In one of the most extensive aerial offensives launched by Kyiv since the start of the full-scale Russia-Ukraine war, Ukraine deployed hundreds of drones across Russian territory on Sunday, leaving at least six people dead and widespread damage in its wake. The large-scale coordinated attack marked a sharp escalation in Kyiv’s increasingly frequent deep strikes into Russian soil, a campaign that has accelerated steadily through 2024.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced that its air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones during the overnight assault. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed that roughly 600 of the unmanned aerial vehicles were detected heading toward the Russian capital, with roughly one-third of those intercepted and destroyed before they could reach targets within the Moscow region itself.
Local Moscow region Governor Andrey Vorobyov confirmed one fatality from the attack: an 83-year-old man who died when a Ukrainian drone crashed into a private residential property. Vorobyov also added that the strike ignited a large blaze at a warehouse operated by Wildberries, Russia’s largest domestic e-commerce retail giant, located in the town of Podolsk. Footage and images shared by local Russian media outlets showed thick plumes of black smoke billowing from the burning facility, visible for miles across the area.
Further south, in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, a multi-target drone strike involving more than 150 drones left five people dead, according to regional Governor Yury Slyusar. The assault damaged multiple residential properties and a local railway station, and ignited an uncontrolled forest fire that spread across adjacent woodland areas.
This latest large-scale attack aligns with a clear shift in Ukraine’s military strategy in 2024. Over the course of this year, Kyiv has ramped up the frequency and scale of strikes inside Russia, using a combination of long-range missiles and mass drone swarms to target key Russian infrastructure including military production facilities and energy hubs. Wildberries warehouses have emerged as an increasingly common target: repeated strikes on the retailer’s storage sites have destroyed billions of dollars worth of stored goods, and brought the direct impact of the war to ordinary Russian civilians, nearly four and a half years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Hours after Ukraine’s drone offensive, Russia launched retaliatory strikes across multiple Ukrainian cities, leaving three people dead and multiple more injured. In a post to social media Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that a Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed two people and wounded 14 others. A third fatality was recorded in the northern city of Sumy, Zelenskyy added. A separate Russian strike on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv ignited multiple fires across the city and left six people with injuries.
“Wherever Russian ballistic missiles can reach, they strike civilian infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said in his statement. “Since this morning, air raid alerts have continued across many regions – the Russians have launched another wave of drone attacks.”
The ongoing escalation of cross-border strikes follows months of increasing long-range attacks by both sides, as the war enters its fifth year. For the latest full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, follow the Associated Press’ ongoing reporting hub.