Ukraine launches 822 drones across Russia in one of war’s largest aerial attacks

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - MOSCOW — Ukraine launched hundreds of drones across Russia overnight Sunday, killing at least six people in one of Kyiv’s largest aerial attacks since the war began, while Russian strikes killed five people in Ukraine.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones overnight, while Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said around 600 drones were detected heading toward the Russian capital.

About a third of those were destroyed over the Moscow region itself, Sobyanin said.

An 83-year-old man was killed when a Ukrainian drone struck a private home in the Moscow region, Gov. Andrey Vorobyov said. He also said a Ukrainian attack sparked a fire at a Wildberries warehouse in Podolsk.

In Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, Gov. Yury Slyusar said a drone attack involving more than 150 aircraft killed five people. Several homes and a railway station were damaged, while the strikes also sparked a forest fire.

Kyiv has intensified long-range attacks inside Russia this year, targeting military-industrial and energy facilities with missiles and large swarms of drones.

Ukraine, meanwhile, came under Russian missile and drone attacks overnight.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a Russian missile strike on Kryvyi Rih killed two people and wounded 14 others. Ukraine’s largest steel producer, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, said one of its sites was hit and operations were partially suspended.

Another person was killed in Sumy, Zelenskyy said.

In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, a man and a woman were killed when a Russian strike hit their home, according to regional military administration chief Ivan Fedorov.

Russian attacks also sparked fires across Kyiv and wounded six people. A fire tore through one of the capital’s largest book markets near the Pochaina metro station, destroying kiosks and sending thick smoke across the city.

“Wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it targeted a metallurgical plant in Kryvyi Rih and several military-industrial facilities in Kyiv, including what it described as a production facility for Ukraine’s Flamingo missiles.

The Ukrainian-produced long-range missiles have become increasingly important to Kyiv’s strikes inside Russia. Zelenskyy said Saturday that Ukraine used Flamingo missiles to strike a rocket research and production center in Samara, around 900 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

Separately, Romania’s Defense Ministry said a Spanish F-18 fighter jet shot down a drone that entered Romanian airspace early Sunday.

The drone was detected around 24 kilometers north of Galati, near Romania’s border with Moldova. The Spanish fighter, deployed on NATO air-policing duties, made radar contact with the target and received authorization to engage before shooting it down, the ministry said.

Drone debris was later reported in the Black Sea about 1.5 kilometers off the coastal city of Constanta. Romanian authorities did not specify the drone’s origin.

The incident comes amid heightened concerns over spillover from the Russia-Ukraine war into NATO territory, with Romania reporting dozens of drone incidents since Moscow launched its full-scale war in 2022.