Russia and Ukraine Exchange Massive Drone and Missile Strikes

Russia and Ukraine engaged in a series of massive aerial exchanges on August 29 and 30, 2026, targeting energy, military, and logistics infrastructure. A Russian strike on an ammunition warehouse in the village of Myla, Kyiv region, killed 38 people, including 34 residents of a care home for the elderly and disabled. The strike triggered secondary detonations of artillery shells and drones, damaging 50 residential buildings. Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the storage of explosives near civilian homes as terrible negligence and opened criminal proceedings against officials from state-owned companies, including Ukroboronprom.

Simultaneously, Russian forces targeted the CHPP-5 thermal power plant in Kyiv, causing widespread power and water outages, and struck military installations in Pavlograd and port infrastructure in Mykolaiv and Odesa. In response, Zelenskyy announced a goal to increase Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian military and energy targets to 1,000 launches per day.

Ukraine launched a large-scale drone attack across multiple Russian regions, with the Rostov region as a primary target. The Russian Defence Ministry reported intercepting 313 drones across Russian territory, Crimea, and the Azov and Black seas. In the Rostov region, strikes hit the regional capital and several districts, including an Ozon IPJSC logistics center in Aksai, which suffered a fire and suspended operations. Seven people were injured in the Rostov region, including two children. The Federal Air Transport Agency of Russia imposed temporary flight restrictions at airports in Kazan, Samara, and Krasnodar during the attacks.