Russia reports downing 18 drones during wider Moscow-region barrage

Russian officials said air defences intercepted a batch of 18 drones heading towards Moscow on Oct. 6 during an overnight attack on the capital and its surrounding region. Later official accounts put the number destroyed near Moscow at 105 and reported two deaths and nine injuries across Moscow Oblast.³⁵⁸

Interception figures rose through the night

Interfax reported that the batch of 18 brought the cumulative number of drones attempting to reach Moscow at that stage to 57. Four airports serving the Moscow area temporarily stopped handling arrivals and departures during the attack. Subsequent reports said air defences had destroyed another 29 drones heading towards the capital before the broader total was released.³⁸

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said about 650 drones began moving towards the city and surrounding region on Oct. 5. He said most were destroyed farther away and that another 105 were intercepted as they approached Moscow. Governor Andrey Vorobyov reported 185 interceptions across 16 municipalities in Moscow Oblast, a wider geographical area than the approaches to the capital.³⁵⁶⁷

The Russian Defence Ministry separately said 868 drones were shot down overnight across several regions and over the Sea of Azov. That national figure covered a broader area than the totals released by Moscow city and regional officials. Accounts differed over the attack’s relative scale: one described it as the largest against Moscow in two years, while another called it the second-largest during that period.¹²⁶

Deaths and damage reported across the region

According to Vorobyov, the attack caused one death in Radumlya and a second in Barybino. Reports identified the Radumlya victim as a 20-year-old man, while emergency workers found the body of a 71-year-old man while clearing rubble from a destroyed building in Barybino. The governor’s reported toll later reached two dead and nine injured, although earlier accounts had listed one death and six injuries.¹²³⁶

Authorities said 47 private homes were damaged across seven municipalities. Ten of those homes were in Istra, while one house caught fire in Lobanovo and another was destroyed in Barybino. Three injured people were taken to hospital, according to Meduza’s account of the regional authorities’ reports.³⁵⁶

In Litvinovo, a drone fell onto the roof of a retail warehouse and started a fire, according to reports. Forty-six employees were evacuated, and the fire was subsequently extinguished. Local reports also described damage to outbuildings, vehicles and apartment windows in affected areas.²⁵⁶

Reported fire at an oil facility

Ukrainian monitoring channels and Astra, an independent Telegram channel, said a fire broke out at the Volodarskaya linear production and dispatch station near Konstantinovo. Local authorities had not reported the alleged fire in the accounts contained in the dossier. Astra identified the site as a crude-oil depot belonging to Transnefteprodukt.¹³⁶

According to EL PAÍS, the Volodarskaya facility handles about three million tonnes of crude oil, diesel and aviation fuel annually. Images and eyewitness accounts cited by Astra and Ukrainian monitoring channels were presented as evidence that the depot was burning, but the dossier contains no independent verification of the claim.⁶

Strikes reported in Ukraine

France 24 said Russian forces struck Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea and data centres in several large cities overnight. It also reported strikes on a cargo vessel in Chornomorsk, a rocket and artillery weapons warehouse in Ilichanka, and berthing infrastructure at Izmail. The Kyiv Independent separately reported that Russia targeted Kyiv late on Oct. 5 and that debris from a drone shot down by air defences fell in the Pecherskyi district.²⁴

France 24 said both sides had increased long-range attacks on civilian and industrial targets in recent months. Russia has said it plans to intensify attacks on infrastructure, including in Kyiv, as winter approaches. The Independent reported that President Volodymyr Zelensky had conditioned any halt to Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy facilities on reciprocal action by Moscow.¹²