During the night of January 9, beginning at 19:30 on January 8, russia carried out a large-scale combined strike against Ukraine's critical infrastructure, employing a mix of attack drones and missiles launched from both sea- and land-based platforms. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the primary direction of the assault was Kyiv region.
Overall, Ukrainian radiotechnical troops detected and tracked 278 aerial attack assets, including 36 missiles and 242 unmanned aerial vehicles of various types. The scale and diversity of the strike underline russia's continued reliance on saturation attacks intended to overwhelm Ukraine's air defense network.
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The drone component consisted of 242 UAVs, including Shahed-type loitering munitions and other models such as Gerbera. Launches were conducted from multiple directions, including Kursk, Orel, Millerovo, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in russia, as well as from Chauda and Hvardiiske in temporarily occupied Crimea and Donetsk. Approximately 150 of these drones were identified as Shahed-type systems.
The missile component included 13 ballistic missiles of the Iskander-M or S-400 type launched from russia's Bryansk region, 22 Kalibr cruise missiles fired from the Black Sea, and one medium-range ballistic missile launched from the Kapustin Yar test range in Astrakhan region. The use of a medium-range ballistic missile adds an additional escalation element to the attack.
Ukraine's air defense response involved a layered system combining fighter aviation, surface-to-air missile units, electronic warfare assets, unmanned systems units, and mobile fire groups. This integrated approach has become a key factor in countering complex, multi-vector attacks.
As of 09 a.m., preliminary data indicate that Ukrainian air defenses destroyed or suppressed 244 aerial targets. These included 226 attack drones, eight Iskander-M or S-400 ballistic missiles, and 10 Kalibr cruise missiles, demonstrating a high interception rate despite the scale of the assault.
Nevertheless, the attack was not fully neutralized. Impacts were recorded involving 18 missiles and 16 attack drones across 19 locations, resulting in damage to infrastructure. Ukrainian authorities continue to assess the consequences of the strikes and work to restore affected facilities.
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