For the third time since the beginning of the year, Russia has carried out daytime attack with Shahed drones

Today, on April 22, 2025, Russia launched a daytime attack with Shahed attack drones in Ukraine for the third time since the beginning of the year.

This is evidenced by the daily reports of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since January 1, 2025.

No information on the repulsion of today’s attack has yet been released.

Previous attacks

On January 3, 2025, Russia attacked Ukraine with 32 Shahed strike UAVs and various types of imitation drones from the northeast.

As of 20:00, the Ukrainian Defense Forces shot down 19 enemy imitator drones. All of them were lost in the area (without negative consequences).

On January 4, 2025, the enemy attacked with 30 Shahed-type strike UAVs and various types of imitation drones from the northeast.

As of 20:00, 14 enemy UAVs were shot down, 16 enemy imitator drones were lost in the area (without negative consequences).

Today’s daytime attack

After the night attack from 21:00 on April 21 to 9:00 on April 22, when Russia launched 54 attack drones along with simulator drones at Ukraine, a new wave of Russian UAV attacks began at 8:00 am.

For several hours, they came across the border of Sumy and Kharkiv regions, as well as across the front line in Zaporizhzhia.

Between 12:55 and 13:36, 12 Shahed strikes were recorded in Kharkiv during this daytime attack. As of 14:00, 7 casualties were reported.

Why daytime attacks are rare

Due to their low speed and volume, Russians attack with attack drones mostly at night to make them harder to detect.

In the dark, UAVs are harder to spot with the naked eye and the means available to mobile fire teams. Therefore, to be effective, they are launched and flown mostly at night.

Over the past six months, the Russians have quadrupled the number of attacks with Shahed drones in Ukraine. While in September 2024 the number of drones launched exceeded one thousand, in March 2025 it exceeded 4,000.

This increase is not least due to the new plant in Izhevsk. We are talking about the facilities at the Kupol electromechanical plant, a subsidiary of the Russian state-owned arms manufacturer Almaz-Antey.