Ukraine Launches 1,000 Drones At Russia, Hits Oil Refinery, Residential Building

Ukraine sent more than 1,000 drones streaking into Russian airspace overnight, striking Moscow harder than at any point in the war.

Hundreds of those drones flew toward the capital on the final day of Russia’s parliamentary elections, according to CBS News. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called it the “largest ever” assault on the city and said air defenses knocked down 450 before they reached Moscow.

A facility at the Moscow Oil Refinery and an apartment building sustained damage, he said. Russia’s Defense Ministry put the nationwide total at 1,110 drones destroyed, a count that included Crimea and the Black Sea. (RELATED: Russia And Ukraine Hammer Each Other, But Can’t Defend Themselves)

Regional Gov. Andrei Vorobyov reported two deaths and 20 injuries across the wider Moscow area, identifying the dead as a 74-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman, CBS News reported. In the Ramenskoye district, crews cleared 400 residents, including 70 children, from a 21-story tower, according to ABC News.

Ukraine launches 1,000 drones at Russia, including hundreds fired at Moscow in what mayor describes as "largest ever" attack https://t.co/p1Nu7vCeVP

A resident of Sofyino named Vitaliy described the moment a strike hit his block. “Glass went flying; people started screaming and shouting. I turned around, and the entrance doors had already been blown out, debris everywhere,” he told ABC News.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his forces fired a mix of drones and missiles, among them the homegrown Flamingo and Pelican, to hit fuel and supply targets, according to CBS News. “These are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine,” he wrote on social media.

The Moscow refinery ran 11.6 million metric tons of oil in 2024, and repeated Ukrainian hits on such plants have thinned Russia’s refining capacity, driving fuel shortages and long lines at pumps nationwide, ABC News reported.

Washington moved to back Kyiv days earlier. The State Department cleared a possible $2.68 billion sale of air defense gear on Friday, CBS News reported, around the time President Donald Trump signed fresh sanctions on Russia after Congress ended a lengthy stall.

The vote itself drew no real challenge to President Vladimir Putin and ran in four illegally annexed Ukrainian regions plus Crimea, CBS News reported. Sobyanin insisted the attack meant to derail the balloting fell short. “The enemy failed in this regard,” he said.

Russia kept up its own barrage, killing a mother and her two children near Kyiv, CBS News reported.