Ukraine launches biggest attack on Russia in more than a year, killing 4

Ukraine launched one of the largest drone offensives in the war overnight, carrying out large-scale aerial attacks against multiple Russian regions, including Moscow. Russian authorities said the attack involved more than 500 drones.Officials said the attack was the largest to hit the Russian capital in more than a year, killing at least four people, injuring many others and damaging residential buildings and infrastructure in different areas.Russian air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 556 Ukrainian drones in more than a dozen regions in nighttime attacks, the Russian Defense Ministry said, with emergency responses following reports of explosions in Moscow and western Russia.At least four people were killed in the attack, according to regional authorities. Three deaths were reported in the Moscow region and one in the Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border.Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said at least three people were killed in the attack. Vorobyov said a woman died after a drone hit a private house and another was trapped under rubble for several hours during the rescue operation. Two men were also reported dead in separate incidents related to the attack.“A drone crashed into a private house, killing a woman. Another person was trapped under the rubble,” Vorobyov wrote on Telegram.He added that the attack began in the early hours of the morning, forcing Russian air defense forces to fight continuously.“Air defense forces have been repelling a large-scale drone attack on the capital region since 3 a.m.,” he said, adding that at least four people were injured during the attack and multiple infrastructures were targeted.Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defense systems intercepted at least 74 drones approaching the capital during the night, making it one of the worst nights of drone attacks the city has faced during the conflict. While Moscow and nearby areas have been targeted by Ukrainian drones before, attacks directly affecting the Russian capital have remained relatively rare.Sobyanin said that fragments of the intercepted drone fell in different areas, injuring 12 people in the Moscow region.“There has been minor damage to the location where the debris fell,” the mayor said in a post on Telegram, urging residents to follow emergency instructions.Russian authorities did not immediately disclose the full extent of the damage to infrastructure, but officials said residential areas and strategic facilities were among the intended targets.The latest attack comes just days after Ukraine’s president Vladimir Zelensky Russia has vowed to step up retaliation after it launched a major air strike in Kiev that killed 24 people. Zelensky warned that Moscow would face “consequences” for its continued attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilians.Moscow and Kiev have stepped up airstrikes in recent days after completing a prisoner exchange and the collapse of a temporary three-day truce that expired earlier this week.Ukraine has repeatedly defended its drone operations inside Russia, saying it targets military infrastructure, logistics centers and energy facilities supporting Moscow’s war effort. However, Russia accuses Kiev of deliberately targeting civilian areas and trying to spread fear by attacking densely populated areas.The conflict has increasingly turned into a war of long-range missile and drone strikes, with both countries using unmanned systems on an unprecedented scale. Analysts say the increasing sophistication and number of drone attacks has forced both sides to invest heavily in layered air defense systems and electronic warfare capabilities.