Ukraine on Thursday launched its largest drone attack on Moscow in years, triggering fires in and around the Russian capital and forcing evacuations at the country’s busiest airport, officials said.
According to AFP, unverified videos circulating on social media showed thick black smoke rising over the city skyline. Other clips appeared to show drones flying overhead.
The large-scale strike came just hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin was due to meet Southeast Asian leaders at a summit in Kazan, around 700 kilometres east of Moscow.
Kyiv has stepped up drone attacks on Russian territory in recent months. It has targeted oil refineries that help fund Moscow’s war effort. Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict remain stalled.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defence systems were still repelling a large-scale attack. He added that several drones reached the Moscow Oil Refinery (MNPZ).
Authorities closed roads near the facility. He did not confirm damage, but Russian media reported a fire at the site.
Russia’s Sheremetyevo airport, the country’s busiest, evacuated passengers to “safe locations” during the attack and restricted flights.
In another incident, a drone crashed into an apartment building in Zhukovsky in the Moscow region. Drone debris also caused a fire at a shopping centre in the suburbs, Moscow region governor Andrey Vorobyov said.
Sobyanin said Russian air defences shot down 180 drones approaching Moscow. The Russian defence ministry claimed it intercepted more than 500 Ukrainian drones overnight.
State news agency TASS reported that this was the largest attack on Moscow in at least two years.
Since the war began in 2022, Russia has carried out near-daily drone and missile strikes on Ukraine.
The attack came just hours before Putin was scheduled to host Southeast Asian leaders at an ASEAN summit in Kazan. Leaders from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore attended, while the Philippines sent President Ferdinand Marcos.
Putin has continued to project stability at home despite the economic strain of the war. Russia’s economy faces high inflation, labour shortages and rising borrowing costs.
On the battlefield, Russia’s advance has slowed this year, while Ukraine has increased strikes inside Russian territory.
At a G7 summit in France earlier this week, US President Donald Trump said Moscow should “make a deal” to end the war.
Putin has repeatedly rejected direct talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, insisting Russia intends to seize Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
The conflict, now in its fourth year, remains Europe’s deadliest since World War II, with hundreds of thousands killed and large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine devastated.
