What the Moscow Oblast drone attack of 22 September 2026 involved
A look back at the reported Ukrainian long-range drone strike on Moscow Oblast and the refinery fire that followed.
What was known about the drone attack on Moscow Oblast by 22 September 2026? Reports dated 20 September described a massive Ukrainian strike in which more than 1,600 long-range drones were launched from Ukraine at the region. This retrospective looks at what those reports said, two days before the covered date.
According to those reports, at least two people were killed and hundreds more were evacuated. The Moscow Refinery was on fire after several direct hits.
Part of a wider pattern of attacks
The strike belonged to a category of operations that has run since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022: attacks inside mainland Russia. Their main targets have been the military, the arms industry and the oil industry. Many have been drone strikes, though firebombing and rail sabotage have also been used.
Ukrainian intelligence services have acknowledged carrying out some of these attacks. Others have been carried out by anti-war activists in Russia. Cross-border shelling, missile strikes and covert raids from Ukraine have also occurred, mainly in Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk oblasts.
The scale of the strike
The reported figure of more than 1,600 long-range drones set this strike apart in the accounts of the time. The reports tied the refinery fire to several direct hits, and noted that hundreds of people had been evacuated.
The attack came more than four years into a war that began when Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014 and escalated into full-scale invasion in 2022. Russian troops occupy roughly 20% of Ukraine, and about 8 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced.
