Ukraine launched more than 600 drones at the Moscow region in one of the war's largest attacks as Russia struck Kyiv and Kryvyi Rih with ballistic missiles, killing at least nine people on both sides.
Ukraine sent more than 600 drones toward the Moscow region overnight in one of the largest aerial attacks of the five-year war, while Russia hammered Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles in a night of intense tit-for-tat strikes.
At least six people were killed in Russia, including five in the southern Rostov region and an 83-year-old man in the Moscow region. Russian strikes killed three people in Ukraine and wounded more than 20 across the country.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 600 drones were detected flying toward the Moscow region from Saturday evening until early Sunday, with 201 destroyed over the region itself. Russia's Defense Ministry claimed its forces downed 822 Ukrainian drones nationwide overnight.
Moscow regional Governor Andrey Vorobyov described the assault as one of the most massive drone attacks in recent memory, with six people wounded in the region. A drone strike hit a Wildberries warehouse in the Koledino Industrial Park in Podolsk, sparking a large fire, and another warehouse in Domodedovo near one of Moscow's main airports was damaged.
The attack forced restrictions at three Moscow airports - Zhukovsky, Vnukovo, and Domodedovo - with at least two flights from Istanbul turning back mid-route.
Ukraine has steadily escalated strikes deep inside Russian territory, targeting military, industrial, and logistical facilities it says underpin Moscow's war machine. Since mid-July, Ukrainian forces have hit roughly 20 Wildberries warehouses, accusing the online retail giant of handling military goods.
The barrage also struck three towns in the Rostov region, where more than 150 drones damaged homes, a railway station, and sparked a forest fire, according to regional Governor Yury Slyusar.
Ukraine frames the long-range campaign as a direct response to Russia's relentless bombardment of Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
Just before 2 a.m. local time, Kyiv came under ballistic missile attack, with Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko urging residents to stay in shelters. Explosions echoed across the capital, and fires broke out at non-residential sites in the Obolonsky and Holosiivskyi districts.
In Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown, a combined missile and drone attack killed a woman and wounded six others, with two industrial sites hit. Two more people were killed in the Zaporizhzhia region. More than 20 people were wounded across Kyiv, Brovary, Kryvyi Rih, Odesa, and Dnipropetrovsk.
For the second time in two days, the war spilled across Ukraine's borders. A Spanish F-18 fighter jet on a NATO air policing mission shot down a drone that breached Romanian airspace overnight.
The escalation comes after July saw the highest civilian death toll in Ukraine since 2022, with the United Nations reporting at least 437 civilians killed and 2,610 injured that month alone.
Both sides show no sign of backing down from the long-range exchange. Ukraine is expanding its deep-strike arsenal, while Russia continues to adapt its air defenses and retaliate against Ukrainian cities.
The Trump administration continues pressing both sides toward a negotiated end to the conflict, and this escalation underscores the urgency of those efforts as the war grinds into its fifth year with no end in sight.
Ukraine launched more than 600 drones at the Moscow region in one of the war's largest attacks as Russia struck Kyiv and Kryvyi Rih with ballistic missiles, killing at least nine people on both sides.
freedomlinedispatch.com
