Record number of drone strikes exchanged this weekend between Russia and Ukraine

The war between Russia and Ukraine has intensified this weekend with a record number of drone strikes launched in both directions. 

Moscow launched a total of 145 drones on Saturday night, the most ever in a night-time attack in this war, while Ukraine fired “an unprecedented number" towards Moscow overnight, according to CNN.

“Last night, Russia launched a record 145 Shaheds and other strike drones against Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday.

The Shahed drones are “cheap, one-way attack drones,” according to the outlet. They are “fire and forget,” meaning they are launched on a specific flight path but it then flies independently towards the programmed target. 

As of early Sunday morning, 62 of the Russia drones had been shot down by Ukrainian air defenses. 

Ukraine launched a total of 34 drones towards Moscow, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, which claimed to have shot down all of them Sunday morning between  7 a.m. and 10 a.m. local time. 

Though no specific numbers were given for deaths and injuries related to this exchange of drone attacks, the United Kingdom's army chief told the BBC on Sunday that Russian forces had suffered their worst month for casualties in October, with an average of about 1,500 dead and injured "every single day," according to the BBC. 

With the recent U.S. presidential election decided in favor of President-elect Donald Trump, both sides may be thinking strategically as to how things may change in terms of Western support for Ukraine and an effort to seek a negotiated end to the nearly three-year war when the new president steps into the job on January 20.