The Russian Defense Ministry has said that its air defense forces intercepted 822 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions and the Black and Azov Seas overnight from Saturday into Sunday, marking one of Ukraine’s largest attacks on Russian territory in the war.
The majority of the drones, about 600, were fired toward Moscow, according to the city’s mayor, who said 201 were actually shot down over the Moscow region. Gov. Andrey Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow Oblast, said an 83-year-old man was killed after a Ukrainian drone hit a private home.
The attack on Moscow also caused a major fire at a warehouse belonging to Wildberries, a Russian online retailer that’s become a frequent target of Ukrainian drones in recent weeks.
At least five people were also killed in Russia’s Rostov Oblast, according to The Associated Press, bringing the death toll in the heavy Ukrainian drone attack to at least six. The attack on Rostov involved over 150 drones, and damaged several homes and caused a forest fire, according to Rostov Governor Yuri Slyusar.
Russian missiles also pounded targets across Ukraine on Sunday, in attacks that killed at least five people. The AP report said that a Russian missile attack on Kryvyi Rih killed two people, one person was killed in Sumy, and a man and a woman were killed when a Russian strike hit their home in Zaporizhzhia.
Civilian casualties have spiked on both sides of the conflict as Ukraine has dramatically ramped up its US-backed long-range drone attacks in Russia and Russia has escalated its strikes across Ukraine. In some of Russia’s recent attacks, Ukraine’s military failed to intercept a single ballistic missile due to its lack of air defenses.
Despite Ukraine’s daily long-range drone attacks, Russian forces maintain momentum on the front lines, where they are slowly making territorial gains.
