Ukraine drone barrage kills five in Russia; largest attack of war

At least five people were killed in what Russian officials described as one of the largest drone barrages of the war, as Ukraine launched waves of unmanned aircraft toward Moscow and several other regions overnight.

The Indian embassy in Russia said one Indian worker was killed and three others were injured in the drone attacks in the Moscow region.

Moscow region Governor Andrei Vorobyov added that a woman was killed when a drone struck a house in Khimki, north of Moscow. Apartment buildings and infrastructure sites were damaged, he said.

Rescue workers searched rubble for another possible victim, while two other men were killed in the village of Pogorelki in the Mytishchi district, according to Vorobyov. Another person died in Belgorod, near the Ukrainian border.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it intercepted 556 drones overnight and into Sunday morning, with another 30 shot down after dawn. The interceptions occurred across 14 Russian regions, as well as annexed Crimea and over the Black and Azov seas, in one of the largest Ukrainian aerial assaults of the conflict.

Sheremetyevo Airport, Moscow’s largest, said drone debris fell on its grounds but caused no damage.

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) later said Ukrainian forces struck an oil refinery and two oil-pumping stations in the Moscow region.

“Strikes on defence industry facilities, military infrastructure and oil logistics sites reduce the enemy’s ability to continue its war against Ukraine,” the SBU said in a statement on Telegram. “These attacks show that even the heavily protected Moscow region is not safe.”

The attacks followed statements by U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin suggesting the war could be nearing an end. Trump said last week he believed Moscow and Kyiv would “soon reach a deal” to stop the fighting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky defended the strikes, calling them “entirely justified” and a response to continuing Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities.

“Our responses to Russia’s prolongation of the war and its attacks on our cities and communities are entirely justified,” Zelensky said. “This time, Ukrainian long-range capabilities reached the Moscow region, and we are clearly telling the Russians: their state must end its war.”

Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said Moscow and the surrounding region had experienced the largest-scale attack since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said Russian attacks continued in parts of Ukraine.

In the Kharkiv region, authorities said Russian forces targeted 15 settlements over the past 24 hours, wounding seven people.

In the southern Kherson region, officials said a 36-year-old man was killed after a Russian drone dropped explosives on the village of Inhulets on Saturday morning.