Gdańsk, Poland — Ukraine has launched one of its heaviest drone assaults on Russia since the war began, targeting 12 regions in the neighboring nation as well as its own Crimean Peninsula, which has been occupied by Russia since 2014.
Russia’s Tass state news agency said Ukraine fired more drones in the attack than it had during any previous assault in the last year. The Russian Defense Ministry said 660 drones were intercepted. The previous largest Ukrainian attack this year involved 556 drones, on May 17.
Ukrainian authorities said air defense units had repelled a Russian missile attack, meanwhile, with residents telling CBS News they saw interceptions above the capital Kyiv that sent debris falling to the ground.
Ukraine’s national Security Service said that Ukrainian drones struck two military vessels and several air defense systems in the Kerch region of Crimea. Russian and Ukrainian channels on the Telegram social media platform reported a strike on the Azot chemical plant in Russia’s Tula region, which would be the second time the facility was targeted in two weeks.
CBS News could not confirm the strikes on the plant, which is one of Russia’s largest producers of ammonia and nitrogen fertilizers. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the facility is crucial to Russia’s production of explosives.
Analysts say strikes on energy and industrial infrastructure, in quick succession, have a significant impact as they delay repairs and can keep critical facilities closed for longer.
Vantor 
Ukraine has intensified strikes on Russia this spring and summer, targeting energy and logistics infrastructure across the country.
Thinning Russian air defense stockpiles and Ukraine’s ever-increasing drone production have helped Kyiv seize new momentum this year, with analysts and some regional leaders seeing the tide slowly turn away from Russia’s favor.
In 2024, when Ukraine first ramped up its strikes against Russia, it launched 110 long-range drones into the neighboring nation. This year, that number has already surpassed 3,000, according to data published in May by Ukraine’s Come Back Alive Foundation, a nonprofit group that supports the Ukrainian military.
The Ukrainian defense ministry published data Friday showing that Kyiv had destroyed 1,447 Russian air defense systems since President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In recent weeks, Ukrainian strikes have heavily targeted Crimea. Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mikhailo Fedorov said he hoped to turn the region “into an island,” isolating the long-occupied territory from Russia.
On Friday, Russian authorities in Crimea announced a state of emergency after halting all fuel sales to civilians in response to Ukrainian attacks earlier in the week.
Zelenskyy indicated in a social media post on Thursday that Ukraine planned to intensify its strikes, announcing a “40-day influence operation” that he said would be “aimed at compelling it [Russia] to end the war.”
