At least two people have been killed and six others injured after Ukraine launched a large-scale overnight drone attack on the Moscow region, damaging residential buildings and an oil refinery, Russian officials say.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said about 450 drones targeting the capital had been intercepted, describing the assault as an “unprecedented attack”.
The attack also caused fires at several homes and damaged a facility at an oil refinery, while restrictions were temporarily imposed at Moscow’s major airports.
Moscow regional Governor Andrei Vorobyev said a 44-year-old woman was killed in Sofyino after a drone struck a three-storey residential building. Five other people, including two children, were injured.
An elderly man was also killed after a private house was hit in the Orekhovo-Zuevo district, according to the governor.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had struck what he described as a “key” Russian oil facility and a logistics site in the Moscow region, claiming the facilities represented billions of dollars supporting Russia’s war effort.
Russian officials, however, said the attack was also aimed at disrupting the country’s parliamentary elections, with voting entering its third day.
The overnight strikes came as both sides continued a sharp escalation in attacks on energy, transport and logistics infrastructure.
Ukraine reported further civilian casualties from Russian strikes on Saturday.
Kyiv regional head Tymur Tkachenko said a mother and her two young children were killed in an attack in Fastiv. He later reported that another child injured in a separate strike in Vyshhorod had died in hospital.
In the north-eastern Sumy region, four people were killed when a Russian drone struck a vehicle they were travelling in, according to regional official Oleh Hryhorov.
Russian state media also reported that an election official was among two people killed when a drone struck a bus in a Russian-controlled part of Kherson, citing Russia’s election commission chief.
The latest attacks have occurred despite US President Donald Trump saying the two countries had agreed to stop targeting energy infrastructure.
Trump on Friday signed legislation imposing sanctions targeting Russia’s economy, including provisions allowing the US president to impose tariffs of up to 100% on major purchasers of Russian energy.
The latest exchange of strikes underscores the continuing intensity of the conflict, more than four years after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
