Ukraine launched 637 drones at Moscow in a massive overnight assault, marking one of the largest long-range strikes of the four-and-a-half-year war, according to local officials. The attack damaged a high-rise and a Wildberries warehouse, coinciding with heavy cross-border exchanges that left at least 17 people dead.
The staggering aerial barrage against the Russian capital began Tuesday evening and stretched into Wednesday morning. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed the unprecedented scale of the operation, noting that Russian air defenses intercepted 180 drones over the Moscow region alone, with more than 150 others shot down across other parts of the country.
While authorities reported no confirmed fatalities within Moscow itself, the strikes triggered fires at a high-rise building and a major logistics facility operated by Wildberries, Russia’s largest e-commerce retailer. Kyiv has systematically targeted Wildberries facilities over the preceding month, successfully knocking out seven of the company’s ten largest logistics centers, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
Industrial Targets and Escalating Casualties Across the Front Lines
The drone blitz on Moscow formed part of a wider, destructive weekend of reciprocal strikes that underscored how far the conflict has expanded beyond the front lines. On Saturday alone, coordinated attacks by both sides resulted in at least 17 deaths. Russian strikes on Ukraine killed seven people, while Ukrainian counter-attacks on Russia and occupied territories claimed at least 10 lives.
Ukraine targeted industrial and supply hubs deep inside Russian territory, hitting an oil refinery in the city of Novokuibyshevsk within the Samara region, which sparked a fire and forced operations to halt at a nearby logistics centre run by online retailer Ozon. Additional strikes hit targets in the Rostov, Belgorod, and Krasnodar regions, as well as Russian-controlled Crimea and Luhansk.
Russian forces delivered crushing blows in kind. A missile strike on Ukraine’s largest steel plant in Kryvyi Rih killed two people and injured 14 others, severely damaging vital blast furnace and power generation sectors. Meanwhile, a separate Russian attack on the eastern Kharkiv region village of Pechenhy killed 10 people.
“We will definitely respond to this Russian strike. And it is equally important that our partners also complement our just kinetic responses with their own actions to put pressure on Russia and support Ukraine.”
Asymmetrical Production and Western Supplies Fuel the Drone Campaign
The vast majority of the long-range munitions straining Russian air defenses are built domestically. Approximately 60 percent of Ukraine’s attack drones are produced by a single company, Fire Point, managed by 34-year-old architect-turned-weapons manufacturer Iryna Terekh. Operating out of heavily staffed workshops where workers assemble components by hand, the firm also develops ballistic missiles intended for deployment before the end of the year.
Moscow has reacted furiously to reports that Western-supplied hardware is aiding deep strikes, with Russian officials singling out the United Kingdom. Following the recovery of debris from British-made drones, the Russian embassy in London issued a stark warning.
“Reports that the Kiev regime is using British drones to carry out strikes deep inside Russian territory confirm that London is deliberately opting for an escalation of the Ukraine crisis, while hypocritically professing a desire for peace. The deeper its involvement in the conflict and the greater its support for Kiev’s terrorist machinery, the higher the price it will pay.”
The British government dismissed the threats, pointing to a historic assistance package announced in April that pledged to supply 120,000 drones over the course of the year.
Diplomatic Fallout and Retaliatory Warnings from the Kremlin
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas argued that a recent Russian drone strike on a train near Ukraine’s border with NATO member Poland was explicitly designed to intimidate Western supporters.
“I think we should act the opposite. We should show that we are there for Ukraine and we are not scared.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the stepped-up Ukrainian campaign by accusing Kyiv of opening a Pandora’s box
through its attacks on economic infrastructure. Speaking to state broadcaster Vesti TV, Putin warned that retaliation would not be long in coming and promised that Moscow’s forthcoming responses would be far more destructive.
