Ukraine launches one of largest aerial attacks on Moscow in years

Ellie Cook
Tue, October 6, 2026 

Ukraine launched nearly 700 drones toward Moscow overnight, killing two people in one of Kyiv's largest assaults on the Russian capital, according to Russian officials.

More than 650 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were detected heading for the Moscow region between 8:30 p.m. Monday and 5 a.m. Tuesday local time, according to Moscow's mayor, Sergey Sobyanin.

Sobyanin later said another 68 drones had been "destroyed" en route to the Russian capital.

It marked one of Ukraine's biggest drone attacks on Moscow in two years, Russia's Tass state news agency reported.

Moscow's four airports grounded all flights in the early hours of Tuesday, and Russian media reported four flights heading for the Russian capital from Turkey had turned back mid-journey due to flight restrictions. Nine aircraft were diverted from Moscow to St Petersburg.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday its air defenses had intercepted 868 Ukrainian drones over 11 Russian regions, as well as the annexed peninsula of Crimea and over the Sea of Azov, overnight.

A 71-year-old man was killed in a suburb of southern Moscow, and a 20-year-old man died northwest of the Russian capital, said Moscow Regional Governor Andrey Vorobyov. Nine others were reported injured.

Ukrainian and independent Russian sources said the Moscow region's largest oil depot, named as the Volodarskaya Line Production and Dispatch Station (LPDS), was targeted by Kyiv overnight.

The Volodarskaya depot supplies three of Moscow's major airports and pumps out more than 3 million tons of petroleum products each year, according to the SPRAVDI project, which is backed by the Ukrainian government. It shared footage widely circulating online on Tuesday, purporting to show the facility in flames.

Newsweek could not independently verify these clips.

A damaged apartment building following a drone attack in Kotelniki in the Moscow region on September 20.

This is a breaking story