Kyiv — Ukraine carried out a large-scale drone strike on Russian territory that Russian authorities say killed at least four people and wounded about a dozen others, officials reported Sunday. The attacks struck locations near Moscow and in border regions, and debris from a downed drone landed at Sheremetyevo Airport without disrupting operations.
Local officials said one woman was killed when a drone hit her home in Khimki, a suburb northwest of Moscow. Two men died in the village of Pogorelki, roughly 10 kilometers north of the capital, and regional authorities reported another fatality after a drone struck a truck in Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at least 12 people were wounded in the city, mostly near the entrance to an oil refinery; he added that refinery equipment had not been damaged.
Russia’s defense forces reported large numbers of incoming drones were intercepted. Mayor Sobyanin and state news agency Tass said 81 drones headed for Moscow were shot down overnight. The defense ministry said 556 drones were destroyed over Russian territory overnight and later reported that more than 1,000 drones had been shot down or jammed in the previous 24 hours.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Ukraine carried out the strikes and defended them as “entirely justified,” saying the drones traveled more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Ukrainian-controlled areas and that Ukraine was overcoming air defenses concentrated around Moscow. He framed the operation as a response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and as part of pressure aimed at ending the war.
An expert on Russia, Nigel Gould-Davies of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, characterized the operation as the kind of retaliation Zelenskyy had warned he would order after intense Russian strikes on Kyiv. Gould-Davies said the strikes underscore Ukraine’s ability to hit targets at significant scale near the Russian capital, a development likely to heighten concern inside Russia even if it does not prompt immediate moves toward negotiations.
Separately, Ukrainian forces have been using long-range drones to target oil infrastructure inside Russia, producing large fires and pollution visible from satellite imagery. Those strikes are intended to reduce Moscow’s oil export revenues, a key source of funding for the war. Analysts say the immediate economic impact is uncertain because other global oil-market factors have supported Russian revenues.
Russia also launched drone attacks on Ukraine overnight. Ukrainian authorities reported that 287 Russian drones were used against Ukraine and that 279 had been shot down or jammed. The strikes wounded eight people in central Dnipropetrovsk region — three in the regional capital Dnipro, four in Kryvyi Rih (President Zelenskyy’s hometown), and one in the Synel’kove district — and caused damage to residential buildings.
Both sides continue to report heavy use of unmanned systems as the conflict persists, with officials on each side saying they are degrading the other’s capabilities while striking military and economic targets.