Ukraine Launches Largest Drone Attack on Russia Since Invasion Began

Ukrainian forces have staged one of their biggest drone attacks on Russia since Moscow’s invasion more than four years ago, firing almost 800 drones just two days after launching a similar salvo, officials said Tuesday.

The Ukrainian military has been increasingly using domestically produced long-range drones for strikes deep inside Russia, impressing governments and defense manufacturers around the world with its drone technology.

The aim of the drone attacks is to make the Russian public feel the war’s consequences and pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into negotiating a peace settlement. Putin has so far shown no sign he intends to stop the invasion.

“Putin continues to drag out the war instead of accepting Ukraine’s realistic ceasefire proposals and ending the bloodshed,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X.

According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russian air defenses overnight intercepted 791 Ukrainian drones over a number of Russian regions, as well as annexed Crimea and the Black and the Azov seas. This was the second-largest drone attack since January 2025, according to an Associated Press tally.

More than 600 Ukrainian drones flew toward the Moscow region, where 180 were shot down, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. He didn’t provide further details.

Officials reported no deaths or major damage, but Ukraine has increasingly launched swarms of hundreds of drones in an attempt to overwhelm Russian air defenses.

Three people were wounded in the Moscow region that surrounds but doesn’t include the Russian capital, Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said.

Three people were also wounded in the Ryazan region adjacent to the Moscow region where three private houses were damaged by the attack, Gov. Pavel Malkov said.

The overnight attack started a fire at a warehouse of Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, in an industrial zone. Ukraine has repeatedly targeted the company’s depots, which it says help supply the Russian military.

Wildberries said its facility sustained “insignificant damage.”

Coverage of the attack in state and Kremlin-backed Russian media was mostly muted, as is often the case.

Meanwhile, a Russian missile strike on a village in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region killed at least 10 people and wounded eight others as the barrage demolished homes, officials said Tuesday.

The warring countries are locked in an escalating duel of long-range aerial strikes. Fighting on the roughly 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line in eastern and southern Ukraine is restricted by large numbers of drones and ground robots threatening troop movements, and neither side is making significant battlefield progress, analysts say.

Ukraine’s National Police said that three people were killed and three others were wounded over the past day in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Sumy region, including drone strikes and an explosive device blast.

The U.K. Defense Ministry said Tuesday that it won’t budge from its military support for Kyiv, after Russia said that Ukraine’s reported use of British drones for attacks on Russian soil would bring unidentified consequences for London.

“Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, and we are committed to providing the equipment Ukraine needs to defend itself against Putin’s illegal invasion,” a British defense spokesperson said.