Massive overnight drone attack on Moscow and the region

Moscow and the Moscow region were subjected to one of the most massive drone attacks in recent years. Almost 200 unmanned aerial vehicles were directed at the Russian capital and the region overnight, with the attack leading to fires, material damage, and dozens of casualties.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, a total of 17 regions of the Russian Federation were under attack on the night leading into Thursday, including the annexed Crimea and the waters of the Sea of Azov. According to the department, 555 drones were "intercepted and destroyed" over these territories.

After 9:00 AM local time, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that about 194 unmanned aerial vehicles had been shot down over the capital. Russian media, citing his data, described the attack as the largest against Moscow in the last two years.

As a result of the overnight strikes, 16 people were injured in the Moscow region. Damage was noted to a number of buildings and facilities, both in the capital and in surrounding settlements.

According to Sobyanin, drone debris fell on the territory of the "Sadovod" shopping center, where minor damage was registered to one of the buildings, with no people injured. A fire also broke out at the "Mega Belaya Dacha" shopping center, which ceased operations, with local authorities reporting damage after debris from an unmanned aerial vehicle fell.

The mayor confirmed that several drones again reached the Moscow Oil Refinery (NPZ) in Kapotnya. Thus, the enterprise becomes the target of an attack for the second time within one week.

According to previous information, after the fire on June 16, the Moscow Oil Refinery was completely shut down, with a gradual resumption of work being prepared. During that incident, a primary oil refining unit was affected and damaged, and the new strikes further call into question the pace of recovery.

The consequences of the attack led to serious traffic restrictions in the eastern part of Moscow and the Kapotnya area. Police closed sections of the MKAD in both directions – from Novoryazanskoye Highway (Volgogradsky Prospect) to Kashirskoye Highway, as well as Chaginskaya Street, Kapotnya Street from "Verkhniye Polya" to the ring road, and "Verkhniye Polya" itself from "Maryinsky Park" street to the MKAD. On Novoryazanskoye Highway, traffic is restricted in the section near Privolnaya Street.

Authorities' statements do not explicitly state that these measures are directly related to the drone attack, but just two days earlier, similar restrictions were introduced in the area following a previous strike on the Moscow Oil Refinery.

The overnight attack also severely disrupted air traffic. Moscow airports temporarily suspended operations, and at Sheremetyevo Airport, passengers were taken to shelters, including those who were already on board the aircraft.

According to Interfax, the airlines Aeroflot and Rossiya canceled over 170 flights to and from Moscow. More than 80 flights from the capital and over 90 to it have an "canceled" status, and dozens of others have been delayed, which led to serious difficulties for passengers.

Moscow Region Governor Andrey Vorobyov also commented on the situation on his Telegram channel. Initially, he reported that as a result of the attack, a woman from the village of Stepanovo in the Elektrostal municipality was injured, where debris from a downed drone damaged the roof of a private house. The woman received a minor shoulder injury and refused hospitalization.

A little later, Vorobyov specified that the number of injured had risen to 16 people. Among them are residents of Ramenskoye, Solnechnogorsk, Lyubertsy, Dzerzhinsky, and Kotelniki.

According to his data, in Zhukovsky, a drone hit a residential building on Gagarina Street. There were no injuries, but the residents were evacuated. The exit to the fire escape between the 23rd and 24th floors and two balcony slabs were damaged.

In Lyubertsy, damage was caused to a fitness center building and a facility in an industrial zone, and in Kotelniki, the "Belaya Dacha" shopping center caught fire after drone debris fell on the roof. In the Chekhov and Pavlovsky Posad districts, houses and summer properties were damaged. Vorobyov also published photos of the destruction and the aftermath of the fires.

Other regions of Russia were also attacked by unmanned aerial vehicles. In the Rostov region, Governor Yuri Slyusar stated that there was one fatality and two injured, with two commercial facilities catching fire and a locomotive being damaged.

According to information from some media outlets in the region, an oil depot was also struck, where a fire broke out. This data has not been officially confirmed by Russian authorities.

The overnight attack was also commented on by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In a statement on his Telegram channel, he said: "This night our strikes reached the Moscow region again: for the second time in a week, the Moscow Oil Refinery was hit. Targets were also hit in the Rostov region and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine."

Zelenskyy defined these strikes as a "perfectly fair response to Russian strikes" on Ukrainian cities and settlements.