KYIV, June 30 – Russia launched its largest aerial assault on Ukraine overnight, firing a total of 537 aerial weapons, including 477 drones and 60 missiles, Ukraine’s air force reported Sunday. The escalation marks the most extensive airstrike since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

"This was the most massive airstrike in terms of combined drones and missiles," Yuriy Ihnat, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Force, told The Associated Press. The attack targeted multiple regions, including areas in western Ukraine far from the front line.

Of the total barrage, Ukrainian defenses downed 249 weapons, while 226 were likely lost due to electronic jamming.

Three civilians were killed in separate drone attacks in the Kherson, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Another person died in an airstrike on the city of Kostyantynivka. In Kherson, one man was killed by shelling, and in the Zaporizhzhia region, the body of a 70-year-old woman was found beneath the rubble of a nine-story building hit by Russian fire.

In Lviv region, a drone attack caused a major fire at an industrial facility in Drohobych and disrupted power supply in parts of the city.

A Ukrainian pilot was killed and his F-16 fighter jet crashed during the night after sustaining damage while intercepting Russian targets, the Ukrainian military said on Sunday.

The airman, named as 1st Class Lt. Col. Maksym Ustymenko by the Ukrainian air force, was the third F-16 pilot killed since the Ukrainians began flying the jets last summer, and his plane was the fourth F-16 Ukraine has lost since then.

The air force said Ustymenko “did everything he could to steer the aircraft away from a populated area, but he did not have time to eject.”

Ustymenko’s death is a major loss for Ukraine. Only a small number of the country’s top pilots have been trained to fly F-16s, the most advanced of Ukraine’s fighter jets. The training is highly specialized and takes months to complete.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ustymenko destroyed seven targets before being killed, praising him and the Ukrainian air force for “heroically protecting” the country’s skies.

Zelenskyy on Sunday signed a decree awarding the title of Hero of Ukraine to Maksym Ustymenko. The award is posthumous.

Russia reports advances in Donetsk

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed on Sunday that its troops had taken control of the village of Novoukrainka in the Russian-occupied part of Donetsk region. The advance came as Russian forces continued gradual gains along the 1,000-kilometer front line, reportedly at a high cost in personnel and equipment.

Separately, Russian authorities said they shot down three Ukrainian drones overnight. In Bryansk, western Russia, two people were injured in a Ukrainian drone strike, and seven additional drones were downed, regional Governor Alexander Bogomaz said. (ap/ez)