Russia and Ukraine trade drone strikes as Kyiv signs deals to boost
drone production
[July 07, 2025]
By The Associated Press
Russia and Ukraine struck each other with hundreds of drones on Sunday,
throwing Russian air travel in disarray, shortly after Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced deals with Western partners that
would allow Kyiv to scale up drone production.
Photos circulating on social media showed crowds huddling at Russian
airports including key international hubs in Moscow and St. Petersburg,
as hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled due to Ukrainian drone
strikes on Saturday and overnight, according to Russia’s Transport
Ministry.
The flight disruptions hit Moscow’s Sheremetyevo and St. Petersburg’s
main Pulkovo airports. Other airports in western and central Russia also
faced disruptions.
Russian air defenses shot down 120 Ukrainian drones during the nighttime
attacks, and 39 more before 2 p.m. Moscow time (1100 GMT) on Sunday,
Russia’s Defense Ministry said. It did not clarify how many had hit
targets, or how many had been launched in total.
Early on Sunday, Ukrainian drones injured two civilians in Russia’s
Belgorod region near the border, its Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Russia pounded Kyiv last week
The Ukrainian attacks came just days after Russia pummelled Kyiv with
waves of drones and missiles overnight into Friday, in what Ukrainian
officials called the largest such strike since Moscow’s all-out
invasion. The seven-hour onslaught killed at least two civilians,
wounded dozens more and caused widespread damage, Ukraine said, while
Moscow ramped up its push to capture more of its neighbor’s land.
In total, Russia launched 550 drones and missiles across Ukraine that
night, according to the country’s air force. The barrages have coincided
with a concerted Russian effort to break through parts of the roughly
1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where Ukrainian troops are under
severe pressure.
Large-scale Russian drone strikes on Sunday injured three civilians in
Kyiv and at least two in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the
northeast, officials said. A Russian attack involving Shahed drones also
targeted port infrastructure in Mykolaiv in central Ukraine, according
to local Gov. Vitaliy Kim. He reported warehouses and the port’s power
grid were damaged but there were no casualties.
Hours later, Russia launched a glide bomb and a drone at the front-line
town of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine, killing four civilians and
injuring a fifth, the prosecutor’s office said. The drone struck a car
in which a married couple were travelling, killing the 39-year-old woman
and 40-year-old man on the spot, it said.
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People hide in a metro station, being used as a bomb shelter, during
a Russian drones attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early hours Saturday, July
5, 2025. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
Ukraine seeks to ramp up drone production
Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Ukraine had inked deals with
European allies and a leading U.S. defense company to step up drone
production, ensuring Kyiv receives “hundreds of thousands” more this
year.
Zelenskyy did not name the U.S. business in his nightly video
address to Ukrainians, but said Ukraine and Denmark have also agreed
to co-produce drones and other weapons on Danish soil.
His remarks came days after the U.S. paused some shipments of
military aid to Ukraine, including crucial air defense missiles.
Ukraine’s main European backers are considering how they can help
pick up the slack. Zelenskyy said plans are afoot to build up
Ukraine’s domestic arms industry, but scaling up will take time.
Ukraine has previously used homemade drones to hit high-value
military targets deep inside Russia, demonstrating its capabilities
and denting Moscow’s confidence. Last month, Kyiv said it destroyed
more than 40 Russian planes stationed at several airfields deep
inside Russia in a surprise attack.
Outmanned and outgunned, Ukraine’s army has also turned to drones to
compensate for its troop shortage and shore up its defenses. While
Russia has ramped up offensives this summer on two fronts in
Ukraine, analysts say the front isn’t about to collapse.
On Friday, Zelenskyy said he had a “very important and productive”
phone call that day with U.S. President Donald Trump, discussing
possible joint drone production alongside U.S-led efforts to end the
war.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump described the call as “good”.
“He’s been hit very hard, as I said he would. He’s been hit very
hard,” he said.
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Michelle L. Price contributed to this report from Washington, DC.
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