A Ukrainian drone barrage, involving approximately 650 aircraft, targeted the Moscow region overnight, killing two people and damaging dozens of residential buildings, Russian authorities said Tuesday.
Most of the drones were destroyed by air defenses at long range, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on Telegram. He said 105 drones were destroyed as they approached the Russian capital.
In addition to the two deaths, nine people were injured in the attack, according to Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region. It was not initially possible to verify these figures.
Vorobyov said 47 residential buildings had been damaged. Local reports said a fire had broken out in a warehouse in the village of Litvinovo.
The drone attacks continued into the morning, Sobyanin said, forcing Sheremetyevo Airport, the largest in the country, to suspend operations temporarily.
If the Russian figures on the number of drones shot down are accurate, they would point to a major Ukrainian attack.
Citing eyewitnesses, the Kyiv Independent reported that an oil production facility around 40 kilometers from Moscow was targeted.
Russian sources said the facility in the village of Konstantinovo is the region's largest reservoir and a key hub for Moscow's fuel supply. No official statement has been made regarding the target.
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russia's oil industry to hit energy exports that provide important revenue for Moscow's war effort.
Ukraine has been defending itself with Western support against Russia's full-scale invasion for more than four and a half years and regularly targets sites deep inside Russian territory as part of its defense.
Russia, meanwhile, systematically attacks targets across Ukraine with drones and missiles, killing civilians and damaging homes and critical infrastructure.
At least six people were killed by Russian aerial bombs in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv Monday, according to authorities.
Investigators said 59 people were injured, while rescue workers continued searching the rubble of a residential building for possible further victims.
Also Tuesday, unidentified drones hit two commercial ships in the Black Sea off the coast of Bulgaria, sinking one of the vessels, the government said.
While the sailors from the sunken ship were missing, those from the second ship were rescued, Rumen Nikolov, head of the local rescue operations in Varna, was quoted as saying by the BNR public radio.
Rescuers were scouring the area for the missing sailors, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) east of the coastal city of Byala, the radio said.
The government said it would convene an emergency meeting later Tuesday to discuss the strikes.
According to the Maritime.bg specialist site, the ship that sank was flying under a Togo flag.
The other ship was flying under a Palau flag, with 18 crew members evacuated by a Bulgarian ferry after the strikes.
Tuesday's strikes came a day after Romania reported that a grain ship had caught fire and sand near its coast, with two crew members killed, in an attack Ukraine blamed on Russia.
Türkiye's Chamber of Maritime Commerce (IMEAK) said last month that since the start of the war, 226 civilian and commercial vessels have been attacked in the Black Sea, the vast majority this year.
