UAV event in Zaporizhzhia area, Ukraine on Thu 1st January 2026

Russia launched a mass drone attack on Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region on New Year’s Day which continued late into the night, destroying houses and a shopping center.

Writing on Facebook, Ukraine’s State Emergency Services said that the first wave of drones arrived late evening Thursday. The second began at around 2 a.m. Kyiv time on Jan. 2. Fires broke out across the city, but there were no casualties.

Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, described the overnight attack as “one of the most massive” in a Telegram post on Friday morning.

“I would like to thank the Defense Forces of Ukraine – a significant part of the enemy targets were destroyed on the approach to the city. This is what allowed us to avoid injuries among the residents that night,” he said.

However, nine drones got past the city’s defenses, striking “residential buildings, commercial facilities and infrastructure.”

Among those facilities was a shopping center which went up in flames after being hit. Emergency workers worked throughout the night to extinguish fires and neutralize dangerous shrapnel.

Federov previously said that Russia launched 737 strikes on 27 settlements of the Zaporizhzhia region during New Year’s Day itself, injuring two people.

One of those attacks left over 4,000 people without electricity, as per Ukrinform. Federov said Friday that Russia tried and failed to target energy infrastructure overnight.

“The enemy tried to strike the energy infrastructure this night, but as of this morning, all subscribers in the region have electricity,” he said.

Russia has targeted the city and the surrounding area throughout the holiday season. 

On Tuesday, Russian and Ukrainian troops abided by a rare ceasefire while maintenance crews re-connected Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to external sources of electricity – averting what officials described as a possible “Chornobyl-type disaster.”

Europe’s biggest atomic power station was damaged in mid December by artillery fire and possible drone strikes.