Massive drone attack on Moscow kills two and disrupts airports
Russian authorities said hundreds of drones targeted the Moscow region overnight, killing two men and injuring nine other people. The attack also damaged homes on the outskirts of the capital and disrupted operations at Moscow's four airports. Officials said the incident was one of the largest drone assaults on the Russian capital and its surrounding region in the past two years.
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Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 650 drones were launched toward the Moscow region, adding that most were destroyed by air defences at long range. Moscow Region governor Andrei Vorobyov said 185 drones were destroyed or neutralised overnight across 16 municipalities. He said the two men who died were aged 71 and 20 and were killed in two separate locations on the outskirts of Moscow.
Vorobyov said 47 houses across seven municipalities were damaged, along with four apartments in a residential building in the village of Lobanovo. The Russian civil aviation agency said air traffic restrictions were imposed multiple times during the night and morning, affecting Moscow's four airports. The disruption underlined the wider impact of the attack beyond the immediate casualties and property damage.
The strike comes amid a period of intensified long-range attacks by both sides in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Russian officials have said they plan to increase strikes on infrastructure targets, including in Kyiv, as winter approaches. The latest attack on the Moscow region is significant because it reached deep into an area far from the Ukrainian border and affected one of Russia's most sensitive transport hubs.
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The Moscow region has been targeted before, but officials said this was the second-largest drone attack in the past two years on the capital and its surrounding area. The scale of the assault, the number of drones reported, and the damage to homes and airport operations suggest a continuing ability to carry out large coordinated strikes. It also highlights the pressure on Russian air defences around the capital and the risk of further disruption to civilian life.
What remains unclear is the full extent of the damage and whether all of the drones reported by officials were intercepted or caused impact. It is also not clear how many of the aircraft restrictions at Moscow's airports led to delays or cancellations. Further official updates are likely to focus on the investigation into the attack, the condition of the injured, and any additional damage reports from the affected municipalities.
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