Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks on Moscow in recent years overnight, killing two people and injuring seven others, Russian officials said on Tuesday.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the assault involved 650 drones heading toward the city, most of which were shot down. Russia's defence ministry put the number of drones targeting Moscow and nearby regions at 290.
Regional Governor Andrei Vorobyov said one person was killed in Radumlya and another in Barbybino. Seven people were injured, and 47 houses, four apartments and three cars were damaged. He said 185 drones were "destroyed or neutralised" over the wider Moscow region.
A warehouse fire broke out in the capital following the attack, Russian officials said.
A prominent war blogger reported that an oil storage tank was hit at the Volodarskaya oil storage and distribution facility, described as the largest in the Moscow region. The facility stores diesel, petrol and jet fuel and supplies all three of Moscow's major airports. It is also linked to the capital's main oil refinery and is a key hub in the distribution network of Transneft. There was no official confirmation that the facility had been struck.
The attack ended a relative lull in large Ukrainian drone strikes on Moscow that had held since September 20, according to reports from the Russian capital.
Ukraine has increasingly targeted oil refineries, depots and export terminals in an effort to deprive Moscow of revenues used to finance the war, which Russia began in February 2022.
Separately on Tuesday, a Ukrainian drone struck a minibus in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's Zaporizhia region, killing three people, including the driver, and wounding three passengers, according to Moscow-installed authorities. Kremlin-appointed official Yevgeny Balitsky said on Telegram that the vehicle was hit close to a village near the front line.
Russia has recently intensified attacks on Kyiv, sending waves of missiles and drones both by night and day. Recent targets have included bridges across the Dnipro River.
Both sides have escalated long-range strikes as winter approaches. Diplomacy has so far failed to end the fighting, and the United Nations has warned of a significant rise in civilian deaths in the fifth year of the war.
