Ukraine Gives Russia Taste of Winter Payback After Drone Blitz

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged the first round of an expected two-way winter drone campaign, with Kyiv launching a series of strikes against several regions, including Moscow, one day after a record-breaking barrage of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) against Kyiv.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that 24 drones were shot down over the country in the previous 24 hours, as well as more than 50 UAVs over the Russian-occupied Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Kharkiv regions in eastern Ukraine. The ministry also said it had intercepted two S-200 anti-aircraft missiles—which both sides have repurposed to fire at ground targets—over the Sea of Azov.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said there were no injuries or damage in the capital. Alexey Dyumin, the governor of the Tula region to the south of Moscow, said one drone crashed into an apartment building, causing minor damage and light injury to one person. Denis Pushilin, the head of the Russian puppet occupation administration in Donetsk, said a drone damaged a regional power station and caused local blackouts.

Explosions are seen in the city on November 25, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Russia has begun its winter bombardment of the capital and other large cities. Libkos/Getty Images

“The situation is difficult,” Pushilin wrote on Telegram on Sunday. “The work is ongoing, everything is being done to return the heat and light for our citizens as soon as possible.”

The drone strikes came at the same time that a major storm arrived in the southern Ukrainian region, prompting blackouts across Crimea and Donetsk amid freezing temperatures. Winter snow and freezing temperatures are now blanketing much of Ukraine and western Russia, heralding the end of the 2023 fighting season. Russia is expected to repeat its 2022 winter drone and missile campaign in an effort to force Kyiv into submission.

Kyiv launched its Sunday drone bombardment one day after Russia launched its largest-ever wave of UAVs against Ukrainian targets, using 75 Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones. Ukrainian air defense teams said they downed all but one of the UAVs in the attack, which lasted for more than six hours.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this month that his compatriots “must be prepared for the fact that the enemy may increase the number of drone or missile strikes on our infrastructure.”

“All attention should be focused on defense, on responding to terrorists on everything that Ukraine can do to get through the winter and improve our soldiers’ capabilities,” he said.

The president has also hinted that Ukraine is more prepared to retaliate against Russian strikes than it was last winter. “We’re preparing for the terrorists to strike energy infrastructure,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram in October. “This year we will not only defend ourselves but we will also respond.”

He continued: “The enemy understands this well. To start with, they removed their fleet from Crimea. Now, they are relocating their aviation further from our borders.”

Increasing drone attacks within Russian borders—and continued maritime and aerial drone attacks in occupied territories, including Crimea—appear to be Kyiv’s retaliation tool of choice. Ukraine has been working on a slew of new drone platforms intended to carry the war back into Russia.

Some, like the “Beaver” long-range UAV, are believed to have already been used in attacks on Moscow. Earlier this month, the Ukrainian state-owned defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom confirmed it has begun mass production of a new long-range drone with a range of up to around 620 miles. This would put all of western Russia, including Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and St. Petersburg, within striking distance.

Kyiv is working with foreign partners to hone the system, Ukroboronprom has said.

“Ukraine is on its way to become a world leader in drones production,” Ukraine’s “drone tsar” Mykhailo Fedorov told Newsweek earlier this year. “The experience we are getting right now is unique, in terms of its usage, constant improvement of technologies, the research and development process and scaling the production.

“After the war ends, Ukraine will have a unique experience and every chance to become a major exporter of UAVs in the world,” the vice prime minister added.

“After all, each of these drones has not just been tested at a training ground somewhere, it has been tested in a real war. I am sure the Ukrainian experience of drone usage in this war will be studied by other countries in the future,” he said.

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