Massive drone strikes catch western Ukraine by surprise – expert

“Right now, many people from the western regions are calling me, suddenly looking for ways to protect themselves,” Beskrestnov said. “But my question is: why did they wait so long? Private companies are suddenly interested in private air defense. Local authorities and regional tactical groups are asking what interceptors are, where they can buy them, how to get a license, and how to train pilots.”

He noted that while Kyiv and central and southern Ukraine have built up strong defenses against Russian drones, “for parts of the west, it came as a surprise.”

“Now they are going to try to deploy mobile fire teams and radar stations to build up their defenses,” Beskrestnov added.

Mass Russian drone attack on western Ukraine

Explosions shook Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Lviv, Vinnytsia, and several other oblasts on September 13 amid a large-scale Russian drone attack on western Ukraine.

Russian drones struck railway infrastructure in Vinnytsia.

A Russian Shahed drone hit a residential building in the city of Stryi, Lviv Oblast, but failed to detonate. While residents were safely evacuated from that building, the strike also damaged a nearby school utility building, prompting the evacuation of 13 people, including a child, from a neighboring property. A separate drone strike in the city sparked a fire in an abandoned building.

Russian drones also targeted Ternopil, striking a transport hub and an industrial building. The attack injured one person.

In neighboring Ivano-Frankivsk, a Russian drone strike damaged an industrial plant, shattered windows in a nearby high-rise building, and injured one person, local officials reported.

Debris from a downed Russian drone sparked a fire at an industrial plant in the Khmelnytskyi district overnight on September 13.

Russian drones also struck a gas station and a passenger train near the Polish border overnight on September 13.

Russian drone strikes targeted railway infrastructure in the western Ukrainian cities of Lutsk and Kovel on September 12, hitting a passenger train in Lutsk. Regional Governor Roman Romanyuk reported that the barrage injured five people in the Kovel district.

A Russian attack on September 12 knocked out power to parts of Dubno and the surrounding Rivne district, while a separate strike destroyed an industrial plant in the nearby Sarny district.

A Russian drone strike killed two people at a grocery store in Zviahel on September 12, the same day a separate wave of jet-powered drones heavily damaged the Polish-owned Cersanit SA manufacturing plant in the surrounding district.