A Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow region has killed three people and damaged an oil refinery, according to Russian authorities, in the largest such barrage reported around the capital.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 1,600 drones had been shot down since Saturday, including 450 heading towards Moscow. He described the assault as “unprecedented” and said it had been intended to disrupt Russia’s parliamentary elections, which began on Friday and ended on Sunday.
“The adversary failed to achieve this,” Mr Sobyanin said.
Several drones reached the grounds of the Moscow refinery, while another struck an apartment building, the mayor said. A facility at the refinery was damaged, and witnesses in Moscow reported hearing explosions and seeing smoke rising from the site.
Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the wider Moscow region, said two people were killed in the early-morning attacks and a third later died in hospital.
In the village of Sofyino, south of Moscow, a body covered by a stained blanket was reported outside a damaged block of flats, whose upper windows had been blown out.
“Glass went flying, people started screaming and shouting. I turned around and the entrance doors had already been blown out, debris everywhere,” a resident identified only as Vitaliy said.
About 400 people, including 70 children, were forced to leave a 21-storey apartment block in the Ramenskoye district, Mr Vorobyov said. A number of homes were also damaged.
The Moscow refinery has been targeted several times. It processed 11.6 million metric tonnes of oil in 2024, producing 2.9 million tonnes of petrol and 3.2 million tonnes of diesel, according to the latest available figures.
Ukrainian strikes have damaged a significant part of Russia’s oil-refining capacity, contributing to shortages of oil products, higher fuel prices and long queues at petrol stations in several regions.
Ukraine has not commented on the latest attacks. Both Moscow and Kyiv say they do not target civilians.
The strikes came despite an announcement by US President Donald Trump on Monday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that he had spoken to Mr Trump and agreed to meet him in New York for talks that could influence efforts to resolve the war with Russia. The meeting is expected to take place while both leaders attend the United Nations General Assembly, although no date has been given.
