Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks on Russia since the 2022 invasion, firing almost 800 drones overnight — just two days after a comparable salvo — officials said on Tuesday.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said air defences intercepted 791 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions, over annexed Crimea and over the Black and Azov seas. By an Associated Press tally, it was the second-largest drone attack since January 2025.
More than 600 drones headed toward the Moscow region, where 180 were shot down, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, without elaborating. Officials reported no deaths and no major damage. Three people were wounded in the Moscow region, which surrounds but does not include the capital, according to Governor Andrei Vorobyov, and three more in the neighbouring Ryazan region, where three houses were damaged, Governor Pavel Malkov said.
The attack started a fire at a warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, in an industrial zone. Ukraine has repeatedly struck the company’s depots, saying they help supply the Russian military. Wildberries said the damage was “insignificant”.
Muted Russian coverage
Russia’s main state television channels, Russia 1 and Channel One, did not mention the attack in their morning bulletins. State news agency RIA Novosti carried it prominently, calling it “one of the most large-scale attacks on Moscow since the beginning of the summer”, and the state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta led with the Moscow region governor’s account, describing the attack as “massive” in its headline.
Ten killed in Pechenihy
A Russian missile strike on the village of Pechenihy in Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region killed 10 civilians, according to preliminary information from Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, who said another 17 people were wounded. The Associated Press summarised the toll as 10 killed and eight wounded in the same report.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it “a brutal attack”, saying it damaged 10 homes, a cafe, a post office, a shop and at least seven vehicles. “We will definitely respond to this Russian strike,” he wrote on social media.
Ukraine’s National Police said three people were killed and three wounded over the previous day in Russian attacks on the Sumy region, including drone strikes and an explosive device.
Stalemate on the ground
Neither side is making significant battlefield progress along the roughly 1,250km front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, analysts say, with drones and ground robots restricting troop movement. Over the past year Kyiv has developed domestically produced long-range drones to strike deep inside Russia, aiming to make the Russian public feel the war’s costs and press President Vladimir Putin toward a settlement.
“Putin continues to drag out the war instead of accepting Ukraine’s realistic ceasefire proposals and ending the bloodshed,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.
Sources
Daily Mirror carried a condensed version of the same events sourced to India Today.
