diff --git a/.claude/skills/upgrade-state/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/upgrade-state/SKILL.md
index f88c228e..34fe4731 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/upgrade-state/SKILL.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/upgrade-state/SKILL.md
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ Exit codes: `0` healthy, `1` attention warranted, `2` stalled / broken.
 |---|---|---|---|
 | **Apps** | Keel polls every watched Deployment's container registry; rolls on new digest | hourly | Prom (`pending_approvals`, `registries_scanned_total`), Keel pod logs |
 | **OS** | `unattended-upgrades` in-release patching; `kured` reboots when `/var/run/reboot-required` is set | daily 02:00-06:00 London | SSH fan-out to all 5 nodes |
-| **K8s** | `k8s-version-check` CronJob detects new kubeadm patch/minor; spawns the Job-chain that drains+upgrades node-by-node | daily 12:00 UTC | Pushgateway (`k8s_upgrade_*`), `kubectl get nodes` |
+| **K8s** | `k8s-version-check` CronJob detects new kubeadm patch/minor; spawns the Job-chain that drains+upgrades node-by-node | nightly 23:00 UTC | Pushgateway (`k8s_upgrade_*`), `kubectl get nodes` |
 
 The K8s pipeline pushes a small set of gauges to the Prometheus
 Pushgateway (`prometheus-prometheus-pushgateway.monitoring:9091`):
diff --git a/docs/architecture/automated-upgrades.md b/docs/architecture/automated-upgrades.md
index 8829ec46..0b8837cb 100644
--- a/docs/architecture/automated-upgrades.md
+++ b/docs/architecture/automated-upgrades.md
@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@ kubeadm/kubelet/kubectl bumps (patch + minor) on all 5 K8s VMs.
 ### Architecture
 
 ```
-k8s-version-check CronJob   (Sun 12:00 UTC, k8s-upgrade ns)
+k8s-version-check CronJob   (23:00 UTC nightly, k8s-upgrade ns)
   │ probe apt-cache madison kubeadm (master) → latest available patch
   │ probe HEAD https://pkgs.k8s.io/.../v<NEXT_MINOR>/deb/Release → next minor?
   │ push k8s_upgrade_available metric to Pushgateway
diff --git a/docs/runbooks/k8s-version-upgrade.md b/docs/runbooks/k8s-version-upgrade.md
index 6d07030b..5439a498 100644
--- a/docs/runbooks/k8s-version-upgrade.md
+++ b/docs/runbooks/k8s-version-upgrade.md
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ VMs are upgraded automatically by a weekly detection CronJob that seeds a
 chain of small phase Jobs. Each Job is **pinned to a node that is NOT its
 drain target** — so no pod in the chain can preempt itself.
 
-The chain (Sun 12:00 UTC weekly):
+The chain (23:00 UTC nightly):
 
 ```
 detection CronJob → preflight Job → master Job → one worker Job per worker (enumerated live) → postflight Job
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ detection CronJob → preflight Job → master Job → one worker Job per worker
 This is **independent** of the OS-side `unattended-upgrades + kured`
 pipeline (see `k8s-node-auto-upgrades.md`). They do not share rollouts.
 Schedules can overlap (kured runs daily 02:00-06:00 London; detection
-here runs Sun 12:00 UTC) — when a kured reboot lands within 24h of the
+here runs 23:00 UTC nightly) — when a kured reboot lands within 24h of the
 Sunday detection, the `RecentNodeReboot` alert in the Upgrade Gates
 group blocks the version-upgrade preflight, so the chain self-defers
 to the next Sunday rather than rolling on top of a half-fresh node.
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ to the next Sunday rather than rolling on top of a half-fresh node.
 ## Architecture
 
 ```
-k8s-version-check CronJob   (Sun 12:00 UTC, k8s-upgrade ns, SA: k8s-upgrade-job)
+k8s-version-check CronJob   (23:00 UTC nightly, k8s-upgrade ns, SA: k8s-upgrade-job)
   │ kubectl get nodes  → running version
   │ ssh master 'apt-cache madison kubeadm'  → latest patch (within current minor)
   │ HEAD pkgs.k8s.io/.../v<NEXT_MINOR>/deb/Release  → next minor available?
