Key takeaways:
- Moscow regional Governor Andrei Vorobyev said a 44-year-old woman and an elderly man were killed in separate drone strikes in the Moscow region.
- Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 450 drones heading for Moscow were shot down and that a facility at the Moscow Oil Refinery was damaged.
- Ukrainian officials said eight people, including three children, were killed in Russian attacks in the Kyiv and Sumy regions.
At least two people were killed and several others injured in a large Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow region overnight, Russian officials said, as Moscow and Kyiv traded new strikes on civilian areas and energy infrastructure.
Moscow regional Governor Andrei Vorobyev said Sunday that a 44-year-old woman was killed in Sofyino after a drone hit a three-storey residential building. Five people, including two children, were injured there, he said. In the Orekhovo-Zuevo district, an elderly man died after a private house was struck.
Vorobyev said 249 drones had been shot down and reported fires in several residential houses, as well as a burning warehouse. Al Jazeera reported that he also said a fire caused by a drone crashing into a 21-storey building forced the evacuation of 400 people.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described the assault as “unprecedented,” saying on Telegram that 450 drones heading for Moscow had been shot down. Al Jazeera reported that Sobyanin said more than 1,600 drones had been intercepted and shot down overall. He accused Ukraine of trying to disrupt Russia’s three-day parliamentary elections.
“The unprecedented attack was clearly planned with the aim of disrupting the elections. The enemy did not succeed,” Sobyanin said, according to Al Jazeera.
Sobyanin said a drone struck a building near one of the capital’s boulevards and that “a facility on the territory of the Moscow Oil Refinery has been damaged.” He said no casualties had been reported at the refinery and that emergency services were at the scene. Al Jazeera reported that the refinery had already been hit by Ukrainian strikes in recent months.
The BBC said videos circulating on social media appeared to show explosions in the night sky over the Moscow region and a burning warehouse, but said it had not verified the footage.
The attack disrupted air travel in the Russian capital. Sheremetyevo, Moscow’s biggest airport, warned passengers of temporary restrictions, while Vnukovo airport halted all arrivals and departures. Restrictions at both airports were lifted by Sunday morning, though both warned that some flights could still be delayed.
Ukraine also reported deadly Russian attacks over the weekend. Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv region, said a mother and her two small children, a boy and a girl, were killed Saturday in Fastiv, where several private homes were damaged. He later said a child injured in a separate attack in Vyshhorod, north of Kyiv, died in hospital.
In the northeastern Sumy region, top local official Oleh Hryhorov said four people were killed when a Russian drone hit the car they were travelling in.
Ukraine’s Air Force Command said Russia launched 138 drones of various types across the country overnight, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency cited by Al Jazeera. It said Ukrainian air defences shot down or neutralised 101 of them.
Both Russia and Ukraine have intensified strikes on energy-generating and transport facilities and major logistics hubs. The latest attacks came after U.S. President Donald Trump said on social media that the two sides had agreed not to target each other’s energy facilities.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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