A night of drones over Russia: Sobyanin claims 613 UAVs headed for Moscow region, smoke over a chemical plant in Sterlitamak

The largest claimed attack on Moscow region

On the evening of 28 October and overnight into 29 October Moscow and the Moscow region came under a massive drone attack. A drone alert was declared in the region at around 22:00 local time. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported “downed” drones several times during the night, and after 6 am he said that 613 drones had flown towards the Moscow region between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. According to him, most were allegedly neutralised “on the distant approaches” and 231 on approach to Moscow.

These figures are claims by the Russian authorities and cannot be independently verified. As Ukrainska Pravda notes, Russian officials traditionally said nothing about the consequences, limiting themselves to the phrase that “emergency services are working at the site where debris fell”. As of the morning of 29 October the Ukrainian side had not officially commented.

Airports and explosions

Because of the attack, Russia’s aviation authority imposed restrictions on arrivals and departures at Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky (Ramenskoye). Two aircraft flying to Moscow from Turkey were turned back. At Zhukovsky the restrictions were lifted after about an hour, while the other two airports for some time accepted flights only by special approval.

The independent outlet Astra, citing readers, reported three explosions near Naro-Fominsk, about 56 km from the Moscow ring road, as well as a series of blasts towards Kaluga region. This month Moscow has already complained of night drone attacks two nights in a row.

Sterlitamak: a plant working for the military

The same morning monitoring channels reported a drone attack on Sterlitamak in Bashkortostan, more than a thousand kilometres from the Ukrainian border. Residents wrote about explosions, and photos and videos of smoke over the city appeared online.

According to Astra, the smoke was rising in the area of the Bashkir Soda Company, one of Russia’s largest chemical complexes. The company is on the closed register of defence enterprises of Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade and is Russia’s only producer of terephthaloyl chloride. This compound is used to make aramid materials for body armour, helmets and armour components for vehicles and aircraft. The extent of any damage is unknown, and local authorities did not comment.

Ukrinform also reported that jet-powered targets attacked Lipetsk, where, according to preliminary information, a fire broke out near the Novolipetsk steelworks.

The political context

The night attack came amid pressure from Washington: US President Donald Trump has urged Ukraine to stop striking Russian oil refineries because of rising global diesel prices.

Former US special representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker, speaking in Brussels on 28 October, advised Kyiv not to pay too much attention to such calls. “Ukraine has no choice. It must do what is necessary to fight, to defend itself and to carry the war onto Russian territory,” he said. In Volker’s view, Ukraine’s strategy is “absolutely right”: strikes on the Kremlin’s finances, military sites, logistics and depots are meant to deprive Russia of the ability to keep fighting.

Why it matters

Long-range strikes on defence plants and logistics are one of the few tools Ukraine has to affect Russia’s war economy. Restrictions at Moscow airports also remind Russian society each time that the war is not staying far from the capital.