Putin unleashes mammoth Ukraine assault after 1,000s more drones hit Russia

Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine’s southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a day after Kyiv’s military fired more than 1,000 drones at Russia, authorities reported Monday, the Express reports.

The strikes hit apartment blocks, a university, and a shopping mall late Sunday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying “Russia is not backing down from its escalation and is sending many signals that it is ready to expand the war,” adding he hopes to meet US President Donald Trump at the UN General Assembly this week, where Putin is not scheduled to attend. Zelensky further noted that Russia also struck nine other Ukrainian regions overnight, while Moscow’s Defense Ministry said it targeted Ukrainian logistics centers, storage facilities and ports.

The exchange followed Ukraine’s massive drone swarm on Moscow from Saturday through Sunday, timed with the final day of a Russian parliamentary election, with Moscow claiming it intercepted 244 drones overnight. Kyiv’s air force said it downed 148 Russian drones in return.

With strikes now regularly veering into neighbouring airspace and unsettling regional leaders, the unrelenting daily exchanges underscore how far diplomatic efforts remain from any meaningful breakthrough more than four years into the war.