In October 2025, Russia launched about 5,300 attack drones at targets in Ukraine. This is slightly less than the 5,500 launched by Russia in September 2025. One of the reasons could be weather conditions, writes UNN with reference to the Ministry of Defense of Great Britain.
Details
In September 2025, Russia launched 5,500 attack drones. It is quite likely that the frequency of Russian launches in October 2025 decreased slightly due to deteriorating weather conditions. Periods of calm caused by weather conditions were often followed by peaks, during which about 400-650 attack drones were launched in one night.
Russian UAVs are a serious problem for Ukrainian air defense, especially when combined with short-range ballistic missiles, which are also launched in significant numbers. The British Ministry of Defense stated that Russia aims to oversaturate targets, including military industry and airfields, to maximize damage and increase the survivability of main missiles.
The pace of bombing by Russian long-range aviation also slowed down in October 2025, which is likely due to weather conditions and other priority tasks, including the end of the training and testing season.
Although four long-range aviation strike packages were noted in October 2025, missile expenditure was limited, and unreliable AS-24 KILLJOY (Kh-47M2 "Kinzhal") air-launched ballistic missiles were mainly used instead of their main AS-23 KODIAK (Kh-101) air-launched cruise missile. The main target of long-range aviation for Russia since at least the beginning of October 2025 has been the country's energy infrastructure facilities.
Addition
At night, Russia launched 458 drones and 45 missiles at Ukraine, 32 of which were ballistic. 406 drones and 9 missiles were shot down or suppressed, the main directions of the strike were Kyiv region, Dnipropetrovsk region and Poltava region.
Russia attacked energy facilities in 5 regions of Ukraine at night, there are power outages in eight regions, in a number of regions - emergency power outages, in some - schedules of up to two queues, the situation is particularly difficult - in Kharkiv, Sumy and Poltava regions.