Russia shot down more than 800 Ukrainian drones overnight and authorities said at least six people were killed in what is believed to be the largest airstrike against Russia in Ukraine.
Ukraine has stepped up its drone barrage against targets deep inside Russia, including warehouses, factories and oil refineries.
Russia’s state-run TASS news agency said it was Ukraine’s biggest drone attack since the start of the year, with many of the drones targeting the Moscow region, where much of Russia’s elite lives.
According to Governor Andrei Vorobiev, air defense forces and electronic warfare units shot down and neutralized 187 drones over the Moscow region.
A geolocated video shows a massive fire breaking out at a Wildberry warehouse in the Moscow region, Russia’s equivalent of the Amazon. Vorobyev said no one was injured.
Wild Berry’s warehouses have been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drones in recent months. The company recently announced that it will build a new warehouse in neighboring Kazakhstan.
Vorobiev said an 83-year-old man was killed in a drone attack elsewhere in the region on Sunday.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the drones were intercepted in 17 regions, mainly in southern and western Russia.
Five people were killed in Rostov, southern Russia, according to the region’s governor.
Meanwhile, Russia continues to target Ukraine’s capital Kiev with a combination of missiles and drones.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said six people were injured in the early Sunday attack.
Zelenskiy said the towns of Kremenchuk and Kryvyi Rikh in central Ukraine were also hit by ballistic missiles. Zelenskiy said two people were killed in Kryvy Rikh and one in Sumy in the north.
Ukraine did not shoot down a single ballistic missile launched overnight, the Air Force said, underscoring once again the shortage of anti-missile missiles.
Russia launched more than 1,550 attack drones, about 1,560 guided air bombs and 62 missiles into Ukraine last week, Zelenskiy said.
“Europe’s interceptors cannot simply be left in storage. Lives need to be protected. Russia must be deterred,” he added.
An unidentified drone was shot down in Romanian airspace on Sunday, the Defense Ministry in Bucharest said. The drone was intercepted by a Spanish F-18 fighter pilot on a NATO air security mission.
According to the Defense Ministry, this was the fourth drone shot down over Romania this year.
The ministry announced that radar had detected a drone invading the country from neighboring Moldova. The debris appeared to have fallen in an uninhabited area between two villages.
In July, Romanian F-16 fighter pilots shot down three Russian drones in the first violation of the country’s airspace after dozens of similar incursions in more than four years of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
This story has been updated.
