Drones attack Moscow and Moscow Oblast overnight, fire breaks out at region's largest oil depot
Moscow and Moscow Oblast came under a hours-long drone attack overnight on October 5–6, 2025. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin claimed more than 80 drones were shot down by air defenses, and Russia's aviation authority suspended operations at four Moscow airports. A fire was reported at the LPDS Volodarskaya oil depot in Moscow Oblast, a facility linked by pipeline to the capital's main airports and previously unreported as a strike target.
Key points
- Attack on Moscow and Moscow Oblast lasted from the evening of October 5 into the early hours of October 6, 2025.
- Sobyanin claimed more than 80 drones heading toward Moscow were shot down; in a separate account he said 650 UAVs were directed at the Moscow region between 20:30 on October 5 and 05:00 on October 6, with 105 destroyed on approach to Moscow.
- Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya suspended operations at Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo, and Zhukovsky airports.
- A fire broke out at the LPDS Volodarskaya linear production-dispatch station, the largest oil depot in Moscow Oblast, according to OSINT analysis by ASTRA and the Telegram channel Exilenova+.
- LPDS Volodarskaya is part of Transnefteprodukt and handles about 3 million tons of petroleum products a year, with pipeline connections to Vnukovo, Domodedovo, and Sheremetyevo.
- Sobyanin said emergency services were working at debris sites but did not report any damage or casualties.
- ASTRA said no previous attacks on LPDS Volodarskaya had been reported prior to this incident.
Why it matters
The attack was a large-scale, hours-long drone strike on the Russian capital region, temporarily grounding operations at four major Moscow airports. The confirmed fire at LPDS Volodarskaya is significant because the facility is the largest oil depot in Moscow Oblast, handles roughly 3 million tons of petroleum products a year, and is connected by pipeline to the three main Moscow aviation hub airports — raising the prospect of downstream effects on aviation fuel supply to the capital's flight network.
What happened
On the night of October 5–6, 2025, Moscow and Moscow Oblast were attacked by drones in an assault that Telegram channels reported came from multiple directions simultaneously and lasted several hours. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin initially said 13 drones heading toward Moscow had been shot down after about 02:30 Kyiv time, then around 3 a.m. reported an additional 15 shot down, and in a later statement claimed more than 80 drones had been intercepted over the course of the attack. In yet another account, he said about 650 UAVs were directed at the Moscow region between 20:30 on October 5 and 05:00 on October 6, with 105 destroyed on approach to Moscow and the majority claimed destroyed at more distant ranges.
Russia's aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya, suspended operations at four Moscow airports — Vnukovo and Domodedovo first, then Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky — citing the attack. The Telegram channel Exilenova+ reported that drones struck the LPDS Volodarskaya linear production-dispatch station, the largest oil depot and main-line pipeline dispatch point in Moscow Oblast. OSINT analyst ASTRA geolocated one of the fires to the village of Kostyantynove in the Ramensky urban district and said video shot in the nearby settlement of Volodarsky showed the blaze on the depot's territory. Exilenova+ reported, citing eyewitnesses, that two reservoirs were burning at the depot. Sobyanin did not provide information on damage or casualties from the strike, beyond noting that emergency services were working at debris sites.
Where reporting differs
Sobyanin's own statements about the scale of the attack conflict across the reporting. In one version he claimed more than 80 drones heading toward Moscow were shot down; in another he reported 13 drones shot down after about 02:30 Kyiv time, then an additional 15 around 3 a.m.; in a third he said 650 UAVs were directed at the Moscow region between 20:30 on October 5 and 05:00 on October 6, with 105 destroyed on approach to Moscow and the bulk of the rest claimed destroyed at distant ranges. The numbers are not consistent with one another.
Background
LPDS Volodarskaya is part of JSC AK Transnaftoprodukt and is described as the largest oil depot in Moscow Oblast. The station stores and pipelines gasoline, aviation fuel, and diesel fuel separately, receives products from the Moscow and Ryazan oil refineries, and turns over approximately 3 million tons of petroleum products a year. A network of pipelines connects the depot directly to Vnukovo, Domodedovo, and Sheremetyevo airports. According to ASTRA, no previous attacks on LPDS Volodarskaya had been reported prior to this incident.