Ukraine launched what Russia called its Ukraine largest drone attack of 2026 overnight, sending 822 drones towards Russian territory and killing at least seven people, as both sides reported mounting civilian casualties across the conflict.
Around 600 of the drones were aimed at Moscow, according to the Russian capital’s regional governor, who described the assault as ‘one of the most massive drone attacks in recent memory’. At the same time, Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least seven people and injured more than 39.
Wildberries warehouse struck 25km from Moscow centre
A warehouse belonging to Russian online retailer Wildberries, in the settlement of Koledino, 25km from the centre of Moscow, was hit in the attack. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said three people were injured. Video footage showed a fire and a large plume of smoke rising above the building.
Ukraine’s defence ministry said the latest strike meant that seven out of 10 of the largest Wildberries logistics centres had now been ‘disabled’. Kyiv has said it targets the facilities because they serve as logistics hubs used to buy military equipment and disrupt supplies to the Russian army. Wildberries has been repeatedly struck since July.
According to Reuters, drone strikes have damaged at least seven Wildberries warehouses in recent days, destroying around 10% of the company’s storage capacity. The broader campaign against the retailer’s facilities has caused more than £35bn in economic damage, according to the BBC.
Wildberries is widely known in Russia as the country’s version of Amazon.
Ukraine largest drone attack 2026 follows weeks of escalation
Russia has intensified missile attacks across Ukraine in recent weeks, with Kyiv stepping up drone strikes deep inside Russian territory in parallel. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 13 regions had come under attack during the week, with Russia launching more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs and 62 missiles.
‘Wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure,’ Zelensky said.
Five people died in Russia’s south-western region of Rostov following overnight strikes, its governor said. Officials in Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, said a woman was killed after a civilian bus was struck. In the Moscow region, an 83-year-old man died in a drone attack, Governor Andrey Vorobyov said.
In Ukraine, a 66-year-old man and a 64-year-old woman died after a private house was struck by a guided aerial bomb in the Zaporizhzhia region. Two more people were killed in Kryvyi Rih, in Dnipropetrovsk. Officials in Sumy, Donetsk and Kherson each reported one death, including a 51-year-old killed in a drone strike in Sumy.
In Kyiv, air-raid sirens sounded four times overnight. At least six people, including a child, were reportedly injured, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Russia said its overnight strikes on the Ukrainian capital targeted a FirePoint facility producing parts for Ukrainian Flamingo missiles and a factory making components for drones.
A book market in Kyiv’s Pochayna district was damaged in the strikes. Sixty-nine-year-old Valentina, whose husband owned a market stall there, told the BBC: ‘All these books in the street were from my husband’s stall in the market, I recognise them on the floor.’ She added: ‘You never think that it will happen to you.’
Vinyl store owner Luba, 42, said she lost 500,000 hryvnias (£8,262) worth of stock. ‘This business was my baby, many of the vinyls destroyed were rare and irreplaceable,’ she said. ‘I want Russia to disappear from this Earth.’
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and currently controls approximately a fifth of Ukrainian territory. With marginal gains being made by either side along a lengthy front line, the conflict has increasingly become an aerial war, with exchanges of missiles and drones aimed at degrading each country’s warfighting capacity. Both sides accuse each other of targeting civilians.
