On the night of August 21, 2026, the Russian Armed Forces launched a massive strike on Ukrainian territory using 135 unmanned aerial vehicles. This was reported by RBK-Ukraine, citing an official briefing from the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to the department, the enemy used Shahed-type strike drones (including jet-powered ones), Gerbera, as well as "Parody" decoy drones.
Seven attack directions
The drones flew in from seven directions simultaneously: from the Kursk region, the Millerovo area, the Orel region, as well as from the Primorsko-Akhtarsk direction (Russia), the occupied territories of the Donetsk region, and the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. The scale of this attack required the simultaneous operation of air defense systems in the north, south, and east of the country.
Air Defense Results
Preliminary data from the Air Force indicates that as of 08:00, air defense forces shot down and suppressed 107 enemy drones. However, 27 hits by strike drones were recorded at 16 locations, as well as the fall of debris from shot-down targets in three areas. The department warned that at the time of the briefing, several UAVs were still in the airspace and urged citizens to follow safety rules.
Consequences in the regions
Among the recorded locations of hits were Sumy, where jet drones struck a two-story residential building, causing a fire and resulting in casualties; Konotop; the village of Lebyazhe in the Kharkiv region, where houses burned and, according to local media, four people died; as well as the "Tabaky" checkpoint in the Odesa region. Thus, the strikes hit the Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Odesa regions.
Contradictory data
In several morning briefings and source materials, there is a conflation of two different events: the consequences of a combined missile-drone strike on Kyiv and the Kyiv region on the night of August 20 (damage to 30 residential buildings, a school, a hospital, a kindergarten, shelling of the Brovary district with damage to a KLO network oil depot and logistics centers, as well as 15 deaths in the capital) and the morning all-Ukrainian briefing by the Air Force on repelling the raid of 135 drones on the night of August 21. The figure of 15 deaths refers specifically to the events of August 20 and is not the result of the night drone attack on August 21. Furthermore, an anomalous figure of "1,155 shot down" appeared in automated drafts, which is a parsing technical error and is not confirmed by primary sources; it has been excluded from this material.
Context and threat assessment
Experts had previously warned that the Russian side is expanding its arsenal of drones capable of striking targets at significant distances, including in western regions of Ukraine. Massive combined strikes, combining ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones from different directions, are becoming a regular practice, placing increasingly high demands on the density and mobility of air defense systems. The Air Force continues to publish operational briefings and urges the population to remain in shelters until the air raid alarm is lifted.
