Moscow oil refinery attack brings Russia's war with Ukraine closer to home There are moments when life in Moscow feels completely normal. In the south-east of the city an oil refinery had been hit during a Ukrainian drone attack - even from a distance the sight was surreal. Thick smoke billowing from the direction of the facility had turned the sky dark. Like a giant black shroud, it hung over the Moscow skyline. As extraordinary and eye-catching this was, so was the reaction of people near the refinery.

Russian rescuers work in a heavily damaged house following an air attack at an undisclosed location in the Moscow region. Moscow - A huge wave of almost 600 Ukrainian drones attacked Russia overnight, killing three people in the Moscow region and one in the Belgorod region, authorities said on Sunday. Air defenses shot down 556 drones overnight across the country, Russia's defence ministry said, with another 30 drones neutralized after dawn in one of the largest Ukrainian barrages of the conflict so far. These interceptions -- far above the few dozen more often reported -- took place across 14 Russian regions, as well as the Crimean Peninsula annexed from Ukraine and the Black and Azov seas, the ministry added, with the region around the capital among the worst-hit. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

Three people were killed overnight in a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow region, Russian officials have said. A woman died in a house in Khimki, north of the capital, where a person was trapped under rubble, regional governor Andrei Vorobiev said. A man and a woman were killed in the village of Pogorelki. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 12 people were injured in strikes on a city oil refinery. Russia's military said 556 drones were intercepted.

Russia and Ukraine have swapped drone strikes, with at least three people reportedly killed by Moscow near the shared border. Strikes were reported overnight on Tuesday in several areas of Ukraine, as well as in Moscow. The attacks are the latest in a series of intensifying hostilities as the efforts of the United States to broker a ceasefire have stalled, with Russia appearing eager to take advantage, as global attention is dominated by the war between Israel and Iran. A Russian drone attack on a village in Sumy killed an eight-year-old boy and two adults, and injured another three people, the military administration of the region said. Drone strikes also wounded five people in Kharkiv and four others in the Dnipropetrovsk region, local authorities said.

Russia's Defence Ministry said air defences shot down 105 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, including 35 over the Moscow region, after the ministry said a day earlier that it had downed more than 300 Ukrainian drones. Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said one person was killed in a Russian artillery attack on the region. H said over the past day, 35 areas in Kherson, including Kherson city, came under artillery shelling and air attacks, wounding 11 people. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said the "most intense situation" is in the Donetsk region, and the army is continuing "active operations in the Kursk and Belgorod regions". Russia's Defence Ministry said air defences shot down 105 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, including 35 over the Moscow region, after the ministry said a day earlier that it had downed more than 300 Ukrainian drones.

Ukraine has launched a "massive" early morning drone attack against the Russian capital that killed at least one person, injured several others and saw the shutdown of airports and damaged residential buildings, Moscow officials and aviation authorities said. The drone raid, the largest against Moscow in months, comes as Ukraine is poised to present the United States with a plan for a partial ceasefire with Russia during talks on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia. Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region, said that one person was killed and three more wounded as a result of the raid, which began at 4am local time (01:00 GMT). The wave of attack drones damaged seven apartments in a residential building in the Moscow region's Ramenskoye district, Vorobyov said. Russia's Ministry of Defence said that air defences destroyed a total of 337 Ukrainian drones overnight, with 91 of them over the Moscow region.

Russia and Ukraine have both launched record drone attacks on each other overnight, with Ukrainian attacks on Moscow temporarily shutting down three of the Russian capital's airports. Russia fired 145 drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday – more than in any single nighttime attack so far during their two-and-a-half-year conflict. "Last night, Russia launched a record 145 Shaheds and other strike drones against Ukraine," Zelenskyy said on social media, urging Kyiv's Western allies to do more to help Ukraine's defence. Kyiv said its air defences downed 62 of the drones. Russia also said it had downed 34 Ukrainian attack drones targeting Moscow on Sunday, the largest attempted attack on the capital since the start of the offensive in 2022, with Moscow regional Governor Andrei Vorobyov calling the attack "massive".

Ukraine on Tuesday hit the Moscow region in series of drone strikes that killed one woman, destroyed dozens of homes and forced some 50 flights to be rerouted from the Russian capital, reporting by Reuters confirmed. The attack on Moscow was reportedly the largest drone strike levied by Kyiv at Russia since the war began more than two and half years ago. Russia, which has heavily relied on drones and missiles in its assault against Ukraine and routinely pummels Kyiv with a barrage of aerial assaults, said it destroyed at least 20 Ukrainian drones over the Moscow region along with another 124 across eight other regions. A residential building outside of Moscow after it was hit in a series of drone strikes by Ukraine on Sept. 10, 2024. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov suggested the attacks levied at the Russian capital, which has a population of some 21 million, were not legitimate military targets.

Ukraine has launched one of its largest drone attacks on Moscow, as it presses on with a major incursion into Russia's Kursk region, Russian authorities said. Russia's Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday that air defence forces shot down 11 drones over Moscow and its surrounding region, with some reportedly downed over the city of Podolsk some 38km (24 miles) south of the Kremlin. "This is one of the largest ever attempts to attack Moscow with drones," Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on the Telegram messaging app. No damage or casualties were reported, he said in an earlier post. Drone attacks on Moscow are rare.

Russia's defence ministry said that at least three Ukrainian drones were shot down in the latest attempt by Kyiv to attack sites in Moscow. The ministry said early on Tuesday that air defence systems destroyed two drones over the Kaluga and Tver regions, which border the Moscow region. A third drone was shot down closer to the Russian capital, over the Istra district of the Moscow region, it added. Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the "attack drones which targeted Moscow" were destroyed, according to Russia's TASS news agency. Sobyanin said on the Telegram messaging app that there had been "no casualties", according to initial information.