Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 822 fixed-wing drones over various regions of the country and surrounding seas between 8 p.m. on August 15 and 8 a.m. on August 16.
Regions targeted by the drones
The ministry said the drones were neutralized in the Belgorod, Bryansk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Oryol, Rostov, Ryazan, Tambov and Tula regions, as well as around Moscow.
Russia’s Defense Ministry also said that a coordinated strike involving high-precision weapons and long-range drones was carried out in the morning against military-industrial facilities in Ukraine, the Kremenchuk oil refinery and metallurgical facilities in Kryvyi Rih.
The ministry said two industrial facilities in Kyiv that it alleged produced components for cruise missiles and attack drones were hit. The statement said the Kremenchuk oil refinery in the Poltava region and facilities producing steel products used in weapons manufacturing in Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipropetrovsk region were also targeted.
A dry-cargo vessel allegedly carrying military equipment in the Port of Odesa was also hit by attack drones, the ministry said.
One person killed in attacks around Moscow
Moscow Region Governor Andrey Vorobyov said an 83-year-old man was killed after a drone fell onto an area containing a private home in the Ramenskoye district.
A fire broke out at a Wildberries warehouse in an industrial park in Podolsk. Vorobyov said three people were injured in Podolsk and the surrounding area. One of the injured people sustained a hand injury, another was wounded by shrapnel, and a woman suffered a shoulder injury.
A private home, a car and a power line were damaged in Podolsk. A fire broke out at a pharmaceutical warehouse in Domodedovo, while several homes, the roof of a shopping mall and two private homes were damaged.
A private home and a church school were damaged in Chekhov, while a sauna at a garden cooperative was damaged in Stupino. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said 600 drones flew toward the Moscow area from the previous evening until 6:30 a.m., and that air defense systems destroyed 201 of them.
Death toll in Rostov region rises to five
Rostov Region Governor Yuriy Slyusar said three people were killed and one person was injured and taken to hospital during an overnight air attack. In a later statement, two more bodies were found by rescue teams, bringing the death toll in the region to five.
Slyusar said more than 150 drones and missiles were destroyed during attacks on three cities and nine districts. Roofs of several buildings, as well as the windows of an apartment building and a railway station, were damaged in Kamensk.
Four production buildings at a poultry facility in Staraya Stanitsa, in the Kamenka district, were damaged, and a fire broke out on the premises. A stubble fire affected an area of 1,300 square meters near Volchensky. Efforts were also carried out to extinguish fires in two sections of the Kamensk forestry enterprise.
The roof and electrical wiring of a private home were destroyed in Donetsk. The attacks took place in the cities of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Gukovo and Donetsk, and in the Kamensk, Konstantinovsk, Millerovo, Matveyevo-Kurgan, Chertkovo, Sholokhov, Tsimlyansk, Tarasovsky and Verkhnedonsk districts.
Background to the drone attacks
Drone attacks targeting various regions of Russia have continued since 2022, when the war in Ukraine began.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in March 2023 that Ukrainian-made drones could reach strategic targets in Russia. Zelenskyy announced in August 2023 that Ukraine’s drone attacks against Russia would increase.
A drone exploded over the Senate Palace in the Kremlin in May 2023, while business centers in Moscow had previously been targeted in several drone attacks.
