Ukraine Launches 620 Drones at Moscow Region, as Russian Missile Attack Kills 10 in Ukraine

Moscow and Kyiv have continued their aerial bombardments of each other, with Ukraine launching hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at the Moscow area, and Russian missiles targeting Kharkiv, killing 10 people.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a Telegram post that between the evening of Aug. 17 and 5:00 a.m. local time on Aug. 18, 620 UAVs were launched at the Moscow region, “180 of which were destroyed.”

In a follow-up post, Sobyanin said the Russian Ministry of Defense had shot down 10 more drones en route to Moscow.

Moscow Regional Governor Andrei ​Vorobyov said that “air defense forces and electronic warfare assets repelled a large-scale drone attack on the Moscow region,” with drones destroyed over several districts, including Bogorodskoye, Ramenskoye, and Pavlovsky Posad.

Vorobyov said that several people were injured, including a 10-year-old girl who sustained a shrapnel wound in her hand when a drone crashed into a house in Ramenskoye.

Houses and apartments were also damaged and caught fire across the Moscow region, he said.

Ukraine hasn’t publicly confirmed the attacks.

Wildberries Warehouse Damaged

The Moscow regional governor said that a drone struck a Wildberries warehouse near Atlant Park and that the ensuing fire had been contained.

The online Russian retailer has been a frequent target of Kyiv’s drone strikes since July 18, with eight employees killed in the first attack.

Ukraine has described the targets as hubs responsible for supplying Moscow’s military with components for weaponry such as drones. The Kremlin has denied that ​Wildberries handles military supplies.

Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has also reported attacks from Kyiv.

Krymenergo, Crimea’s ​largest power supplier, said in an Aug. 18 statement that the peninsula’s southern power district had been attacked by a Ukrainian drone.

As a result, some populated areas were without power, while power delivery in the northwest, east, and south of Crimea “remains difficult.”

Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said in a Telegram post that the military had “repelled two Ukrainian Armed Forces attacks overnight and neutralized nine enemy drones.”

Missile Strikes on Kharkiv

Russia also attacked Ukraine, with a missile strike in the northeast of the country killing 10 people and wounding others, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“This morning, the Russians launched a brutal attack on a busy intersection in Pechenihy, Kharkiv region—a location with a post office and stores, surrounded only by residential buildings,” Zelenskyy said in an Aug. 18 post on X.

“We will definitely respond to this Russian strike,” Zelenskyy said. “And it is equally important that our partners also complement our just kinetic responses with their own actions to put pressure on Russia and support Ukraine.”

Zelenskyy has been calling for more diplomatic pressure on Russia.

There was no immediate comment from Russia on the attack.

On Aug. 17, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas said that Brussels was planning to significantly expand sanctions against Russia in the coming months, in its latest bid to push Moscow to the negotiating table to end its war with Ukraine.

The United Nations’ Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said in an Aug. 18 post on X that it was gathering information about the Pechenihy attack “and its impact on civilians.”

“The increased use of long-range missiles by Russian armed forces in populated areas is one of the main reasons why there were more killed and injured civilians in Ukraine in July than in any month since March 2022,” the monitoring mission said.

Both Moscow and Kyiv deny deliberately targeting civilians.