On the night of November 13, 2026, regions of Russia and occupied Crimea were subjected to one of the largest drone attacks since the beginning of the war. According to the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense, cited by RBC-Ukraine, 1,198 Ukrainian drones were shot down over a 24-hour period. This is the second-largest figure in the entire history of the conflict: a larger nighttime series was recorded by the Ministry of Defense only on October 29, when, according to its data, 1,214 drones were destroyed.
Scale of the Attack According to the Ministry of Defense
The report from the military department indicates that defenses were deployed across virtually the entire country. The number of downed devices—1,198—is second only to the October record of 1,214 units, confirming a steady upward trend in the intensity of nighttime strikes. Russian authorities present these figures as the result of air defense systems in action, while independent verification of the number of downed machines in open sources is not provided.
Volgograd: Casualties and Fire at the Oil Refinery
The most severe consequences of the attack were recorded in Volgograd and the Volgograd region. Governor Andrei Bocharov reported four deaths and two injuries, specifying that all of them were employees of the southern industrial zone of Volgograd. According to monitoring Telegram channels, the Volgograd Oil Refinery was hit, catching fire after the raid. Thus, the massive drone attack caused damage to a fuel and energy infrastructure facility in the region.
Moscow: 467 Drones Heading Toward the Capital Region
A significant portion of the drones was directed toward Moscow. Capital Mayor Sergei Sobyanin stated that 467 drones were flying toward the metropolitan region. According to him, most of them were destroyed by Ministry of Defense air defense systems at long range, and another 144 drones were neutralized as they approached Moscow. These figures make the Moscow direction one of the most heavily burdened during the nighttime attack.
Samara and Rostov-on-Don: Infrastructure Strikes
On the morning of November 13, drones attacked the Samara linear production and dispatch station near the village of Prosvet in the Samara region. Rostov-on-Don and the Rostov region were also targeted on the night of November 13: a production facility caught fire in the city itself, and a 1,500-square-meter warehouse building burned down in the Aksai district. The combination of these episodes shows that the attack affected multiple federal districts simultaneously, as well as industrial and energy infrastructure facilities.
The outcome of the night operation included confirmed fires, human casualties in Volgograd, and statements by the Russian military department regarding a record-high number of downed drones. Assessments of the scale of the attack are currently based primarily on data from the Russian Ministry of Defense and local authorities, while independent cross-verification of the number of devices in open sources is absent.
