(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) Moscow and its surrounding areas have been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian drones. Russia's state news agency TASS said this was the most violent such attack in two years.
Meanwhile, Crimea, which was annexed by Russia, reported power outages after the attack. Data show a significant increase in civilian casualties in Russia.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that from the evening of Monday (August 17) to Tuesday morning, a total of 620 drones flew to the capital region. According to the TASS news agency, most of them were intercepted on approach, and another 180 were shot down over Moscow.
Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said that drone attacks occurred in multiple places in the state and a total of three people were injured, including a 10-year-old child. He also reported damage and several fires at various locations across the state, including residential buildings.
Vorobyov said that a Ukrainian drone strike once again hit a warehouse of Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, causing a fire but that no one was injured. The company said in a statement that the damage was minor and that the wreckage of the fallen drone hit the wall of a logistics park.
None of the above information can be independently verified.
Ukraine launches large-scale drone attacks on Moscow Oblast on an almost daily basis. According to Sobyanin, about 600 drones targeted the area in the early morning attack on Sunday, killing one person and injuring several others.
Moscow's Defense Ministry said it repelled a total of 791 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory and the annexed Black Sea peninsula of Crimea at night. The information could not be independently verified but showed the intensity of Ukraine's counterattack.
Krymenergo, the largest power supply company in the Crimean peninsula, said that the southern part of the peninsula was attacked by Ukrainian drones at night. The attack caused power outages in several residential areas, and the power supply situation in the northwest, east and south of the region remains severe, the company said.
Several other Russian-controlled areas also reported heavy attacks from Ukraine.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has since repeatedly attacked Ukrainian territory with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, glide bombs and drones. Ukraine responded by attacking the Russian mainland. Its main means were drones and cruise missiles that were relatively low-cost and could be quickly mass-produced.
According to estimates from the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), as of June 2026, the Russo-Ukrainian war has resulted in the deaths of approximately 525,000 to 600,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers. Among them, the number of Russian soldiers killed is about three times that of the Ukrainian army, and the highest estimate is close to four times.
The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission stated that since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, at least 16,431 civilians have been confirmed dead in Ukraine, including in Russian-occupied areas. About 250 civilian deaths were recorded in Russia.
This is changing. Figures from the independent investigative group Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) show that 327 people were killed in Russia in the first seven months of this year by shelling, drone strikes and air strikes. This number far exceeds the 145 civilian deaths recorded by the organization during the same period last year.
The organization found that a total of 2,366 people were injured in such attacks in Russia during the same period this year, more than double the number for the same period last year.
