At least five people have been killed after Ukraine launched one of the largest drone attacks of the war, sending waves of unmanned aircraft deep into Russian territory overnight, according to Al Jazeera News.
Russian officials said the strikes targeted several regions, including the area around Moscow. In the Moscow region, three people were reported dead. Among them was a woman killed when a drone hit a house in Khimki, just north of the capital. Two other men died in a nearby district, while rescue teams searched through damaged buildings for possible additional victims. Another person was killed in Belgorod, a region close to the Ukrainian border.
The Indian embassy in Russia confirmed that one Indian worker also lost his life in the attacks, while three others were injured.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it intercepted hundreds of drones, more than 550 overnight and dozens more by morning, across multiple regions, including annexed Crimea and areas over the Black and Azov seas. Despite these efforts, several drones reached their targets, damaging residential buildings and infrastructure. Debris also fell at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, though no damage was reported there.
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) later said its forces had struck an oil refinery and key oil transport facilities in the Moscow region. According to the SBU, such attacks are meant to weaken Russia’s ability to continue the war and to show that even heavily protected areas are vulnerable.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky defended the strikes, calling them a justified response to ongoing Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities. He said Ukraine’s growing long-range capabilities send a clear message that Russia must end the war.
The escalation comes despite recent suggestions from global leaders that a possible agreement to end the conflict could be near.
Meanwhile, fighting continues on Ukrainian soil. Officials reported fresh Russian attacks in the Kharkiv region, where several people were injured, and in the southern Kherson region, where a drone strike killed one civilian.
