Mass Drone Barrage Over Moscow as Russian Missiles Strike Ukrainian Cities, Killing at Least Three

In one of the largest aerial assaults of the war, hundreds of Ukrainian drones targeted the Russian capital on Sunday, while Moscow retaliated with a wave of missile strikes that killed at least three people and wounded more than a dozen across Ukraine, officials on both sides confirmed.

The intense cross-border exchange which also left three people dead in the Russian city of Rostov underscored the escalating reach of the conflict. Meanwhile, the war’s geographical spillover continued as a Spanish NATO fighter jet shot down a drone that had breached Romanian airspace for the second time in two days, highlighting mounting tensions along the alliance’s eastern flank.

‘One of the Most Massive Drone Attacks in Recent Memory’

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported a sustained, hours-long drone assault on the capital beginning late Saturday night, issuing a cascade of updates via the state-backed MAX platform. According to his statements, air defense systems intercepted more than 600 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) heading toward Moscow, with roughly 200 shot down within the wider metropolitan region.

Moscow regional governor Andrey Vorobyov described the attack as “one of the most massive drone strikes in recent memory,” adding that six people sustained injuries in the region. In the city of Podolsk, just south of Moscow, Vorobyov said a UAV struck a warehouse belonging to the Wildberries online retailer at the Koledino Industrial Park, igniting a large fire. Emergency crews were deployed to contain the blaze.

Ukraine has increasingly targeted Wildberries logistics hubs, framing the strikes as legitimate responses to Russia’s relentless bombardment of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and residential areas. Since mid-July, Ukrainian forces have hit approximately 20 such warehouses across Russian-held territory.

Kyiv and Beyond: Ballistic Missiles and Casualties

Russia’s retaliatory missile barrage struck multiple Ukrainian regions. In the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, two people were killed, while a third fatality was reported in Kryvyi Rig President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown where Russian forces hit two industrial sites, according to local defense council head Oleksandr Vilkul on Telegram.

More than 20 people were wounded in the attacks, with injuries reported in Kyiv, Brovary, Kryvyi Rig, Odesa, and the Dnipropetrovsk region. In the capital, an air raid alert sounded just before 2:00 a.m. local time (2300 GMT), followed minutes later by several powerful explosions. Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that Kyiv was “under ballistic missile attack” and urged residents to remain in underground shelters. Fires broke out in the capital’s Obolonsky and Holosiivskyi districts, with emergency services racing to extinguish the flames.

The central city of Kremenchuk, in the Poltava region, also came under fire, though local officials did not immediately provide details on casualties or damage.

Since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia has maintained near-daily missile and drone strikes across Ukraine. President Zelensky has repeatedly stated that Ukraine’s deepening strikes inside Russia targeting oil refineries, logistics centers, and military depots are designed to systematically erode Moscow’s war economy and logistical capacity.

NATO Scrambles as Drone War Spills Over

On the alliance’s eastern frontier, Romania’s defense ministry reported that a Spanish F-18 fighter jet, operating under NATO air policing duties, shot down a drone that had breached Romanian airspace near the border with Ukraine and Moldova. Debris fell in an uninhabited area of the Galati region, close to the Ukrainian frontier, though authorities could not immediately confirm the drone’s origin.

The incident marks the second time in 48 hours that a drone has crossed into NATO territory. On Friday, Latvia’s defense ministry said allied fighter jets intercepted and shot down a drone that entered its airspace the second such event in the country within a single week.

Romania, which has faced repeated airspace violations by drones amid the conflict, expelled a Russian embassy employee in July, describing the move as a “firm response” to persistent breaches. Prior to that expulsion, Romanian forces had shot down three drones on three consecutive days.

The recurring incursions have rattled NATO member states bordering Ukraine and Moldova, underscoring the growing risk of the war unintentionally expanding beyond Ukraine’s borders and testing the alliance’s collective defense commitments.

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