Ukraine strikes Moscow in biggest drone attack on Russian capital

By Guy Faulconbridge and Lidia Kelly

March 11, 202512:47 AM MSTUpdated an hour ago

Item 1 of 6 Police officers stand on the roof of a multi-storey residential building damaged in a recent Ukrainian drone attack, according to local authorities, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Moscow, Russia March 11, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer

[1/6]Police officers stand on the roof of a multi-storey residential building damaged in a recent Ukrainian drone attack, according to local authorities, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Moscow, Russia March 11, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

• Summary

• At least 91 drones downed around Moscow
• One killed, at least three injured
• Flights suspended at Moscow’s airports
• Biggest Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow
• At least 337 drones downed over Russia

MOSCOW, March 11 (Reuters) – Ukraine launched its biggest drone attack on the Russian capital on Tuesday with at least 91 drones targeting Moscow, killing at least one person, sparking fires, closing airports and forcing dozens of flights to be diverted, Russian officials said.

A total of 337 Ukrainian drones were downed over Russia, including 91 over the Moscow region and 126 over the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have been pulling back, the defence ministry said.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

Report this ad

The massive dawn drone attack unfurled just as a team of Ukrainian officials prepare to meet a U.S. team in Saudi Arabia to seek grounds for possible peace talks in the three-year-old war, and as Russian forces try to encircle thousands of Ukrainian soldiers in the western Russian region of Kursk.

As rush hour built, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defences were still repelling attacks on the city, which along with the surrounding region has a population of at least 21 million and is one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Europe.

Advertisement · Scroll to continueReport this ad

“The most massive attack of enemy UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) on Moscow has been repelled,” Sobyanin said in a post on Telegram.

Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said at least one person was killed and three injured, and he posted a picture of a wrecked apartment with its windows blown out.

Vorobyov said that some residents were forced to evacuate a multi-storey building in the Ramenskoye district of the Moscow region, about 50 km (31 miles) southeast of the Kremlin.

There was no sign of panic in Moscow, commuters went to work as normal in central Moscow.

Russia’s aviation watchdog said flights were suspended at all four of Moscow’s airports to ensure air safety after the attacks. Two other airports, in the Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod regions, both east of Moscow, were also closed.