Ukraine's Air Force Says It Swatted Down 272 Russian Drones Overnight

Ukraine's Air Force came out swinging Wednesday with a big number: 272 Russian drones knocked out of the sky overnight. In a Telegram post, the military said Russia fired 310 drones in total between 6:00 pm local time Tuesday and 8:00 am local time Wednesday. The mix included Shahed, Gerbera and Parodiya types.

The intercepts stretched wide. According to the Air Force, the drones were hit above 19 locations, and debris from the downed aircraft turned up at 15 more. That's a lot of wreckage scattered across the country — and a lot of hours spent with sirens wailing.

Moscow had its own night. Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in an early-morning update that Russian air defense forces shot down eight drones heading toward the city, writing on Telegram that emergency services crews were working at the sites where debris fell.

In Ukraine's capital, the alert came earlier. Air raid sirens sounded Tuesday amid a potential ballistic missile attack from Russia, Fox correspondent Trey Yingst reported, while Ukrainian media said Russians were preparing a possible 'massive strike' on Kyiv, the Kyiv region and Dnipro. Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko has already described the city's electricity supply situation as 'extremely difficult' after repeated attacks on energy infrastructure.

The nuclear angle is what's raising alarms in Europe. First Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal warned Tuesday that Russia's massive strikes endanger the 'nuclear safety of all of Europe,' saying Kyiv had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency about a drone strike on the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant substation. He called it a 'serious escalation,' noting three drones were aimed at a substation critical to the plant's stable operation.

Diplomacy keeps grinding on in the background. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday he met German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier to discuss efforts to end the conflict and Europe's role in the peace push, with team-level negotiations in Brussels involving America, NATO, Europe and Ukraine, and preparations underway for a meeting in Abu Dhabi.