As Russian troops march relentlessly forward with fierce assaults in Ukraine’s east, Moscow is unleashing a different form of terror on civilians in towns and cities: a wave of long-range drone strikes that has little precedent in the 32-month-old war.

Over the past two months, there was only one night when Russia did not launch swarms of drones packed with explosives at targets far from the front, including near-nightly attacks aimed at Kyiv, the capital.

In October, the Ukrainian military said it tracked a record 2,023 unmanned aircraft against civilian and military targets, with the vast majority shot down or disabled by electronic warfare systems.

Night after night, the explosions echo across Kyiv, with tracer fire lighting up the sky as spotlights search for the triangle-shape drones flying over residential neighborhoods.

Shots rang out once again before dawn on Thursday as air defense teams armed with heavy machine guns opened fire on drones flying over the heart of the capital. Debris rained down over businesses and apartment buildings, sparking several fires.

Though air-defense teams have limited the casualties in Kyiv — one 14-year-old girl was killed in October and more than 20 people injured, officials said — the Russians continue to unleash punishing bombardments with drones, bombs and missiles on other towns and cities across the country.