Ukraine Resumes Moscow Drone Strikes After Ratcliffe Visit

Ukraine resumed drone strikes targeting Moscow overnight into Wednesday morning, hours after the departure of a plane carrying CIA Director John Ratcliffe from the Russian capital, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said.

Sobyanin said at least 10 drones were shot down as they approached Moscow. He added that emergency services were working at sites where debris fell.

Ratcliffe Visit And Halt Request

The attack pause appears to have been tied to Ratcliffe’s unannounced visit to Moscow on Tuesday morning. According to a Ukrainian official, Ukraine agreed to a US request to refrain from launching drone or missile strikes against Moscow during the CIA director’s visit.

Ratcliffe’s aircraft landed at Vnukovo airport on Tuesday and departed a few hours later, data from Flightradar24 showed.

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Drones Downed Over Moscow

Sobyanin reported the interceptions in the early hours of Wednesday on Telegram. He said emergency services specialists were responding to the crash locations.

Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, said flight restrictions were introduced at three of Moscow’s four international airports during the night. The affected airports were Domodedovo, Zhukovsky and Vnukovo.

The restrictions were reported as temporary and were issued as drones were intercepted over the city.

Airport Closures Spread Beyond Moscow

Rosaviatsiya also posted that flight restrictions were implemented at airports across several regions, including Kaluga, Tambov, Penza, Saratov, Saransk, Cheboksary, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and Yaroslavl.

Russian officials said drones intercepted over Moscow were among a wider set of attacks claimed to have been stopped during the night. The Russian Defence Ministry said it had shot down 426 Ukrainian drones overnight.

The ministry said the interceptions covered 15 Russian regions and included occupied Crimea.

Wildberries Site In Tambov Region Hit

Among the reported targets was a Wildberries e-commerce facility in Kotovsk, in the Tambov region. Wildberries said in a statement that it had confirmed the latest attack and that it had suspended all new shipments to the affected distribution centre.

Local authorities also reported damage and fire following the strike. Yevgeny Pervyshov, the governor of the region, said on Telegram that the attack sparked a fire at the Wildberries logistics centre, with flames spreading across an area of more than 100,000 square metres.

Elsewhere, Russian media reported an attack on a major oil refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region, in the city of Kstovoa. The reports did not provide additional details in the material cited.

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26 August 2026

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