Over the past three days, Ukraine has launched two of the largest drone attacks of the entire war, both of them aimed at Moscow. The first one was early Sunday morning.
Ukraine launched hundreds of drones across Russia Sunday, killing at least six people in one of Kyiv's largest aerial attacks of the war.
Russia's Ministry of Defense said that it had destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones overnight. Some 600 drones were detected headed toward the Russian capital, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, with a third destroyed over the Moscow region itself.
Russia has made Moscow the best defended location in the country and it appears most of those drones were shot down, but not all of them. The largest Wildberries hub in the country (Wildberries is Russia's version of Amazon), was hit and subsequently burned to the ground.
🔥❗️BREAKING: A massive fire has engulfed the entire Wildberries logistics hub in Koledino, Moscow Oblast, following tonight’s drone attack.
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 16, 2026
The 250,000 m² complex was one
of Wildberries’ two largest warehouses. The other, in Elektrostal, was destroyed in a strike in July,… pic.twitter.com/Tt5So1seLa
Another spectacular morning view over Moscow, courtesy of the burning Wildberries logistics hub in Koledino. pic.twitter.com/f8LGogKiot
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 16, 2026
This looks like another total loss.
🚨 BREAKING: Ukraine has destroyed the largest Wildberries logistics hub in Russia, with estimated damages exceeding $1.5 billion#SlavaUkraïni 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/KFBcoAaRrH
— Anonymous TV 🇺🇦 (@YourAnonTV) August 16, 2026
A second smaller Wildberries hub was hit in the same strike and there doesn't seem to be a lot left of this one either.
Aftermath at the smaller Wildberries Domodedovo logistics hub in Moscow Oblast following today’s attack. https://t.co/K8pCgyut3o pic.twitter.com/tYGNiOBWsk
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 16, 2026
In this clip you can see the smoke coming from both of them.
Residents of Moscow Oblast find themselves between two massive fires today, with the Wildberries Koledino hub burning on one side and the Domodedovo hub on the other. https://t.co/muJnwWUXAD pic.twitter.com/SdWZE1C8Tz
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 16, 2026
As of today, the fire is out and you can see not much has survived.
A view of what remains of the massive 250,000 m² Wildberries logistics hub in Koledino, Moscow Oblast, after the fire tore through the complex. https://t.co/qqrrsLFB3Y pic.twitter.com/tSwCZsCuSa
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 18, 2026
Early this morning there was a second drone attack aimed at Moscow and this one was nearly as big.
Russian air defenses overnight intercepted 791 Ukrainian drones over a number of regions, as well as annexed Crimea and the Black and the Azov seas, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said, in what was the second-largest drone attack since January 2025, according to an Associated Press tally.
More than 600 Ukrainian drones flew toward the Moscow region, where 180 were shot down, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said without elaborating.
Officials reported no deaths or major damage. Ukraine has increasingly launched swarms of hundreds of drones to try to overwhelm Russian air defenses.
The damage from the second round of strikes seems to be relatively minor but I suspect Ukraine has a couple of reasons for focusing attacks on Moscow. First, it forces Russia to continue to focus its defenses there rather than spread defenses out to other areas that also need them. Second, because most of the defenses are there, these drone blitzes are forcing Russia to use up a lot of anti-aircraft/drone ammunition instead of stockpiling it. That could lead to shortages elsewhere or to Russia simply spending more on defense than it does on drones used in attacks on Ukraine.
There's no doubt that the pressure is getting to Putin. Just yesterday he issued a threat aimed at the UK.
Russia’s embassy in London has accused the UK of “deliberately opting for an escalation of the Ukraine crisis, while hypocritically professing a desire for peace” after it emerged over the weekend that Britain was supplying attack drones to Kyiv.
Ministry of Defence sources indicated that a report in the Sunday Times, that two drones made by British companies had been used by Ukraine’s military to attack targets inside Russia, was true, although only one, Nyan, made by BAE Systems, was named.
The Russian embassy, seeking to maximise the impact of its remarks, added in a widely reported statement on Telegram: “London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer”.
Is Russia threatening to attack a NATO country? It sure sounds like it. And as I suggested last week, they may have made another pointed threat in Germany designed to shake up NATO. But so far it doesn't seem to be having the desired effect.
Andy Burnham says the UK will continue to “support Ukraine 100%” after Russia threatened consequences after strikes by British-made drones...
Burnham, asked during a visit to Wolverhampton on Tuesday for his response to Moscow’s threat, said: “This is the UK doing what it has long said it would do, which is to support Ukraine 100% against this illegal war led by Vladimir Putin.
“We are providing support so that Ukraine can defend itself, and that’s been the British position all the way through this conflict by previous prime ministers. It remains the case with me. We are not fair-weather friends. We will be there in Ukraine’s hour of need, and that won’t change.”
Anyway, when you're making threats it's probably because you need to weaken support for Ukraine because it's working. Plenty of people inside Russia can see that Russia is struggling, from the people waiting on long gas lines (again) to one of Russia's top economists.
Andrey Klepach, one of Russia’s top economists, has been replaced as chief economist of the country’s national development bank shortly after a speech was made public in which he reportedly said Russia’s economy was being damaged by the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s state news agency TASS confirmed Sunday that Klepach “no longer holds the position of chief economist at VEB,” one of Russia’s largest banks, but did not give a reason for his departure. A new candidate has been selected and will be appointed soon, TASS added.
That announcement came two days after The Moscow Times, an independent Russian newspaper, published extracts of a speech Klepach gave in May at a forum of economists and academics known as the Nikitsky Club.
According to the newspaper, Klepach warned that Russia was “losing both the technological and economic competition globally” and would not win a war of attrition while Ukraine had financial backing from Western powers. Eventually, he said, “I’m almost certain we’re coming up against a social crisis.”
In short, a major banker told the truth: Russia cannot win this war unless it can stop Europe from backing Ukraine. Putin isn't dumb. He knows this too. He's facing down failure and his only hope is to get the UK and Germany to back off, hence the recent threats, verbal and otherwise.
Russia is still a huge country and there's no sign it's going to collapse anytime this year, but it's definitely not winning the war right now. It's goals now have shifted from victory to keeping the gas lines short, holding onto Crimea and keeping Moscow from being shrouded in pillars of smoke from burning buildings on a weekly basis.
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