Russia's defence ministry has claimed that Ukraine has targeted Moscow with drones every day of 2026 so far, marking an escalation from earlier sporadic attacks on the Russian capital. By midnight on Sunday, Russian air defence systems had destroyed 57 drones over the Moscow region out of 437 downed across Russia, the ministry said. Ukraine has not commented, but Kyiv has increasingly used long-range drones to strike deep inside Russia, aiming to disrupt military logistics and energy infrastructure, according to Ukrainian officials.
Three of Moscow's four airports were shut to air traffic on Sunday after Ukraine launched dozens of drones, authorities said. The attacks caused multiple flight delays, including at Vnukovo, Moscow's second-busiest airport, Russian media reported. The disruption comes during Russia's extended New Year and Orthodox Christmas break, a peak period for domestic and international travel.
Two people were killed in Ukrainian drone strikes in Russian border regions, local officials reported on Sunday. In Belgorod, one person died and two others, including a young child, were wounded when a drone struck a car, according to the governor. Another person was killed in a drone strike on a village in the Kursk region, the local governor said.
Meanwhile, Russian overnight strikes on Kyiv province killed two people on Monday, Ukrainian authorities said, after a nationwide air alert. One person died in the capital, and a man in his 70s was killed in the city of Fastiv. In the Kharkiv region, three people were wounded in drone strikes from Saturday into Sunday, the state emergency service reported. The death toll from a Russian missile attack on Kharkiv on Friday rose to five after body parts were found under rubble, said Mayor Ihor Terekhov.
A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire in an industrial zone in the town of Yelets in Russia's Lipetsk region, the regional governor said, with no casualties reported. Yelets is home to the Energiya battery plant, a major producer for Russia's defence industry, which Ukraine has previously struck.
