Russia Fires More Than 850 Drones at Ukraine, At Least Six Killed

Updated 11:30 UTC, Thursday, October 15, 2026. Developing story.

Russia sent wave after wave of attack drones across Ukraine through Wednesday, October 14, and into Thursday morning. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the count had passed 850 Shahed drones by 9 a.m. on Thursday, October 15, counted from the start of October 14. He said there was not a single hour in that stretch when Ukrainian skies were clear of them.

At least six people were killed. Zelenskyy said three died in Kropyvnytskyi, in the central Kirovohrad region, and three more died in the Dnipro region. Rescuers and repair crews were still working in dozens of cities and towns on Thursday morning, he said.

The overnight wave

The Ukrainian Air Force gave a separate count for the overnight attack alone. It said Russia launched 580 drones and two Kh-59 guided missiles from the evening of October 14. By 8 a.m. on Thursday, air defences had shot down or suppressed 536 of the drones. Strikes were recorded at 31 locations, and falling debris was reported at 11 more.

That is why two numbers appear in reports of this attack. The 580 figure is the Air Force count for the overnight wave. The figure above 850 is Zelenskyy's count for the longer period from the start of October 14 to Thursday morning.

Kirovohrad took the heaviest blow

Kirovohrad, a central region that is not often a main target, took the worst of it. Governor Andriy Raikovych said more than 360 drones were sent at the region and 26 locations were hit, in the largest attack on the region since the war began. He said the strikes hit critical infrastructure, transport firms, logistics sites and homes.

Ukraine's Emergency Services said the attack on the region lasted more than 10 hours. Three people were killed and six were wounded there, matching the deaths Zelenskyy reported in Kropyvnytskyi, the regional capital.

Fifteen regions hit

Zelenskyy said strikes were reported in 15 regions: Kyiv and the region around it, Dnipro, Odesa, Rivne, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Poltava, Ivano-Frankivsk and Kirovohrad.

He accused Moscow of choosing to step up its attacks after getting sanctions relief and seeing pressure put on Ukraine. He also said the barrage came at a time when the speed of Ukraine's defensive capability was being artificially restricted. He asked people in America to stand with Ukraine's efforts to protect lives and end the war.

In Brussels, the European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Europe's approach is to pressure the aggressor to stop the war, not to squeeze the victim into surrender. Zelenskyy was due in Brussels for an EU summit on Friday, after a visit to London.

Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defences shot down 166 Ukrainian drones overnight and that Russian forces hit two vessels carrying military cargo. The ministry's claims were reported by the Associated Press. They could not be checked from the Ukrainian figures released on Thursday morning.