Russia says Ukraine drones hit Moscow in one of war's largest attacks
More than 550 drones reached Moscow and 14 other Russian regions, killing at least four people and disrupting Sheremetyevo as Ukraine pressed deeper into Russian territory.
The overnight barrage that sent more than 550 drones into Moscow and at least 14 other Russian regions marked one of the war’s largest cross-border attacks and a clear sign that Ukraine can now sustain pressure deep inside Russia. Russian authorities said at least four people were killed, including three in the Moscow region and one in Belgorod, while Moscow described the assault as its largest drone attack in more than a year.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said 556 Ukrainian drones were intercepted or destroyed overnight, with another 30 intercepted after dawn, across 14 regions, plus Crimea and the Black and Azov seas. That geographic spread showed how much of the country’s air-defense network had to be engaged at once, from the capital area to the far edges of the attack map. The scale also made the strike one of the biggest since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
In the Moscow region, governor Andrei Vorobyov said debris damaged apartment buildings and infrastructure, putting civilians in the path of a conflict that has increasingly reached beyond the front line. Among the dead was an Indian citizen, and three other Indians were injured, the Indian Embassy in Moscow said. Debris from the attack also reportedly reached Sheremetyevo Airport, where flights were delayed, canceled or rerouted, adding a commercial and transport shock to the security scramble.
The timing carried its own message. The barrage came after a brief truce tied to Russia’s May 9 Victory Day celebrations, when the Kremlin had already tightened security because of concerns about Ukrainian deep-strike capability. That pause did not hold for long, and the renewed drone exchanges suggested that long-range attacks remain one of Kyiv’s most potent ways to impose cost, force dispersal of Russian defenses and create leverage ahead of any future talks.
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