New Year Drone Attack: 90 Shaheds, 87 Down

January 1, 2024May 19, 2026

The New Year Drone Attack is behind us. If any of us had tried to picture it in advance, the answer would have been the same — a mass raid. We know exactly what the enemy is, so there was never any reason to think the night would be quiet.

And it was not. Following the most massive combined strike just days earlier, the Orcs¹ launched another wave of drones overnight.

As the infographic shows, the Orcs launched so many drones that they can no longer be represented as individual symbols — the sheer number would just create an enormous field the eye cannot process. According to air defense reports, the enemy launched 90 Shahed-136/131 drones from four directions, and Ukrainian defenders shot down 87 of them. They came in waves, most of them from Crimea, through Mykolaiv and Odesa. This time the Shaheds hit Odesa particularly hard — there are fires, destruction, and casualties, though it is too early to give final numbers.

Terrorism Is the Strategy, Not a Side Effect

What we are watching right now are deliberate strikes on civilian infrastructure. The enemy does this intentionally and for purely terrorist purposes — to pressure the civilian population. These are not isolated actions. The entire way this war is organized is a direct contradiction not only of the letter but the spirit of the conventions governing armed conflict, the UN Charter, and everything that broadly defines the boundaries of civilization. The Orcs do not simply cross those boundaries. They never even tried to enter them in the first place and operate completely outside them. Put simply, they demonstrate every single time that they have nothing in common with civilization.

That said, this time our mobile groups, specialized air defense units, and aviation shot down Shaheds across all of Ukraine. The results were impressive in nearly every region. As Air Force spokesperson Ihnat explained, this was because the enemy changed its tactics and worked the drones along the front line and near rear, something it had not done before. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are already under constant fire from aircraft, small drones, and artillery, so they have the shelters and the skills needed to deal with Shaheds.

2023 Air Defense: The Full Year

After this night, air defense forces summed up the full year of 2023. Here is what it looks like (launched / intercepted):

• Kh-101/555/55 — 1,360 / 1,045;
• Kalibr — 834 / 397;
• Iskander-K — 154 / 62;
• Shahed-136/131 — 3,940 / 3,095;

Overall effectiveness: 85%. And it is worth noting that from January through December, the interception rate was rising — so by the end of the year it was considerably higher than it had been at the start. As for the New Year drone attack itself — it only reinforced what we already knew: the Orcs are the most vile thing currently existing in the modern world.

¹Orcs – a common term for Russians who support or participate in the armed aggression against Ukraine. Dehumanizing? Yes. Accurate? Also yes.