Ukraine fired almost 1,200 drones at Russian targets overnight in one of its biggest aerial attacks since Moscow's full-scale invasion nearly five years ago, the Associated Press reported on Friday.

Source: Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026

Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed 1,198 Ukrainian long-range drones between late Thursday and early Friday. The figure is the ministry's own claim and has not been independently verified; Ukraine has not published its own count of drones launched.

Source: Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026

Even with the interceptions, strikes on three Russian regions killed seven people, including a 12-year-old, and wounded 17, local officials said. That toll updates the earlier Volgograd-only count of four killed and two injured reported in the morning.

Source: Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026

Volgograd refinery hit, Ukraine's General Staff says

Ukraine's General Staff said it hit an oil refinery in the Russian city of Volgograd, starting a fire. The refinery has a capacity of about 110 million barrels per year, it said. In Volgograd, regional governor Andrei Bocharov earlier said four people were killed and two injured in a drone attack on an industrial zone — the deadliest attack on the city so far, Reuters reported.

Source: Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026

Awaaz Punjab reported the Volgograd attack in the morning, before the General Staff confirmation and the full national tally were published. Read: Volgograd attack — four killed, governor says

AP said the massive barrage appeared designed to show that Kyiv is holding its own in the war, countering Moscow's insistence that a Russian victory is inevitable. Ukraine has repeatedly hit Russian refineries and claimed last month that it had neutralized more than half of Russia's refining capacity — a Ukrainian claim reported as such.

Source: Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026

Russia's counter-wave: 117 drones, Zaporizhzhia apartments hit

Russia launched 117 drones against Ukraine overnight, killing at least two people, including a 17-year-old, Ukrainian authorities said. A hospital in Kyiv was also damaged in a Russian drone strike on Friday, AP photo reporting from the capital showed.

Source: Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026

A single Russian attack on Friday on southern Zaporizhzhia hit two five-storey apartment blocks and wounded 30 people, including six children, officials said. Rescue workers freed people trapped in their apartments, according to Ukraine's State Emergency Service reporting carried by AP.

Source: Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026

Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure caused widespread power outages across about half of the country's regions — 12 regions — on Friday, First Deputy Minister of Energy Artem Nekrasov said. Moscow has battered Ukraine's power grid each winter since the war began.

Source: Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026

The barrage lands in the middle of US-led talks

The attacks came as US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, after two days of talks with Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi this week, briefed Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was meeting European leaders in Dublin. Kushner said Russia has agreed to include Europe in the upcoming round of talks, and that Europe's presence would let negotiators address broader postwar European security arrangements.

Source: Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026

European leaders reacted warily. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said: "Russia wants to talk about questions of European security architecture. We don't need to talk about that. There is one," referring to NATO. The EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said Europe must insist on a ceasefire before taking negotiations further, and warned against walking into what she called Russian traps. The Institute for the Study of War assessed on Thursday that Moscow is aiming to dismantle NATO and the post-Cold War European security architecture — an analyst assessment, not an established fact.

Source: Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026

Zelenskyy on Friday also repeated his complaints about drone speed limits on the US Starshield system — SpaceX's military-grade version of Starlink — saying restrictions limiting Ukrainian drones to 161 kph (100 mph) make it impossible to deploy interceptors effectively against Russia's fast jet-powered drones. He said Kyiv is asking the US State Department, the Pentagon and SpaceX to clarify the situation; SpaceX has denied reports of new restrictions, according to reporting cited by Just Security.

Source: Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026