A Ukraine drone attack on Russia killed at least six people overnight into Sunday, 16 August 2026, in one of the largest aerial assaults of the war so far.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defences destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones over the course of the night, as reported by CBS News. Around 600 of those were detected heading towards Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, with roughly a third brought down over the Moscow region itself.
An 83-year-old man was killed when a drone struck a private home in the Moscow region, according to local governor Andrey Vorobyov.
He also confirmed that a Ukrainian strike sparked a blaze at a warehouse belonging to the Russian retail giant Wildberries in the town of Podolsk, where images showed columns of black smoke rising over the site.
Where the Ukraine drone attack on Russia caused most damage
A separate wave of more than 150 drones struck three towns in Russia’s south-western Rostov region, killing five people, according to local governor Yury Slyusar.
The strikes damaged homes and a railway station and started a forest fire, taking the confirmed toll across both regions to at least six.
Why Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on Russia
Ukraine has escalated its campaign inside Russia this year, combining long-range missiles with drone swarms aimed at military industry and energy facilities.
Wildberries depots have been hit repeatedly over that period, burning billions of dollars of merchandise belonging to one of Russia’s biggest retailers.
Figures released during exchanges of this scale come from the two governments and cannot be independently verified. Russia’s defence ministry publishes overnight interception totals routinely, while Ukraine rarely confirms how many drones it launches on a given night.
Sunday’s exchange came nearly four and a half years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Long-range drone warfare has become one of the few means by which Kyiv can strike deep inside Russian territory without committing troops or aircraft to the effort.
Russian missile strikes follow the Ukraine drone attack
Russia struck back on the same day. A missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed two people and wounded 14, and one further death was reported in Sumy, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A separate attack on Kyiv started fires across the capital and injured six people. Writing on social media, Zelenskyy said:
“Wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure. Since this morning, air raid alerts have continued in many regions. The Russians launched another wave of drones.”
Both capitals have kept up the tempo through the year, and nothing in Sunday’s exchange suggests a break in it.
A swarm of this size reaching the Moscow region puts the pressure back on Russian air defence, which will be tested again whenever Kyiv sends the next wave.
