Russia shifts tactics, launches round-the-clock drone strikes on Kyiv

Russia is currently launching more air strikes on the Ukrainian capital. Warehouses, supermarkets and gas stations are now also being attacked.

Published: 31 August 2026, 19:47 Uhr

From Kyiv

By Peggy Lohse

Non-stop air raid alerts and chaos in the capital: Kyiv is currently experiencing a new level of atrocities. The Russian armed forces are intensifying their attacks in a way that not only spreads terror but plunges the Ukrainian capital into urban chaos.

Apparently, the Russian army has changed two things about its air attacks on Kyiv:

• Targets have shifted: Attacks no longer target only the energy supply, but also logistics and storage centers.
• Attack patterns have changed: Russian air strikes no longer come only in waves of up to hundreds of attack drones or dozens of missiles, but are spread out over the entire day. About every hour, three to four new attack drones enter Ukrainian airspace, mostly from the north. From there, it is only a good 200 kilometers to Kyiv.

In Kyiv, Russia is currently using mostly the fourth version of its Shahed drone, which can attack at speeds of up to 500 kilometers per hour with a jet turbo engine. The top speed of the previous models was about 200 kilometers per hour. This means: the new drones reach Kyiv in half an hour, and they circle the city in less than five minutes.

This also makes it much more difficult for air defense to shoot them down. The Ukrainian ground troops are often supported by the air force. The thunder of gunfire can be heard again and again in various corners of the city. Columns of smoke rise. Most drones can be repelled, but falling debris also causes damage.

Too Few Shelters, Hours-Long Air Raid Alerts

Last week, there were between 10 and 14 hours of air raid alerts. Sometimes it was only a few minutes, often several hours. During this time, shops and authorities close. The two metro lines that cross the Dnipro stop at the riverside stations. Anyone who needs to get to the other side of the river has to wait a long time, use overcrowded buses, or order taxis at inflated prices. Or walk across the wide river on foot under fire from the air.

When the siren sounds, all people are supposed to flee to shelters, bunkers, underground garages, or metro stations. But these are not reachable in the shortest possible time everywhere. If the drone attacks leave you a few minutes, ballistic missiles reach Kyiv in a few minutes. Their impacts thunder through the city again and again before or during the wailing of the sirens.

Anyone who wants to protect themselves from these – mostly at night – must decide on a plan for the night very early, i.e., before the curfew at midnight, in districts without a nearby shelter. For weeks, up to 50,000 people have been spending the entire night in subway stations from late evening – accurately distributed, on air mattresses, in tents, on folding beds, on sleeping mats. Children are there, many people bring their pets.

The stations offer varying degrees of protection, but are often bright and drafty and, if work has to be done at night, also loud. Once again, criticism is leveled at Kyiv's mayor Klitschko, saying the city has not pushed forward the expansion of bunkers sufficiently since 2022. Klitschko, on the other hand, blames the districts.

Main Targets: Warehouses, Supermarkets, and Wholesale Trade

The main target of Russian air strikes in and around Kyiv for months has been storage spaces of shipping companies and post offices, supermarkets, and wholesale trade. Warehouses burned for days on Kyiv's exit roads to the west and east. In the villages between the industrial areas, Russian drones and missiles also hit residential buildings and public facilities. Residents of a village near Boryspil near Kyiv report feeling as if they were playing "Battleship" with them.