On the night of September 20, 2026, a massive attack by unmanned aerial vehicles was recorded over Moscow and the Moscow region. Monitoring channels reported a series of explosions and the flight of drone groups along several directions, while in the suburbs — fires at warehouse facilities. According to RBC-Ukraine, citing the capital's mayor Sergey Sobyanin and monitoring Telegram channels, the strike hit rear directions with approaches to the capital.
The Moscow mayor's version: 30 shot-down drones
Sergey Sobyanin stated that at night an attack by 15 drones flying toward the capital was repelled, and that emergency service specialists are working at the crash sites of the debris. Soon after, the mayor added that the air defense forces of the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to his claim, destroyed another 15 UAVs. Thus, according to the official Russian version, a total of about 30 aircraft were shot down, although independent confirmation of these figures in open sources is not provided at the time of publication.
Fires in the Moscow suburbs: what was targeted
According to the monitoring channel Exilenova+, drones entered the rear in groups, moving toward Moscow. In the settlement of Sofyino, warehouse facilities were likely attacked: local residents reported a fire at one of the warehouses, including at a facility of the shoe chain “Kari”. The Ukrainian company Fire Point stated that FP-1 strike drones destroyed a warehouse complex in the Moscow suburbs, and preliminary information suggests these are warehouses of the company “Modern Warehouse Technologies” (Sovremennye Skladskie Tekhnologii).
Context: the series of strikes on September 18
The September 20 attack was a continuation of a series of strikes. Earlier, Moscow had declared “one of the largest” Ukrainian drone attacks in years on the night of September 18. On that same day, according to President Vladimir Zelensky, the SBU struck the “Rostov-Tsentrally” military airfield, hitting, as claimed, an An-12 aircraft, two An-26s, and three helicopters. In addition, due to a drone attack that damaged a primary oil processing unit, one of Russia's largest refineries — “Slavneft-YANOS” in Yaroslavl — halted operations.
Contradictory data
There are discrepancies in details between the primary text and a number of sources. The basis of the report speaks of a fire at warehouses in Sofyino and facilities of “Modern Warehouse Technologies”, while the headlines of Censor.net and Nokta.md sources point to a fire at the Moscow Refinery and the use of “Flamingo” missiles. The version about hitting the refinery and the use of missile systems is not confirmed by quotes from the mayor or the SBU in the provided text, so both versions are presented as alternative: one relies on reports of warehouses in Sofyino, the other on the headline formulations of certain publications. The number of UAVs shot down is also cited only with reference to Sobyanin's words and is not verified by independent data.
