Russia downs nearly 900 Ukrainian drones as Kyiv warns of massive strike

Russia said it intercepted nearly 900 Ukrainian drones as Kyiv warned of a massive Russian strike. The exchanges underline intensifying aerial warfare, Ukraine's air defence strain and wider regional tensions.Image used for representational purposes onlyKyiv,Oct 6, 2026 18:30 ISTRussia said its air defences intercepted nearly 900 Ukrainian drones overnight across several regions, the occupied Crimean Peninsula and the Sea of Azov, in one of the biggest such attacks of the war. Unconfirmed media reports said a major fuel depot in the Moscow region caught fire and that two people were killed in the attack.The strikes came as Ukraine warned of a major Russian aerial assault. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv had received fresh intelligence about Russia's plans and was preparing its response, while Ukrainian officials said the country remained vulnerable to ballistic missile attacks because of a shortage of ammunition for its US-made Patriot air defence systems.Ukraine's domestically developed long-range drones and, increasingly, missiles have allowed Kyiv to strike Russian territory during the more than 4.5 years since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion. Ukrainian attacks have reached as far east as the Urals and Siberia. At the same time, Russia's larger military and air superiority have made aerial attacks on civilian areas of Ukraine routine.Posting on social media, Zelenskyy said: "Today, we received updated intelligence on Russia's preparations for a massive strike. We are preparing countermeasures. We set deadlines for a significant part of the tasks, and the highest-priority ones are already being implemented." Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said last week that Kyiv estimates Russia has 600 ballistic missiles in reserve and can produce up to 140 ballistic missiles a month. Without enough ammunition for Patriot systems, which is in short supply, Ukraine is exposed to Russian ballistic weapons.Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 650 drones flew towards the Moscow region between Monday evening and Tuesday morning. He said most were destroyed far away and 105 were shot down as they approached the city. Later, Sobyanin said 68 more drones targeting Moscow were downed during daylight on Tuesday morning. Ukraine has regularly targeted Russian oil refineries and storage depots, and claimed last weekend that it had disabled 51 per cent of Russia's oil refining capacity. That claim could not be independently verified. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week the attacks had cost Russia about 1 per cent of its gross domestic product.Russia has traditionally been the world's third-largest producer of refined fuel products from crude, after the United States and China. The Kremlin has banned diesel exports because of the Ukrainian strikes, pushing global prices higher. US President Donald Trump said last month that Ukraine should stop hitting Russian refineries.In Ukraine, after several days of attacks on bridges in Kyiv as part of what officials say is a campaign to make civilian life harder, Russia struck one of the bridges over the Dnipro River in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, according to regional military administration chief Mykhailo Semikin. He said traffic across the bridge was temporarily suspended.Semikin also said a Russian night attack on a residential building in Zaporizhzhia wounded five people, while a daytime strike on a warehouse in the city caused a large fire.Russian forces are also trying to disrupt shipping from Ukrainian Black Sea ports, threatening grain export revenue. Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces struck targets in Ukraine's southern Odesa region overnight with drones. It said an ammunition depot was hit, along with a bulk carrier in Chornomorsk port carrying dual-use goods and port infrastructure in Izmail.Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said a Russian drone strike hit a cargo ship flying the flag of the Marshall Islands in the Black Sea, killing one person and wounding seven others. He said the vessel was carrying rapeseed oil.Separately, the Kremlin warned that a bigger US military presence in Lithuania would raise tensions. Asked about Lithuania's offer to host a US military base and a vote in the Lithuanian parliament on a bill allowing the deployment of nuclear weapons in the country, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: "If military infrastructure belonging to a key NATO member moves closer to our borders, then naturally, this can only be perceived as a step toward escalating tensions, just like the deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of a neighbouring state."Trump said on Monday he would consider setting up a permanent US military base in Lithuania, one of the three Baltic states that are seen as especially vulnerable to Russia. Last month, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that Moscow was planning hybrid strikes with drones or rockets on European countries supporting Ukraine, including Poland and Lithuania.The latest developments combined a large Ukrainian drone attack on Russia, fresh Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities and ports, and a new warning from Kyiv that it expects a "massive" Russian aerial assault, even as tensions widen over NATO's presence near Russia's borders.With PTI Inputs- Ends