Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range drones and, increasingly, missiles have allowed Kyiv to hit Russian soil over the more than 4.5 years since Moscow’s forces launched a full-scale invasion.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Russian air defences intercepted nearly 900 Ukrainian drones overnight over multiple regions of the country, as well as the occupied Crimean Peninsula and the Sea of Azov, the Defence Ministry in Moscow said on Tuesday (October 6, 2026).
Unconfirmed media reports said a major fuel depot in the Moscow region was on fire after the attack, which killed two people. Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range drones and, increasingly, missiles have allowed Kyiv to hit Russian soil over the more than 4.5 years since Moscow’s forces launched a full-scale invasion. Russia’s bigger military has maintained air superiority during the war, making aerial attacks on civilian areas of Ukraine routine.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 650 drones flew towards the Moscow region between Monday (October 5, 2026) evening and Tuesday morning. Most were destroyed far from the city, and 105 were downed as they approached it, he said. Mr. Sobyanin later reported that 68 more drones targeting Moscow were downed during daylight on Tuesday.
Ukraine has regularly targeted Russian oil refineries and storage depots, claiming last weekend that it had disabled 51% of Russia’s oil refining capacity. The claim could not be independently verified. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that the attacks had cost Russia about 1% of its gross domestic product (GDP).
Russia has traditionally been the world’s third-largest producer of refined fuel products from crude, after the U.S. and China. The Kremlin has banned diesel exports because of the Ukrainian strikes, pushing global prices higher, which prompted U.S. President Donald Trump last month to urge Ukraine to stop hitting Russia’s refineries.
After several days of targeting bridges in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, as part of a campaign to make civilian life difficult, Russia attacked one of the bridges over the Dnipro river in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, according to Mykhailo Semikin, the regional military administration chief. Traffic across the bridge was temporarily suspended as a result of the attack, he said.
A night-time Russian attack on a Zaporizhzhia residential building wounded five people, and a daylight strike on a warehouse in the city caused a large fire, Mr. Semikin said.
Russian forces are also trying to choke shipping in Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea, denying Kyiv vital grain export revenue. The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had struck targets overnight in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region on the Black Sea coast with drones. An ammunition depot was hit, as were a bulk carrier in the Chornomorsk port carrying dual-use goods, and port infrastructure in Izmail, the Ministry said.
Published – October 06, 2026 04:53 pm IST
