Russia Says It Downed 822 Drones, Five Dead in Rostov
Russia's defense ministry says 822 drones were shot down overnight. The strike on the Moscow region claimed its first fatality, and a Spanish jet downed a drone over Romania.
A drone attack on Moscow and several other Russian regions overnight between Saturday and Sunday left, by the Russian Defense Ministry’s own count, 822 drones destroyed across the country, and killed an 83 year old man in the Moscow region when a drone struck a private house. The same night, a Spanish F-18 flying an air-policing mission for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) shot down a drone that had entered the airspace of Romania, a country that borders Serbia, marking the fourth such incident this year.
It was one of the largest Ukrainian aerial strikes since the war began. Ukraine’s long-range strikes inside Russia have mostly hit refineries, ports and military plants so far, but this time the area around the Russian capital, which has the country’s densest air defenses, was also targeted.
Six hundred drones aimed at the capital
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram that roughly 600 drones had been directed at the city and that air defenses worked through the entire night.
“201 drones were destroyed over the Moscow region,” Sobyanin wrote.
Moscow region Governor Andrei Vorobyov confirmed the death of the 83 year old man and said a warehouse belonging to the retailer Wildberries had caught fire in the city of Podolsk. Russian media published footage of columns of black smoke rising above the site. The company’s warehouses have been targeted by Ukrainian drones before, and they store goods worth several billion dollars.
Rostov region hit by more than 150 drones
The heaviest toll came from the south of the country. Rostov region Governor Yuri Slyusar said strikes on three cities killed at least five people, damaged residential buildings and a railway station, and sparked a forest fire. According to Russian officials, the region was hit by more than 150 drones.
The Ukrainian side said the strikes on the Rostov region also hit a plant producing rocket fuel. Kyiv frames its deep strikes on Russian territory as a response to the constant bombardment of Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukraine had used domestically made Flamingo missiles to strike a missile research and production center in Samara, about 900 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The Flamingo has become Ukraine’s main weapon for long-range strikes.
What Russia targeted in Ukraine
Russian strikes hit several Ukrainian cities. According to a later statement from Ukraine’s president, two people were killed and 14 injured in Kryvyi Rih, while one more person was killed in Sumy. In the Zaporizhzhia region, a man and a woman were killed when their house was hit, according to the head of the regional military administration, Ivan Fedorov.
In Kyiv, at least one person was injured, and fires broke out at non-residential buildings in the Obolon and Holosiivskyi districts.
“Wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they target civilian infrastructure,” Zelensky said.
The Russian Defense Ministry says it struck a metallurgical plant in Kryvyi Rih and military-industrial sites in Kyiv, including a factory that produces Flamingo missiles.
Why the drone over Romania matters for the region
Romania’s Defense Ministry said surveillance systems detected an aerial target entering national airspace and that the Spanish jet was cleared to engage before the drone was shot down. NATO military headquarters spokesperson Martin O’Donel said the details of the incident were still being established.
“It appears the drone was Russian,” O’Donel said.
Romania shares a 634 kilometer border with Ukraine and has reported dozens of drone incursions since the invasion began, including drones that crashed and exploded on its territory. In July, a Romanian fighter jet shot down a drone suspected of being Russian, and in May two people were injured in Galați when a stray drone struck a building. Romania borders Serbia, so every such incident brings the war into the airspace of our immediate neighborhood.
The deadliest month for civilians since 2022
According to United Nations data, July 2026 was the deadliest month for civilian casualties in Ukraine since May 2022, with 437 killed and 2,610 injured. Russia has kept up near-daily missile and drone strikes since the invasion began, hitting areas far from the front line as well.
The war has also reached maritime routes. We previously reported on Ukrainian strikes on Russian ports and ships, when Kyiv named four vessels hit in Novorossiysk, and mines and uncrewed surface vessels have been reported in the Black Sea.
Zelensky said on Sunday morning that air raid alerts were continuing in several regions and that Russia had launched a new wave of drones.
