A Ukrainian drone struck a residential high-rise in an upscale district of Moscow in the early hours of Monday, causing visible structural damage but no casualties, as Russia simultaneously escalated missile and drone attacks across Ukraine that killed at least eight people. The strike on Mosfilmovskaya Street — an affluent neighbourhood roughly 10 kilometres southwest of the Kremlin — hit the Mosfilm Tower, a 213-metre luxury apartment complex located in an area also home to several foreign embassies. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed that two other drones were intercepted overnight, and that mobile internet access would be restricted across much of the capital for much of the coming week for what Russian media described as "security reasons." Overnight, Vnukovo and Domodedovo international airports temporarily suspended operations. The Russian defence ministry said a total of 117 drones were intercepted across several Russian regions between Sunday and Monday, including 60 alone targeting the St Petersburg region.
On the ground in Ukraine, the human cost of Russian strikes continued to mount. A midday missile strike — believed to have involved an Iskander-type ballistic missile — hit the town of Merefa in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, killing six people and wounding more than 30 others. Civilian infrastructure bore the brunt of the attack, with at least 10 houses and four shops destroyed. To the south, two men were killed in attacks on the Kherson region, a city liberated from Russian occupation in November 2022 but still within range of Russian drone and missile fire. Russia has consistently denied deliberately targeting civilians since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The attacks come against a backdrop of a significant shift in Russian tactics. Whereas large-scale drone assaults previously occurred mainly at night, Russia has increasingly launched follow-up waves during daylight hours. On 1 May alone, more than 200 drones were fired overnight, followed by over 400 during the day, targeting western Ukrainian cities including Zhytomyr and Ternopyl and damaging energy and railway infrastructure. A United Nations report has flagged a sharp rise in civilian casualties in 2026, with March alone recording a 49% increase compared to the previous month — at least 211 killed and 1,206 wounded. Ukraine, for its part, has raised its interception rate for long-range Shahed-type drones to above 85%, partly through the deployment of domestically developed interceptor drones.
The timing of the Moscow strike carries clear symbolic weight. Russia's annual Victory Day parade — commemorating the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 — is scheduled for Saturday on Red Square. In a notable departure, this year's parade will feature no tanks or heavy military equipment, which the Kremlin attributed to the "operational situation" in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking at a European summit in Armenia, suggested the real reason was simpler: "They fear drones will fly over Red Square." He dismissed a Russian proposal for a unilateral ceasefire on 8 and 9 May to cover the celebrations as "not serious," saying Kyiv had received no official proposal. Russia's defence ministry, meanwhile, threatened a massive retaliatory strike on central Kyiv if Ukraine attempted to disrupt the Victory Day events.