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ Job 6 — postflight       (no pinning)
 | **ConfigMap `k8s-upgrade-job-template`** | Mounts `/template/job-template.yaml` — universal Job manifest with envsubst placeholders. Rendered by upgrade-step.sh and the detection CronJob via `envsubst | kubectl apply`. |
 | **ServiceAccount `k8s-upgrade-job`** | Used by both the detection CronJob and every chain Job. ClusterRole binding grants: nodes get/list/patch, pods/eviction create, pods delete, batch/jobs CRUD, PDB list (for predrain_unstick), CronJob get (snapshot trigger), namespaces patch on `k8s-upgrade` only. Namespace-scoped Role binding grants secrets:get on `k8s-upgrade-creds`. |
 | **ExternalSecret `k8s-upgrade-creds`** | Syncs `secret/k8s-upgrade/{ssh_key, slack_webhook}` from Vault. Mounted into every Job at `/secrets/k8s-upgrade`. |
-| **CronJob `k8s-version-check`** | Sun 12:00 UTC. Probes apt + pkgs.k8s.io for target. If found, renders Job 0 from `job-template.yaml` and applies it. |
+| **CronJob `k8s-version-check`** | 23:00 UTC nightly. Probes apt + pkgs.k8s.io for target. If found, renders Job 0 from `job-template.yaml` and applies it. |
 
 ### Pushgateway metrics
 
diff --git a/scripts/upgrade_state.sh b/scripts/upgrade_state.sh
index 51fbf5d8..e5722f8b 100755
--- a/scripts/upgrade_state.sh
+++ b/scripts/upgrade_state.sh
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 #              keel.sh/policy. Metrics on container :9300/metrics.
 #   2. OS    — unattended-upgrades patches in-release per node; kured
 #              reboots within a daily 02:00-06:00 London window.
-#   3. K8s   — k8s-version-check CronJob (Sun 12:00 UTC) detects new
+#   3. K8s   — k8s-version-check CronJob (23:00 UTC nightly) detects new
 #              kubeadm patch/minor releases; Job-chain drains+upgrades
 #              node-by-node. Pushgateway holds k8s_upgrade_* gauges.
 #
@@ -443,7 +443,7 @@ collect_k8s() {
         fi
     fi
 
-    K8S_NEXT="$(next_daily_noon_utc)"
+    K8S_NEXT="$(next_scheduled_run_utc)"
 
     # Failed chain-Job detection. A preflight/phase Job can abort BEFORE pushing
     # k8s_upgrade_in_flight=1 (the preflight gates exit pre-metric), so in-flight
@@ -496,15 +496,15 @@ collect_k8s() {
     fi
 }
 
-# Next daily 12:00 UTC — pure bash date math, no croniter. Schedule was
-# weekly Sunday until 2026-05-18; now `0 12 * * *` in the
-# k8s-version-upgrade stack. If we're still before today's 12:00 UTC,
-# the next run is today; otherwise it's tomorrow.
-next_daily_noon_utc() {
+# Next daily 23:00 UTC — pure bash date math, no croniter. Schedule is
+# `0 23 * * *` in the k8s-version-upgrade stack (overnight; moved from 12:00 UTC
+# on 2026-06-17). If we're still before today's 23:00 UTC the next run is today;
+# otherwise tomorrow.
+next_scheduled_run_utc() {
     local hr days_ahead
     hr=$(date -u +%H)
-    if [[ "$hr" -lt 12 ]]; then days_ahead=0; else days_ahead=1; fi
-    date -u -d "+$days_ahead days" +"%a %Y-%m-%d 12:00 UTC"
+    if [[ "$hr" -lt 23 ]]; then days_ahead=0; else days_ahead=1; fi
+    date -u -d "+$days_ahead days" +"%a %Y-%m-%d 23:00 UTC"
 }
 
 # --- Renderers ---
diff --git a/stacks/k8s-version-upgrade/main.tf b/stacks/k8s-version-upgrade/main.tf
index e172955b..1a77510e 100644
--- a/stacks/k8s-version-upgrade/main.tf
+++ b/stacks/k8s-version-upgrade/main.tf
@@ -27,12 +27,13 @@
 
 variable "schedule" {
   type = string
-  # Daily 12:00 UTC — outside kured window (kured runs 02:00-06:00
-  # London). Was weekly Sunday until 2026-05-18; daily picks up upstream
-  # patch releases the same day they land. Concurrency is bounded by the
-  # CronJob's Forbid policy + Job-name idempotency (the detection job
-  # skips spawning a preflight Job if one already exists).
-  default = "0 12 * * *"
+  # Nightly 23:00 UTC (00:00 London) — overnight / low cluster usage, and clear
+  # of the kured OS-reboot window (01:00-05:00 UTC = 02:00-06:00 London) so the
+  # two drain-pipelines never overlap. Moved from 12:00 UTC noon on 2026-06-17
+  # (Viktor: disruptive node drains should run overnight). Was weekly Sunday
+  # until 2026-05-18. Concurrency bounded by the CronJob's Forbid policy +
+  # retry-on-failure Job-name idempotency.
+  default = "0 23 * * *"
 }
 
 variable "enabled" {