Russian Drone Assault Claims Three Children in Kyiv Region, Moscow Reports 1,600 Interceptions

Moscow’s mayor announced that Russian air defenses have shot down more than 1,600 drones since Saturday, 450 of which were headed for the capital. The same night, Ukrainian forces struck the Moscow region, damaging a major oil refinery and killing a 44‑year‑old woman and an elderly man, according to Governor Andrey Vorobyov. A drone that crashed into a 21‑storey building sparked a fire that forced the evacuation of 400 residents.

In the Kyiv region, authorities confirmed that four people were killed in overnight attacks, including three children. A separate drone strike on a civilian bus in the Russian‑occupied Kherson area killed two people, one of them an election official.

Moscow’s mayor accused Ukraine of attempting to disrupt the country’s tightly controlled three‑day parliamentary election, stating that the "unprecedented attack was clearly planned to interfere with the elections, but the enemy did not succeed." Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the strikes, noting that the attacks hit a key oil facility and a logistics hub that generate billions of dollars for the war effort.

The offensive comes as Kyiv has intensified its long‑range drone campaign against Russian energy infrastructure, aiming to cut off a vital source of Kremlin revenue. According to Interfax‑Ukraine, Russia launched 138 drones of various types across the country overnight, but air defenses reportedly intercepted a large portion of them. The scale of the assault is described as one of the largest single‑day attacks on Russia since the war began, raising questions about its impact on public sentiment during the election period.