Ukraine Downs Barrage of Shahed-136 Drones in Overnight Assault—Kyiv

Ukraine said it downed a barrage of Iranian-made drones after Russia launched an overnight assault across several regions, including the capital Kyiv.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its daily update on the conflict that Ukraine's armed forces had destroyed 16 out of 21 Shahed-136 drones launched by Russia overnight.

Russia has been launching the Iranian Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as kamikaze drones, throughout President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, particularly against civilian and energy infrastructure. Iran has denied supplying the weapons to Russia since the invasion, though it has said some were sent before that.

"On the night of March 22, the enemy launched another massive attack using Shahed-136 UAVs. According to preliminary information, Ukrainian defenders shot down 16 out of 21 enemy drones," the general staff's update said, noting that the threat of further strikes throughout the country remains high.

The Ukrainian Air Force said the Shahed-136 drones were launched from Russia's Bryansk region, located near the Ukraine border.

An air alert was announced overnight in multiple regions across Ukraine, including Kyiv, Chernihiv, Poltava, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, Dnipro, Ternopil, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Kropyvnytskyi.

Drones struck a dorm and college in the Kyiv region, killing at least four people. Andrei Nebytov, the Kyiv region's police chief, said the fourth victim of the strike was a 40-year-old man who had worked as a driver.

"The man did not go down to the shelter during the air raid," Nebytov said on his Telegram channel.

The Kyiv city military administration said Ukraine shot down eight drones around the region, while in the Zhytomyr region, three drones were shot down.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter on Wednesday that "over 20 Iranian murderous drones" had been launched by Russia against Ukraine overnight. "Every time someone tries to hear the word 'peace' in Moscow, another order is given there for such criminal strikes," he tweeted.

British defense officials assessed in February that Russia's supply of Shahed-136 drones may have dried up.

The U.K. Ministry of Defense said in a daily update on the conflict on February 25 that there had been no reports of Iranian attack drones being used in Ukraine for some 10 days, and that Ukrainian armed forces had previously reported shooting down at least 24 Shahed-136s between late January and early February.

The lack of deployment of the drones likely showed that Russia had "run down its current stock" and would seek a "resupply," the ministry said.

According to RUSI, a British think tank, the drones have been deployed from Belarus and Crimea, and their range allows them to hit nearly any point in Ukraine. Zelensky said in a December 21 speech to the U.S. Congress that the weapons have become "a threat to our critical infrastructure."

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