Ukraine says drone strikes on Moscow are justified response to Russian attacks
Moscow-region civilians were hit as Ukrainian drones shattered the Kremlin’s sense of distance, leaving at least four dead and exposing Russia’s air-defense strain.
Ukrainian drones brought the war deep into the Moscow region, killing civilians in Khimki and the Mytishchi district and forcing Russian officials to confront an overnight assault they said was the largest near the capital in more than a year. Governor Andrei Vorobyov said a woman died when a home was hit in Khimki, north of Moscow, while two men were killed in Pogorelki, in the Mytishchi district. Rescuers were still searching rubble for another person as the scale of the damage became clear.
Russian officials said at least four people were killed across the country, including one in Belgorod, and that the barrage stretched Moscow’s defenses across a wide arc. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defenses destroyed 81 drones headed for the capital, while Russia’s defense ministry said 556 drones were downed over Russian territory overnight and into the morning. Sobyanin said 12 people were injured, most of them near the entrance to the Moscow oil refinery, though he said the refinery’s technology was not damaged. Sheremetyevo airport said drone debris fell on its territory without causing damage.
The attack underscored how the geography of the war is changing. For years, the Kremlin has tried to keep the conflict psychologically and politically distant from ordinary Russians outside the front line. That separation is narrowing as drones now reach apartment blocks, transport hubs and infrastructure around Moscow, the country’s political center and most visible symbol of state security. The fact that residents in Khimki and Pogorelki were killed at home, rather than near a battlefield, gives Kyiv a stark message: Russia’s heartland is no longer insulated.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy cast the strike as payback for Russia’s campaign against Ukraine. He said the attack was a “justified” response to Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities and communities, and added that Ukraine would not let Russian strikes go unpunished. He also said Ukrainian responses against Russia’s oil industry, military production and people responsible for war crimes were justified.
The Moscow assault followed earlier large drone attacks on the capital region. In March 2025, Russia described a Ukrainian strike on Moscow and the surrounding area as the biggest of the war at that point, with at least three people killed and airports disrupted. The latest barrage suggests both sides are still testing how far the war can be pushed, and how much pressure Russia’s air-defense network can absorb before the conflict feels inseparable from daily life in Moscow itself.
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