London – More than three years after the large -scale invasion of Russia, Ukrainians from all over the country withdraw every night to bombard subway shelters and stations in a night ritual required by the long range of Drones and missiles in Moscow. This summer, the Ukrainians spend more time in such shelters than ever.
The first kyiv bombings and other important cities began early in the morning of February 24, 2022, when Russian troops emerged through the borders of Ukraine in several axes. In later years, attacks have never stopped.
Until July, Russia launched a record of 6,443 drones and missiles to the country, according to data published by the Ukraine Air Force. The total is the highest of war to date, and about 13% more than what was recorded in June.
The scale and complexity of Russian drones and missile aircraft have constantly increased through war. The Shahed Strone drone designed by Iran, enthusiastically adopted by the Russian and renowned army like Geran, has become the battle horse of Moscow’s night -harassment of Ukrainian cities and vital infrastructure.
For many Ukrainians, the “flying cyclomotor”, such as the Shahed and Geran variants are known due to their distinctive sound, are emblematic of the Russian threat.
The strikes are terrified and mortal. June saw the highest monthly level of Ukrainian civilian casualties in more than three years, according to data published by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine: 232 people killed and 1,343 people injured.
An explosion of a Russian drone is seen in kyiv, Ukraine, on July 21, 2025.
Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Neither Russia nor Ukraine publish data that detail the scale of their own strike campaigns. The Ukraine Air Force publishes a daily count of Russian unmanned aircraft and missile attacks, while the Russian Ministry of Defense only publishes numbers of demolished Ukrainian drones.
Julio marked a high -water brand for Russian drones attacks against Ukraine. The data published by the Ukraine Air Force and analyzed by ABC News registered a total of 6,245 attack and decoy drones launched to the country during the month at an average rate around 201 per day.
Russia also launched 198 missiles, with an average of more than six every day.
Although the Ukraine interception rate is significant, many projectiles arrive with a devastating effect. Julio saw about 89% of drones and about 61% of the missiles demolished or suppressed in another way.
In comparison, June saw 5,438 drones and 239 missiles fired to Ukraine, with a daily average of 181 drones and almost eight missiles. The Air Force demolished or suppressed 87.2% of all drones and 73% of missiles during June.
And in May, Russia launched a total of 3,835 drones and 117 missiles, for an average of about 124 drones and almost four missiles every day. Throughout the month, 85.7% of drones and 57% of missiles were demolished or suppressed.
“At this time, Ukraine sees around 300 to 400 drones that attack civil goals every day: this type of numbers were unknown in 2023 or 2024,” Yuriy Boyechko, CEO of Hope for Ukraine Charity, told ABC News.
Moscow shows no signs of stopping. Russian officials and media have done much of the country’s growing production capabilities. A recent report of the Zvezda television channel, for example, showed operations in a Geran factory in Alabuga in the Republic of Tatarstán in Russia, with workers building and accumulating dozens of attack drones ready for childbirth.
The design of attack drones is constantly evolving. The first were light gray crafts that flew and relatively slow to their objectives, carrying useful loads of high explosive and fragmentation and fed by turbines.
More recently, Geran’s variants painted blacks with special material to hide from the highest Radar Fly and tortuous routes to evade Ukrainian defense teams. Some are armed with thermobárica ojas, they are armored and others work with reaction engines. Ukrainian defenders have also reported that recent Geranos are using AI orientation systems.
Russian forces can soon launch 1,000 to 2,000 drones per day, according to recent warnings issued by the Institute for the Study of the Tptor of War and the largest German General Christian Freuding.
A man by bicycle reads an information sign near a Shahed drone, or Geran, shown outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in kyiv on July 21, 2025.
Sergei Supinsky/AFP through Getty Images
Pasi Paroinen, Osint analyst at Black Bird Group, based in Finland, told ABC News that he thinks that Russia can soon launch 1,000 drones per night.
Drones neighborhoods are effective and relatively affordable. Several estimates for the cost of the Geranos produced nationwide vary from around $ 10,000 to $ 50,000.
Although the western sanctions campaign has complicated Russian military acquisition efforts, the components of Western companies are still in their dozens in fallen geers, a repeatedly highlighted fact by frustrated officials in kyiv.
The combination of strike and lure drones raises a “very unpleasant” problem for Ukraine air defense, said Paroinen. “He has been doing quite well intercepting them in general. But he is also linking Ukrainian labor: they have to have those groups of mobile anti -aircraft groups rolling through the countryside, shooting these things.”
“The general consensus among analysts is that this will be an important problem,” said Paroinen. “And this is a production capacity that will not disappear, even if the war ends, it will still have implications for the rest of Europe, which Russia can produce and store these weapons in quite intense numbers.”
The repeated interventions of President Donald Trump also seem to have failed to move the needle. The president has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the continuation of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the expansion of drone and missile strikes in Ukraine.
Putin, Trump said earlier this month: “Talk well and then pump everyone.”
Ukraine has used its own arsenal of rapid evolution drones to attack the drone production facilities in the background of Russia, but in little available available.
Kyiv is increasing the intensity of his attacks with drones to Russia. In all July, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow reported that they demolished 3,008 Ukrainian drones to an average of around 97 per day.
In June, the Ministry reported that it demolished a total of 2,368 Ukrainian drones, with an average of almost 79 drones per day during the month. These figures were May, during which the Ministry said it demolished 3,611 drones with an average of 116 per day.
The Ukrainian military triggered an anti -aircraft gun towards a Russian drone during an air attack near Pavlogra, in the Dnipropetrovsk region on July 19, 2025.
Roman Pilipey/AFP through Getty Images
But, said Paroinen, there is little Ukraine that can do about the growing production capacity of Russia drones. “It is far enough from the front lines that there are not so many weapons that can reach it. Maybe some very long -range drones, but in general, try to destroy such a factory is beyond its possibilities,” he said.
“Giving a great industrial complex really requires much more fire and explosive power than they can deliver, even if they launch hundreds of drones and have dozens of them reaching the goal,” he continued. “It is not so easy, and generally the damage can be repaired quite fast.”
