Ukraine launched one of its biggest drone
offensives since the beginning of the war, with Russian authorities reporting at least six deaths and a major fire at a distribution warehouse near Moscow.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it intercepted 822 drones during the overnight assault, while Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 600 drones had targeted the capital region, with 201 destroyed.
Sobyanin described the attack as the largest air raid on Moscow in two years.
However, Ukraine’s rapidly expanding long-range strike capabilities mean the assault could rank among the biggest since the war began in 2022.
A warehouse operated by Russian e-commerce company Wildberries caught fire in Podolsk, south of Moscow.
Images showed flames engulfing the facility, which covers about 200,000 square metres, while thick black smoke rose into the sky.
Moscow region Governor Andrey Vorobyov described the assault as “one of the most massive drone attacks in recent memory”.
The Russian Defence Ministry later claimed that its forces had destroyed nine Ukrainian cruise missiles and 1,478 drones within 24 hours, although the figures could not be independently verified.
Ukraine has significantly expanded its long-range drone and missile capabilities this year, enabling strikes against Russian oil refineries, warehouses, ports and military installations as far as 2,400km from its border.
The attacks have increasingly targeted facilities associated with Wildberries, with Ukrainian strikes reportedly hitting about 20 warehouses and other buildings over the past month in an effort to pressure Russia’s economy.
Five people were also reported killed in Russia’s Rostov region, which borders Ukraine, while the governor said 150 incoming drones had been destroyed. Another person was reported dead in the Moscow region.
Meanwhile, Russian missile and drone attacks killed seven people in Ukraine.
Two deaths were reported in Kryvyi Rih, while two people were killed in the Sumy border region and three others elsewhere in the country.
A Russian ballistic missile attack on Kyiv shortly before 3am injured six people and sparked several fires.
A large section of the Petrovka book market in the capital’s Obolonskyi district was destroyed, with booksellers saying they lost their entire stock.
A Spanish F-18 fighter jet participating in a NATO patrol also shot down what appeared to be a Russian drone after it entered Romanian airspace at about 5am.
“The drone appears to be Russian,” a NATO military spokesperson said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commended emergency responders and accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure.
“Wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure,” he said in a social media post.
Zelenskyy said Russia had launched more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs and 62 missiles against Ukrainian cities and communities over the past week.
While Ukraine has been able to intercept many slower-moving drones, its ability to counter ballistic missiles remains limited.
Its supply of US-made Patriot interceptor missiles, which are among the few systems capable of destroying such weapons, has been significantly depleted.
