On 18 June, Moscow was hit by the largest Ukrainian drone attack since the start of the war: nearly 200 drones attacked the capital overnight, and a fire broke out at the Moscow oil refinery in Kapotnya (the second in two days). Meduza studied how Ukrainian attacks on Moscow increased in intensity over the years of all-out war. And even according to official reports from the authorities, it has increased literally a hundred times.
This material was first published on Meduza on May 17, 2026. On June 18, after the largest drone attack on Moscow, we updated it.
May 3, 2023 – Attack on the Kremlin
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Two drones It exploded near the dome of the Senate Palace Moscow Kremlin. The Russian authorities claimed that the air defense forces shot them down.
May 3, 2023 – The first serious blow to Moscow
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Drones hit three residential buildings – on Atlasov Street, Provsoyuznaya Street and Leninsky Prospekt. Several other drones were shot down as they approached the capital.
July 24, 2023
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The drones hit two non-residential buildings, including, most likely, the headquarters of the GRU hacker group Fancy Bear on Komsomolsky Prospekt. There were no injuries.
July 30, 2023
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Moscow was attacked by three drones. One of them was shot down on the approach to the city, while the rest damaged two towers in Moscow.
August 1, 2023
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The city was attacked by three drones, two of which were shot down by the air defense forces in the Moscow region, and the third collided again with one of the Moscow city towers.
August 21, 2024
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According to Sobyanin, the air defense forces shot down ten drones as they approached Moscow.
September 1, 2024
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The Ministry of Defense announced that two drones were shot down over Moscow. The Moscow oil refinery in Kapotnya caught fire. Five other aircraft succeeded, according to Sobyanin dropping In the Moscow region on the approach to the capital.
March 11, 2025 – First massive attack on Moscow
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Sobyanin reported this 74 drones shot down. One of them damaged the roof of a house on Domodedovskaya Street. The wreckage of another aircraft was found in Kaputnya (later the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that the drones had managed to hit the production facilities of the refinery). The Governor of the Moscow Region, Andrei Vorobyov, announced that 13 cities had been attacked in the region. According to the authorities, three people were killed and 18 others were injured. In Raminskoye, an apartment building caught fire due to a drone attack.
July 19-21, 2025
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Over the course of three days, air defense forces shot down more than 60 drones in the Moscow region, Sobyanin said. Two residential buildings were attacked – in Zelenograd and in the village of Kyiv (in New Moscow).
March 14-16, 2026
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On March 16, Sobyanin said so The city was attacked for three consecutive days: On March 16 alone, the air defense forces shot down 54 drones, and in just three days there were 250 of them. Mash and Shot channels close to the security forces wrote about drone sounds and explosions in the Moscow region – in Dubna, Odintsovo, Podolsk and Korolev. The consequences of the three-day attack are unknown. A few days before the attack, the authorities began blocking the Internet in Moscow, explaining this precisely by the fight against drones.
March 20-21, 2026
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According to Sobyanin, 22 drones were shot down as they approached Moscow on March 20. Another 30 planes were shot down the next day. The authorities did not report the consequences.
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City authorities reported 120 dronesDropped within the last 24 hours. From midnight to seven in the morning there were only 81 of them. Sobyanin said that one of the strikes hit the entrance to the Kapotnya refinery. The other is intended for the Elma Technological Park in Zelenograd. Another one at Sheremetyevo Airport. 12 people were injured (most of them at the entrance to the refinery), and three homes were damaged. The governor of the Moscow region, Vorobyev, announced that three residents of the region had been killed and four wounded.
June 2-15, 2026
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Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow continued almost every day, but did not cause noticeable damage. Most of the drones, according to Sergei Sobyanin’s telegram channel, were shot down between June 10 and June 32.
June 16, 2026
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Big attack. They were shot down over the Moscow region 86 dronesSix people were injured. At night and early in the morning, all four Moscow airports – Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky – were closed. A fire broke out at the Moscow oil refinery in Kapotnya. It is reported that the company has suspended its operations.
June 18, 2026
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Moscow has been subjected to the largest attack by Ukrainian drones since the beginning of the war. The capital was attacked by nearly 200 drones, and the Moscow oil refinery caught fire again in Kapotnya.. Fragments of the drone also fell on the territory of the Sadovod shopping center. In the Moscow region, 17 people were injured as a result of the attack. Several residential buildings were damaged, a fitness center in Lyubertsy was damaged, and the Mega Belaya Dacha shopping center in Kotelniki was damaged.