Three killed as massive Ukrainian drone attack hits Moscow region
At least three people lost their lives and several others were injured overnight following a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Moscow region, according to Russian authorities.
Regional governor Andrei Vorobiev said a woman was killed in Khimki, located north of Moscow, while another person remained trapped beneath debris. He added that a man and a woman also died in the village of Pogorelki.
India’s embassy in Moscow later confirmed that an Indian national had been killed and three others injured, although it was unclear whether these casualties were included in the official regional death toll. Another fatality was also reported in Russia’s Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the strikes as a “fully justified” response to deadly Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities.
Russian state media agency Tass reported that the incident marked the largest attack on Moscow in more than a year. The latest escalation comes days after a major Russian drone and missile strike killed 24 people in Kyiv earlier this week.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials reported that eight people were injured in overnight Russian drone and artillery attacks in the central Dnipropetrovsk region. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and currently occupies roughly 20 percent of Ukrainian territory.
In a Telegram post early Sunday, Vorobiev said Russian air defence systems had been responding to a “massive UAV attack” on the Moscow region since around 3:00 am.
He said four people, three men and one woman, were injured, and several homes were damaged. A private house in the village of Subbotino, south-west of Moscow, was also reportedly set ablaze. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin stated that 12 people were injured after drones struck an entrance to the city’s oil refinery, damaging three nearby homes.
Russia’s military claimed it intercepted 556 drones nationwide, including around 130 in the Moscow region.
Sheremetyevo Airport, Moscow’s busiest airport, also reported that drone debris had fallen on its premises, though no injuries were recorded. Airport officials said operations and passenger services remained stable.
Later on Sunday, President Zelensky said Ukraine’s “long-range sanctions” had reached the Moscow region, referring to the drone operation.
“We are clearly telling the Russians: their state must end its war,” he wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine’s state security service, the SBU, said it had jointly targeted several oil facilities and a semiconductor manufacturing plant in the Moscow region alongside the Ukrainian military.
The agency also claimed that several Russian air defence systems were hit at the Belbek military airfield in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
Zelensky had previously vowed retaliation for recent Russian attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian areas. On Saturday, he said Ukraine had already destroyed several high-value Russian military assets this week, including aircraft, a helicopter, and a cargo vessel, in addition to targeting oil facilities.
Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian energy infrastructure in recent months, arguing that such facilities are legitimate military targets because they help sustain Russia’s war operations.
Separately, local officials in Ukraine said Russia carried out more than 30 drone and artillery attacks overnight across four districts of the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Regional official Oleksandr Hanzha said eight people were injured, while multiple homes were either damaged or destroyed. Three people were wounded in the regional capital, Dnipro, where several fires also broke out.
In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, local authorities said a woman was injured in a separate Russian drone attack on Saturday evening.
Ukraine’s air force later reported that Russia launched 287 drones overnight from late Saturday. According to the military, 279 were intercepted or shot down, though eight direct strikes were recorded across seven locations.
Source: BBC
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