Drone war escalates: Russia, Ukraine shoot down over 100 UAVs amid ongoing ceasefire talks | WATCH

Russia and Ukraine fought a ferocious drone war, downing more than 100 UAVs overnight, even as ceasefire negotiations continue and casualties mount. Russia's air defense systems shot down and destroyed up to 59 drones while Ukraine said it had destroyed 57 drones overnight as cross-border drone attacks persist even as there are ceasefire negotiations.

Drone war is on rise

At least seven have been reported dead, according to local Ukrainian official, following a volley of drones fired by Russia overnight across Ukraine. Russian defense ministry reported that 29 drones were shot down over the Rostov Region territory, 20 drones over the Astrakhan Region, three drones over the Voronezh Region, three drones over the Volgograd Region territory, two drones over the Republic of Crimea territory, and one drone was shot down in the Kursk and Saratov Regions each.

Starting in the evening, Russia attacked regions of Ukraine with over two hundred strike drones and decoy drones. Guided aerial bombs were also used. Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi, and Chernihiv regions came under fire.

As a result of the massive strikes by the… pic.twitter.com/0SKnWgDwMk

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 21, 2025

Russia's defense is quite stong 

Voronezh Region Governor Alexander Gusev alleged that although the Ukrainian UAV raids in the area did not bring any casualties or damage, there is still the threat of being attacked by a UAV in the area.

Russia has developed a new bombing tactics:
1) swarm-attack one particular city in a night, saturating air defence
2) shaheed drones fly higher than usual (saturated AD allows it), nosedive to targets
3) shaheed equipped with thermobaric warheads for maximum damage for civilians. pic.twitter.com/fvbs0aP6FW

— Sergej Sumlenny, LL.M (@sumlenny) March 21, 2025

"Several unmanned aerial vehicles were intercepted and eliminated while airborne over the Volgograd Region territory and Volgograd. There are no casualties or destruction of facilities at present, and the evaluation of the consequences of the falling fragments continues," news agency TASS cited him as saying.

Ukraine destroys 57 drones

While, meanwhile, the Ukrainian Air Force declared it downed 57 drones of the total of 99 flown overnight by Russia. According to Reuters, 36 decoy drones did not even hit their target areas. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko appealed for people to take cover while air defences struggled to stop UAVs arriving. "We need to make Ukraine and our military stronger more air defence and actual help," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote following the ongoing drone attacks and counter-attacks.