Kyiv could hit Russia with domestic ballistic missiles in months, former defence minister says — Massive drone attack hits Moscow as Ukraine expands deep-strike capabilities

17 August 2026 | Kyiv, Moscow, Brussels — Updated 23:45 GMT

Ukraine could be capable of striking Russia with domestically made ballistic missiles in three to six months, the former Ukrainian defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has estimated. Kyiv has so far relied mostly on long-range drones and cruise missiles for deep strikes against Russia, but attacks with ballistic missiles will be far harder for Russian forces to thwart.

In an interview with CBS News, Fedorov said: "We need to defeat Russia in every technological cycle." Though Ukraine is innovating quickly, Fedorov warned that Russia is also advancing rapidly. Fire Point, a Ukrainian defence manufacturer, is developing ballistic missiles and conducted a launch test in June. Fedorov was one of the key drivers of Ukraine's highly effective drone programme but was controversially fired in July.

Ukraine on Sunday launched one of its largest drone attacks since the start of the war, causing a fire at a Wildberries distribution warehouse near Moscow and killing at least six people, according to Russian authorities. The defence ministry in Moscow said it had shot down 1,478 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours – the highest ever total claimed.

Welcome to the latest world headlines — where ballistic missile development, record-breaking drone attacks, and the escalating air war collide across Ukraine and Russia.

Ukraine Could Strike Russia with Domestic Ballistic Missiles in Months

Ukraine could be capable of striking Russia with domestically made ballistic missiles in three to six months, the former Ukrainian defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has estimated. Kyiv has so far relied mostly on long-range drones and cruise missiles for deep strikes against Russia, but attacks with ballistic missiles will be far harder for Russian forces to thwart.

In an interview with CBS News, Fedorov said: "We need to defeat Russia in every technological cycle." Though Ukraine is innovating quickly, Fedorov warned that Russia is also advancing rapidly. Fire Point, a Ukrainian defence manufacturer, is developing ballistic missiles and conducted a launch test in June. Fedorov was one of the key drivers of Ukraine's highly effective drone programme but was controversially fired in July.

A rapid development of largely homegrown technologies, including the Flamingo cruise missile and the FP-1 long-range fixed-wing drone from Fire Point, have allowed Ukraine to bomb warehouses, oil refineries, ports and military facilities up to 1,500 miles from its border.

Ukraine can now almost match the deep-strike capability that Russia has had since the beginning of the war using large drones and cruise missiles, though it still does not possess the high-speed ballistic missiles fired frequently by Moscow.

Massive Drone Attack Hits Moscow: 1,478 Drones Claimed Shot Down in 24 Hours

Ukraine on Sunday launched one of its largest drone attacks since the start of the war, causing a fire at a Wildberries distribution warehouse near Moscow and killing at least six people, according to Russian authorities. The defence ministry in Moscow said it had shot down 1,478 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours – the highest ever total claimed – in an escalating air war in which seven Ukrainians were also killed as Russia bombed 13 locations inside the country.

A huge fire engulfed a 250,000 sq metre building near Podolsk, 25 miles south of Moscow's city centre, belonging to the Wildberries distribution company. The facility was disabled as a result, Ukraine's military said.

Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, said 600 drones targeted the Moscow region overnight, of which 201 were destroyed. One person was reported killed in the region, while Ukraine said a second warehouse at nearby Domodedovo was also targeted.

The Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that the figure was the largest daily total claimed by the defence ministry, exceeding a record that had been set only the day before, though the figure is probably exaggerated and could not be verified.

Experts said Russian numbers needed to be treated with caution but added that the scale of damage caused overnight nevertheless demonstrated how rapidly Ukraine had expanded its long-range attack capabilities in 2026.

Serhii Kuzan, the chair of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, a thinktank, said Russian authorities "deliberately inflate their figures" to make exaggerated claims about the effectiveness of their air defence.

But he said that "against the backdrop of increased production of Ukrainian long-range drones and missiles, both the number of strikes and the scale of Ukrainian weaponry's deployment are on the rise" as the war continues.

Kuzan argued that it was "quite possible" it was the largest-scale attack on the Moscow region, and it was "at least on a par" with the May strikes on an oil refinery in the Kapotnya area near Moscow.

Ukraine Hits Missile Fuel Production Facility in Rostov Region

In the attack, Ukraine hit a missile fuel production facility in Russia's Rostov region, the Ukrainian military said on Sunday. It said the company "manufactures solid rocket propellant for multiple launch rocket systems, as well as for a range of missile systems and airborne weapons".

Five people were reported to have been killed in Russia's southern Rostov region, which borders Ukraine, and the local governor said a further 150 incoming drones had been destroyed. Ukraine said it had targeted a factory that produced rocket fuel in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, causing a fire there.

Ukraine's military said on Sunday it had disabled seven out of 10 of the company's largest warehouses in an effort to hurt the Russian economy and affect ordinary citizens financially, in a strike conducted with FP-1 drones.

Russian Attacks Kill Seven in Ukraine as Book Market Destroyed in Kyiv

Russian drone and missile attacks killed two people in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, while a Spanish F-18 jet shot down what appeared to be a Russia drone that had crossed over the border into Romania.

Russian attacks on Ukraine also killed two in the Sumy border region and three others across the country. A ballistic missile attack on Kyiv shortly before 3am injured six and caused several fires in the capital.

A blaze caused by the attacks destroyed a large part of the Petrovka book market in the Obolonskyi district in Kyiv overnight, with some booksellers reporting they had lost their entire stock in the incident.

"There is nothing. Nobody has anything left," said Natalya, a bookstore owner who was interviewed by Ukraine's Hromadske website. "Everything burned down. I was selling foreign language [textbooks] for schoolchildren. We were waiting for September so that everyone would have textbooks … But what happened happened."

In a social media post on the overnight raid, Zelenskyy said that "wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure". Over the past week, Zelenskyy said, Ukrainian cities had been pummelled by "more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs, and 62 missiles", as he renewed his appeal to allies for more air defence.

At the same time, both sides' air defences are stretched to the point of near exhaustion, leading to a rise in civilian casualties and worries that the impact of the conflict beyond the immediate frontlines will only increase into the winter.

Though Ukraine is effective at stopping slower-moving drones, it has little to no defence against high-speed ballistics, its stock of US-made Patriot interceptor missiles – the only weapons capable of knocking them out – having been run down.

Spanish Fighter Jet Shoots Down Drone That Breached Romanian Airspace

A Spanish fighter jet on Sunday shot down a drone that had breached Romanian airspace near the border with Ukraine and Moldova, Nato said. The interception of the drone – which entered from Moldova – was carried out by an F-18, deployed on Nato duties, the Romanian defence ministry said. Debris fell in an unpopulated area of the Galati region, near the Ukrainian border. A growing number of drones have crossed into Nato states in eastern Europe as Russia pursues its invasion of Ukraine.

The Spanish fighter was part of a Nato patrol mission and shot down the drone at about 5am after it crossed into Romanian airspace. "The drone appears to be Russian," a Nato military spokesperson said.

EU Eyes One-Third Increase in Russian Sanctions as War Escalates

The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has said she wants to increase by one-third the number of Russian entities sanctioned over the Ukraine war, German newspaper Die Welt reported on Monday. The bloc has adopted 21 rounds of sanctions against Russia since 2022. "For autumn I am putting forward the most far-reaching sanctions listings since the start of the war," Kallas told the paper. "Once adopted, they would immediately raise the total number of sanctioned Russian entities by a third." In July, the EU adopted a watered down sanctions package only approved after protracted negotiations among member states, after some objected to tougher measures.

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