aircraft deep inside Russian territory and well beyond the range of any Ukrainian counter-strike capability; 29 of those 35 were shot down. The drone component of the night wave comprised 675 Shahed, Gerber, and Italmas strike drones, two Banderol loitering munitions, and Parody decoy drones, approaching from multiple directions including Bryansk, Kursk, Oryol, Millerovo, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk on the Russian side, as well as from Gvardeyskoye and Chauda in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Across the complete two-day assault, Russia launched a total of 1,567 strike drones, of which 1,362 were shot down or suppressed by Ukrainian air defenses. The 35 Kh-101 cruise missiles produced 29 confirmed intercepts. Of the 18 Iskander-M and S-400 ballistic missiles, 12 were destroyed. The three Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles all reached their targets. Fifteen missiles and 23 strike drones were confirmed as hitting targets across 24 locations during the night phase, with debris from intercepted drones falling at 18 additional sites.

The deliberate sequencing of near-continuous waves across 36 hours reflects a Russian planning objective that goes beyond striking specific targets. Sustaining air defense operations without pause exhausts crews, depletes interceptor stocks, and degrades the decision-making capacity of commanders allocating finite resources against a continuing threat. Ukraine’s defenders intercepted 1,362 of 1,567 drones and 41 of 56 missiles across the full assault. That is an extraordinary defensive performance by any historical standard. It is also a performance that cost something — in missiles fired, in crews kept awake, in systems pushed to their limits across a day and a half without respite. Russia launched enough to make that cost real, regardless of how many it lost.