Ukraine is hitting Moscow with drones after Russia unleashed one of its largest ballistic missile barrages at Kyiv.
Published On 20 Jul 2026
A Russian strike on a ship near the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa has killed at least 10 people, while Ukraine has launched hundreds of drones to attack Moscow, a day after Kyiv was hit by one of the heaviest barrages of ballistic missiles of the war.
Russia struck a Guinea-Bissau-flagged ship carrying corn with a crew from India and Syria, Ukraine’s seaports authority said on Monday. Officials said eight crew members had been rescued.
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Russian strikes in Odesa have now killed 28 people in the month of July alone, regional governor Oleh Kiper said.
“Since the beginning of July, the Odesa region was under constant daily shelling. There were days when 13 to 15 air raid alerts had been announced in the region,” Kiper told Ukrainian television.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had hit fuel reservoirs at Odesa’s port.
Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine, frequently using ballistic missiles, as Kyiv is currently short of Patriot interceptor munitions that are crucial to defend against them.
In retaliation, Ukraine is intensifying its attacks on Russian territory. It targeted Moscow and the surrounding region with hundreds of drones overnight, wounding at least 10 people and setting several buildings ablaze, Russian officials said.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 400 “enemy drones” were launched at the Moscow region between 8:30 p.m. (17:30 GMT) and 5:00 a.m. (02:00 GMT). Most were intercepted by Russia’s air defence systems, including 85 destroyed while approaching the Russian capital.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine struck Russian logistics facilities and an oil depot in the Moscow region more than 400 km (250 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
“We are responding, justly, to every Russian strike against our cities and communities,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
“Overnight, air defence forces and electronic warfare systems repelled a drone attack on the Moscow region. The main consequences were recorded in Podolsk, Domodedovo, and the Odintsovo district,” Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region, wrote on the Telegram messaging app. He said 10 people, including a child, were wounded, and three of the wounded were Chinese citizens.
“According to preliminary information, one person was wounded in Domodedovo as a result of a fire at a private house, and another on the M-4 highway, where a drone fell near a vehicle,” Vorobyov said.
Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, said on Monday its logistics centre in the Podolsk district had been evacuated as a precaution, but later resumed normal operations.This comes after a series of Ukrainian drone attacks killed at least eight warehouse workers from Wildberries on Saturday and injured dozens more, while another attack sparked a fire at an oil depot outside Moscow.
Ukrainian drones also struck seven Russian vessels on Sunday night in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, according to Kyiv’s drone forces commander Robert Brovdi. He said that the targets included three tankers and four dry cargo ships, bringing the total number of vessels struck in July to 183. Brovdi added that seven substations had been hit in Russia-occupied Crimea.
