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War in Ukraine

Russia Just Blew $761 Million Bombarding Ukraine for 3 Days Straight in Its Most Intense Attack Yet

Russia Just Blew $761 Million Bombarding Ukraine for 3 Days Straight in Its Most Intense Attack Yet

As the United States, Europe, and Ukraine continue to call for constructive peace talks, Russia is relentlessly attacking Ukrainian cities, launching almost 1,000 strikes in three days, killing and injuring dozens of civilians.

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Illia_ kabachynskyi
Illia Kabachynskyi
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For Ukrainians, the final weekend of May was marked by sleepless nights. For three consecutive days, Russian forces launched intense aerial assaults on Ukrainian cities, with air raid sirens sounding for five to six hours each night. Ukraine’s Air Force reported that Russia deployed an unprecedented 995 aerial attack weapons during the period:

The attacks targeted nearly every region in Ukraine, including Kyiv, Odesa, Sumy, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, and Zaporizhzhia.

In total, Russia injured around 100 people and killed 14 more—including three children—in various parts of the country.

Kyiv residential building struck by the Russian attack on Ukraine on May 24. Source: Kyiv City State Administration.
Kyiv residential building struck by the Russian attack on Ukraine on May 24. Source: Kyiv City State Administration.

These attacks came at a time when Western leaders are pushing Russia to engage in negotiations. The Kremlin, however, continues to escalate its attacks, expending vast resources in the process. UNITED24 Media calculated that the strikes over this three-day period alone cost Russia an estimated $761.5 million.

Over the course of the three days, the Russian military deployed:

  • 903 Shahed and other types of drones

  • 4 guided Kh-59/69 air-to-surface missiles

  • 64 Kh-101 cruise missiles

  • 1 Kh-22 cruise missile

  • 23 Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles

Cost breakdown: The cost estimates for each weapon are based on authoritative open sources. While most publicly available figures reflect export contract prices, which may be higher than Russia’s internal production costs, they remain the most reliable data currently available. Based on these sources, the editorial team estimated unit costs as follows:

  • Shahed drone: around $50,000

  • Kh-59/69 missile: $500,000

  • Kh-101 missile: $10 million (per Forbes estimate)

  • Kh-22 missile: $500,000

  • Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missile: $3 million

Ukrainian air defense forces succeeded in intercepting the majority of the drones and missiles. During this Russia’s record breaking drone attack, Ukraine’s Air Force reported that 799 drones were neutralized, though some were lost due to tracking limitations. Sixty missiles of various types were shot down.

Given the sustained scale of these attacks, Ukraine urgently needs more air defense capabilities to counter Russia’s daily aerial onslaughts. This underscores the critical importance of delivering additional Patriot systems, F-16 fighter jets, and other missile defense technologies, along with the necessary ammunition to support them.

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