Major Ukrainian drone attack hits Moscow region killing two people

A large Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow and the surrounding region has killed two people, damaged homes and sparked a major fire at a key fuel facility, according to Russian officials and military bloggers.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Ukraine launched more than 650 drones towards the capital overnight, describing an attack on a scale rarely seen during the war.

Russian air defences intercepted most of the drones, officials said, but the attack caused significant damage across the region.

Homes damaged and two people killed

Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region, said 185 Ukrainian drones had been destroyed or brought down over the area.

He said seven people were injured, while 47 houses, four flats and three cars were damaged.

The body of a 71-year-old man was later recovered from beneath the rubble of a house, Vorobyov said. A 20-year-old man was also killed in a nearby village.

In Domodedovo, south of Moscow, authorities were working to restore electricity to villages affected by the attacks. The area is home to one of Russia's largest airports.

Major fuel depot reportedly hit

One of the most significant developments was an alleged strike on the Volodarskaya oil storage and distribution facility, a major fuel hub in the Moscow region.

Russian military blogger Yuri Podolyaka said an oil storage tank had been hit at the site, which holds diesel, petrol and jet fuel.

There was no immediate official confirmation that the facility had been damaged. A Ukrainian war blog, Supernova+, published video claiming to show a large fire at the site, although Reuters could not independently verify the footage.

Volodarskaya plays an important role in Moscow's fuel supply network. The facility is operated within the distribution system of state pipeline monopoly Transneft and is connected to the Moscow oil refinery. It also supplies fuel to the capital's three major airports.

Ukraine targets Russia's energy infrastructure

Ukraine has increasingly focused its long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries, storage depots and export terminals.

Kyiv has said such attacks are aimed at disrupting the infrastructure that supports Russia's war effort and reducing the revenues Moscow relies on to finance the conflict, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian military bloggers also claimed the overnight attack was intended to strike the Moscow oil refinery in the south-east of the capital. They said Russian air defences prevented a direct hit, although there was no independent confirmation.

The refinery, located just inside Moscow's ring road, has been targeted several times. It was last hit on 20 September, the main day of voting in Russia's parliamentary election.

Attacks intensify on both sides

The latest strikes come as Russia has stepped up its own attacks on Kyiv, launching repeated waves of missiles and drones against the Ukrainian capital.

Russian forces have recently targeted infrastructure including bridges across the Dnipro river, adding further pressure to a conflict that has increasingly seen both sides strike deep behind the other's front lines.

For Moscow residents, the latest attack brought the war closer to home once again, with damaged homes, power cuts and casualties reported across the region.

The incident also underlines the growing importance of long-range drones in the conflict, as Ukraine seeks to hit strategically important targets far from the front line while Russia continues its campaign of aerial strikes against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

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