Maria Troyanivska came home early the night a Russian drone struck her bedroom. “It flew in through the window, right into her room,” her mother, Viktoria, recounted to the BBC. After the explosion, she and her husband, Volodymyr, rushed to find their daughter’s room consumed by flames.
“We tried to put it out, but everything was burning so fiercely,” Viktoria said through tears. “It was impossible to breathe—we had to leave.” Tragically, the Russian Shahed drone killed 14-year-old Maria in her bed in their suburban Kyiv apartment last month. “She died immediately and then burned,” her mother mourned. “We had to bury her in a closed coffin. She had no chance of surviving.”
Russia has significantly ramped up drone strikes on Ukraine, launching over 2,000 in October alone—a record high in the ongoing conflict. This surge is part of a broader offensive, with Russian forces making advances along multiple front lines. Adding to the complexities, North Korean troops have reportedly joined Moscow’s side, and the potential re-election of Donald Trump as U.S. president raises concerns about the future of military support for Ukraine.
The bulk of the attacks involve Iranian-designed Shahed drones, which are propeller-driven and armed with deadly warheads. Russia has also begun deploying decoy drones to confuse Ukraine’s air defense systems, forcing them to expend ammunition on non-threatening targets. These drones are less expensive to produce than missiles and are designed to demoralize Ukrainians, who receive notifications on their phones each night as sirens blare across the country.
Since early November, drones have targeted cities including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia, with an alarming intensity. On Sunday, Russia launched 145 drones at Ukraine—a record for a single day since the full-scale invasion began. The Ukrainian military reported intercepting 62 of those drones, while an additional 67 were either neutralized by electronic warfare or disappeared from radar.
Ukrainian air defenses are increasingly stretched as they cope with the escalating threat. “It’s a lottery—where the drone hits, where it’s shot down, where it falls, and what happens,” said Sgt. Mykhailo Shamanov, spokesman for Kyiv’s military administration.
While acknowledging that Russian strikes primarily target military sites, he noted that their broader objective appears to be instilling fear in civilian populations. With the expectation that these attacks will intensify, Ukraine continues to call for enhanced air defense support from Western allies.
“Even if air defense is effective, debris from downed drones or missiles can still hit the city, causing fires, damage, and unfortunately, casualties,” he explained. The unpredictability of each night’s assault weighs heavily on residents and defenders alike.
Vitaliy, a member of a mobile air defense unit, explained their strategy for countering the Shaheds. His team, equipped with portable weaponry on a flatbed truck, monitors, moves, and responds to threats. “Half a year ago, we faced 50 drones a month; now it’s about 100 every night,” he reported, noting that air alert durations have doubled from six hours to approximately 12 to 13 hours.
Despite the overwhelming challenges, Vitaliy expressed confidence in his unit’s ability to handle increased attacks, provided they receive adequate support from Western nations. “Our guys could even deal with 250 drones in one night,” he asserted.
But the toll of the conflict remains crippling for many families. Viktoria shared that their lives are now divided into before and after Maria’s death. Displaced from their apartment, they are staying with friends and sleeping in corridors to seek refuge from the relentless drone attacks. “Of course, it’s exhausting,” she said. “But it seems to fuel more anger and frustration among people. They can’t understand why these attacks target peaceful homes.”
“I don’t understand at all why this war started and for what,” lamented Volodymyr, Maria’s father. “What sense does it make? Not economically, not humanely—people just die. It’s just the ambitions of sick people.”
Credit: BBC News
