Ukraine Launches One of Largest Aerial Attacks on Moscow in Years
Newsweek · C · trust 80/100
0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Ukraine launched nearly 700 drones toward Moscow overnight, killing two people in one of Kyiv's largest assaults on the Russian capital , according to Russian officials.
More than 650 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were detected heading for the Moscow region between 8:30 p.m. Monday and 5 a.m. Tuesday local time, according to Moscow's mayor, Sergey Sobyanin.
Sobyanin later said another 68 drones had been "destroyed" en route to the Russian capital.
It marked one of Ukraine's biggest drone attacks on Moscow in the past two years, Russia's Tass state news agency reported.
Moscow's four airports grounded all flights in the early hours of Tuesday, and Russian media reported four flights heading for the Russian capital from Turkey had turned back mid-journey due to flight restrictions. Nine aircraft were diverte d from Moscow to St Petersburg.
Russia's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday its air defenses had intercepted 868 Ukrainian drones over 11 Russian regions, as well as the annexed peninsula of Crimea and over the Sea of Azov, overnight.
A 71-year-old man was killed in a suburb of southern Moscow, and a 20-year-old man died northwest of the Russian capital, said Moscow Regional Governor Andrey Vorobyov. Nine others were reported injured.
Ukrainian and independent Russian sources said the Moscow region's largest oil depot, named as the Volodarskaya Line Production and Dispatch Station (LPDS), was targeted by Kyiv overnight.
The Volodarskaya depot supplies three of Moscow's major airports and pumps out more than 3 million tons of petroleum products each year, according to the SPRAVDI project, which is backed by the Ukrainian government. It shared footage widely circulating online on Tuesday, purporting to show the facility in flames.
Newsweek could not independently verify these clips.
Russia and Ukraine have doggedly targeted one another's energy infrastructure, and Ukraine says it has knocked out more than half of Russia's entire oil refining capacity through long-range drone bombardments.
Russian officials have publicly admitted fuel shortages and introduced limits on fuel exports, and Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week Kyiv had "partially achieved its objectives" through oil refinery attacks, which cost Russia 1 percent of its gross domestic product .
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this month that Kyiv would intensify its strikes on Russian oil refineries because of punishing Russian missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital ahead of the brutal winter months.
Kyiv has targeted Moscow in several drone attacks over the past two years, gradually upping the numbers.
In September 2024, Ukrainian forces had struck nine regions inside Russia, including Moscow, with over 140 drones in one night, marking one of Kyiv's largest attacks on Russian soil at the time.
Nearly two years later, in June 2026, nearly 200 drones wreaked havoc on the Russian capital. At the time, Moscow Mayor Sobyanin said "several drones" had hit the Moscow Oil Refinery. The Moscow Oil Refinery is the largest facility in the region, providing around 40 percent of the petroleum demand for the area around the capital, according to Ukrainian media.
And on September 20, roughly 450 drones targeted Moscow in what Sobyanin then described as an "unprecedented attack," which coincided with the final day of voting in Russia's parliamentary elections.
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