A major Ukraine drone attack on Russia unfolded overnight, with authorities reporting that more than 500 drones were launched in one of the largest aerial assaults of the war so far. The strikes killed three people in the Moscow region and rattled communities across more than a dozen Russian areas.

A Massive Overnight Barrage

According to Russia’s defence ministry, air defence systems intercepted 556 Ukrainian drones during the night. The scale of the attack stood out sharply against the smaller waves of a few dozen drones that are more commonly reported.

The intercepted drones were brought down across 14 Russian regions, the annexed Crimean peninsula, and the Black and Azov seas. Among the hardest hit was the area surrounding the Russian capital.

For Moscow, which sits roughly 400 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, such a heavy assault is unusual. While the broader capital region faces drone attacks fairly often, the city itself is targeted far less frequently.

Casualties and Damage Near Moscow

The human cost was felt most directly in the Moscow region. Governor Andrey Vorobyov reported on Telegram that a woman was killed when a drone struck a private home, with another person feared trapped beneath the rubble. He said the early morning assault also took the lives of two men and left four others wounded, with infrastructure sites among the targets.

Vorobyov added that air defence units had been working since around 3 a.m. to repel the large-scale attack on the capital region.

Within the city of Moscow itself, local officials said more than 80 drones were intercepted overnight, leaving 12 people injured. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described the damage at debris sites as minor, but noted that construction workers near an oil and gas refinery were among those wounded. He said refinery operations continued without disruption, though three residential buildings sustained damage.

Zelensky’s Promise of Retaliation

The overnight strikes came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pledged to intensify retaliatory action. His warning followed a Russian attack on Kyiv that killed 24 people.

Zelensky has defended Ukraine’s approach of striking military and energy sites inside Russia, arguing that targeting Moscow’s ability to fund its war effort is fully justified. After more than four years of near-daily Russian bombardment, Ukraine has repeatedly carried out strikes on Russian soil in response.

Diplomacy at a Standstill

Efforts to end the war remain frozen. Kyiv has refused to accept Moscow’s sweeping demands for territory in the eastern Donbas region, leaving negotiations deadlocked.

Although the United States has urged both sides to return to talks, the diplomatic push has lost momentum since Washington’s focus shifted to the US-Israeli conflict with Iran in late February.

A brief three-day truce, declared to mark the anniversary of the World War II victory over Nazi Germany, expired on Tuesday. Both sides accused the other of breaking it, and the fighting quickly resumed. Ukraine’s allies, meanwhile, have accused Russia of treating peace efforts with contempt.

With diplomacy stalled and attacks escalating on both sides, the latest Ukraine drone attack on Russia underscores how far the two nations remain from any meaningful path to peace.