At least three people were killed near Moscow in one of Ukraine’s largest and deadliest drone attacks on the capital to date on Saturday, underscoring Kyiv’s growing ability to strike deep inside Russian territory despite the capital’s comprehensive air defenses.
A fourth person was killed in the incident in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, according to local authorities.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 1,000 Ukrainian drones across more than a dozen regions over 24 hours. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Sunday that more than 120 drones had been intercepted near Moscow, injuring 12 people near the city’s oil refinery, while several residential buildings and infrastructure sites sustained damage.
The strike marks a significant escalation in Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign, which has increasingly targeted Russian military and energy infrastructure far from the front lines. Kyiv has developed an arsenal of long-range, one-way precision attack drones that have increased the costs of Russia continuing its invasion.
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The attacks also bring the war closer to ordinary Russians, particularly in and around Moscow, where residents have largely been shielded from the daily destruction experienced in Ukrainian cities as the war has entered its fifth year.
Zelensky calls on Russia to end its war
“Our long-range capabilities are significantly changing the situation— and, more broadly, the world’s perception of Russia’s war,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in a post on X on Sunday.
Zelensky said in an earlier post that Ukrainian long-range strikes “reached the Moscow region, and we are clearly telling the Russians: their state must end its war,” while sharing a video of plumes of black smoke, apparently from one of the drone strikes. He added that Ukrainian forces had successfully struck targets more than 500 kilometers from the border, despite what he described as the “highest” concentration of Russian air defense around Moscow.
Russian authorities said three people were killed in the Moscow region, including a woman whose home was struck in Khimki, northwest of the capital, and two others in the village of Pogorelki, where a drone reportedly hit a house under construction. A fourth person was killed in Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders northeastern Ukraine.
Debris from intercepted drones also fell on the grounds of Sheremetyevo International Airport, Russia’s busiest airport, though officials said no damage was reported, Reuters reported.
Long-range attacks from both sides are increasing
Ukrainian officials said the strike was part of a broader pattern of escalating cross-border attacks, with Zelensky framing the operations as retaliation for recent Russian strikes on Kyiv that killed 24 people earlier in the week, following the collapse of a brief cease-fire.
Russian authorities said the overnight assault triggered hours of air defense activity across the capital region, with state media reporting that drones were detected in waves and intercepted over multiple districts surrounding Moscow. Officials described sustained defensive operations that continued into the morning as debris from downed drones caused scattered fires and damage to infrastructure sites
In addition to strikes around Moscow, Ukrainian drones have increasingly targeted Russian oil infrastructure in recent months, producing large fires and disruptions at refineries and energy facilities, according to regional officials, Reuters reported. Those facilities are central to Russia’s export economy, and Ukrainian officials have said the strikes are intended to disrupt Moscow’s war financing capacity rather than solely battlefield targets.
Russian attacks on Ukrainian territory have continued in recent weeks. Ukrainian authorities said Russian drone strikes wounded eight people overnight into Sunday in the Dnipropetrovsk region, including in the cities of Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih, with residential buildings damaged in multiple locations.
The attack follows one of Russia’s heaviest bombardments of Kyiv since the war began more than four years ago. On Saturday, Russian strikes in Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions killed two people and injured at least 23, according to Ukrainian officials.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes as attacks on civilians, with spokesperson Maria Zakharova accusing Kyiv of carrying out a “mass terrorist attack.” Ukraine, like Russia, has denied deliberately targeting civilians.
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