KYIV: Russia fired nearly 1,000 drones at Ukraine in the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian air force said on Tuesday, after an unprecedented daytime barrage killed at least three people across the war-torn country.

“Taking into account the night attack... the enemy used almost 1,000 strike drones,” Ukraine’s air force said on Telegram, adding that “the geography of the attack during the day was wider than at night” targeting Ukraine’s western regions, hundreds of kilometres from the front.

The daytime strikes came after a wave of overnight strikes that killed five people across Ukraine and caused disruption to power supplies in Moldova. Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 34 missiles and 392 drones overnight and that 25 missiles and 365 drones had been downed or neutralised.

Two people were killed and 12 injured, including a five-year-old child, in the attack near the eastern city of Poltava, a regional official said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said damage had been reported in 11 regions and issued a new appeal for allies to supply Kyiv with air defence munitions. He has repeatedly warned that Kyiv, whose main supplier of air defence systems against ballistic missiles is the United States, will face a deficit of missiles while Washington is focused on the US-Israeli war on Iran.

“It’s important to continue supporting Ukraine. It’s important that all agreements on air defence are implemented on time,” he said on X.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2026