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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults of the war overnight, firing 656 attack drones and 73 cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles at Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
Authorities said that at least 21 people were killed across Ukraine after one of Russia's biggest aerial attacks of the war which comes as Moscow's forces face battlefield setbacks.
"By targeting non-combatants and essential infrastructure, the Russian military implicitly signals its inability to secure decisive, sustainable victories through traditional maneuver warfare," Yuriy Boyechko, CEO of Hope for Ukraine, which helps communities on the frontline, told Newsweek Tuesday.
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"The Kremlin has visibly intensified its asymmetric campaign against civilian centers, relying on infrastructure bombardment and urban terror to project an illusion of power," he said.
The barrage also highlights how Russia has increasingly relied on mass drone attacks throughout 2026, enabled by expanded domestic production of Shahed-type weapons and growing launch capacity.
The attacks come as analysts say Kyiv's forces have momentum along the frontlines. "Ukraine has the upper hand, that is not a green light for a large-scale Ukrainian offensive, but it does mean Russia will lose lots of personnel and limited territory over the summer," Mark Montgomery, senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank, told Newsweek.
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Kyiv Bears Brunt of the Attack
In the Ukrainian capital, at least six people were killed and another 79 injured, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. At least 15 people were killed in the central-eastern city, Dnipro including two children and a first responder while 37 others were injured.
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Oleksandr Hanzha said one of the children pulled out from the rubble of a partially destroyed four-story apartment building was born in 2023, and another was an eight-year-old boy. At least 49 buildings were damaged in attacks, with photos and videos posted online showing the extent of the destruction.
No Breakthrough on the Battlefield
The eastern cities of Poltava, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia were also targeted by Russia with Ukrainian authorities saying their air defenses destroyed or suppressed 40 missiles and 602 drones.
"Russia's intensified attacks on Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and other civilian centers can be viewed not only as an attempt to inflict damage, but also as a strategy of coercion and intimidation," said Elina Beketova, fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
"Unable to achieve decisive breakthroughs on the battlefield, Moscow continues to rely on long-range strikes against civilian infrastructure in an effort to weaken Ukrainian morale and signal its ability to escalate," she told Newsweek.
Response to Kyiv's 'Terrorist Acts'
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The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that the strikes targeted defense production plants and transportation infrastructure used by Ukraine's military and were carried out by long-range, high-precision air-, land- and sea-based weapons—including hypersonic aeroballistic missiles and attack drones.
The strike was a response "to the terrorist acts of the Kyiv regime," the defense ministry said, likely referring to Russia's condemnation of a strike on Starobilsk in the occupied part of Luhansk oblast on May 22 which Moscow said had killed 21 people. The death toll has not been independently verified and Kyiv said it targeted a military site.
On May 25, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had warned of plans to strike Ukrainian "decision-making centers" and urged Washington to evacuate its embassy in Kyiv. Moscow's foreign ministry also urged foreigners to leave Kyiv.
Civilian Areas Hit
Russian forces struck the Podilskyi district in the capital, hitting a nine-story building collapsed following a reported double-tap strike, likely trapping people under the rubble. Video posted on social media also showed people sheltering in Kyiv's metro system to escape the bombardment.
On May 24, Russia launched 90 missiles and 600 drones against Kyiv and the surrounding region in a barrage which included an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).
Those attacks damaged Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers, Foreign Ministry building, the Kyiv Opera Theater, the Ukrainian House, the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium, and the Chornobyl Museum.
Russia's Battlefield Setbacks
Dara Massicot, a senior fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank, posted on X that it was notable that Monday night's strikes on Kyiv included the use of 20 Iskandr and Tsirkon missiles.
According to the Institute for the Study of War's latest analysis on Monday, Russian forces have lost 108 square miles of territory since December 2025 and only gained control or infiltrated 15 square miles during the same time frame.
This net loss of territory for Russian forces marks the first time since late 2023 that Ukraine has consistently registered overall net gains, disrupting a grueling period of incremental Russian advances.
Boyechko from Hope for Ukraine said Russia's tactical shift highlights growing vulnerabilities within the Russian military apparatus—ranging from systemic communication breakdowns to severe command-and-control degradation.
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He said that rather than demonstrating strategic dominance, Moscow's reliance on costly infiltration tactics has yielded a diminishing return on the front lines, exposing the friction and depletion plaguing its conventional army as Ukrainian forces successfully reclaim occupied ground.
"This pattern of terrorizing civilians serves as a stark metric of military frustration, demonstrating that Moscow is increasingly substituting battlefield efficacy with brute, retaliatory violence against the innocent," he added.
Beketova from CEPA said the war may be entering a new phase away from a battlefield largely characterized by positional warfare, with limited territorial gains by either side towards Ukraine targeting critical Russian military infrastructure and logistics networks.
"Strikes against supply routes, ammunition depots, and military facilities in occupied cities such as Mariupol, along with intensified drone operations in Melitopol, have imposed additional costs on Russia's war effort and complicated its ability to sustain operations," she said.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Moscow's escalating aggression was because it was facing increasing military and economic difficulties and could signal a push to revive peace talks in pursuit of a deal that favored Putin.
Senior Russian Ministry of Finance and Central Bank officials have warned Putin about the strain his war effort is putting on the Russian economy, and risks widening the budget deficit, according to Bloomberg, citing sources and documents.
However, the ISW said that Putin’s unwillingness to cut defense spending suggests that he believes that he can win in the near- to medium-term and that the Russian economy can hold on until then.
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