Moscow Drone Attack: 630 Drones, a Sanctioned Arsenal in Serpukhov, and 21 Ballistic Missiles on Kyiv

In brief: hours after Steve Witkoff left Putin's palace outside St. Petersburg, Russian officials reported 630 drones flying at the Moscow region, and reports placed a blast inside a sanctioned army arsenal in Serpukhov. Russia answered with 21 ballistic missiles on Kyiv in three waves, splitting the city's metro in two, as attacks across Ukraine killed at least nine people in a day.

Part of our Drone Warfare coverage.

The Moscow drone attack started at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 21, while the ink on the Kremlin's readout of the Witkoff meeting was still drying. By 4 a.m. Thursday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 630 drones had flown toward the capital region. Kyiv's night started around 10 p.m. and ended with 21 ballistic missiles, by Zelensky's count, and Ukraine's foreign minister calling it what it was.

This is the night the peace track and the strike war ran on the same clock. Here is what each side hit, what it tells us, and why the talks Putin agreed to "in principle" changed nothing on the target lists.

The Moscow drone attack by the numbers

Every figure on the Russian side comes from Russian officials, so treat them as claims. Sobyanin said 630 drones headed for the Moscow region between 8:30 p.m. and 4 a.m., that most were destroyed at "distant frontiers," and that 163 were brought down on approach to the city. Two people were wounded in Voronovo, in New Moscow. Russia's Defense Ministry put the national total at 808 drones over Russia and occupied Crimea.

The wave was wide. Tula's governor reported 70 drones downed, Voronezh's governor 44, and Lipetsk's governor said a drone strike damaged homes, apartment blocks and a closed clinic and sent a man born in 2001 to hospital. Power lines were reported down in Voronezh and Kaluga regions, per The Moscow Times.

Compare like with like. On Moscow's election weekend in September, the Defense Ministry claimed 629 drones nationwide, and Sobyanin's own count for the capital region was more than 350. Thursday, his count alone was 630. Moscow is now a routine destination, not a stunt.

75 Arsenal in Serpukhov: why a repair yard matters

The target that matters is about 99 kilometers south of Moscow. The exiled Russian outlet Astra reported an explosion at JSC 75 Arsenal in Serpukhov overnight, and an Astra OSINT analyst placed the blast inside the site from eyewitness video. Residents said drones passed first and at least three missiles followed. Astra did not confirm the missile count, no Russian official confirmed the blast by Thursday morning, and Kyiv has not commented.

Ukrinform, citing Astra, describes the plant as subordinate to the Defense Ministry's Main Missile and Artillery Directorate, making weapons and ammunition and repairing artillery and air defense systems. Militarnyi, cited by Euromaidan Press, says its specialty is Buk and S-300V repair. Both Ukraine and the U.S. Treasury have it on their sanctions lists, per Euromaidan Press.

That is the logic. A launcher is one target. The yard that puts damaged launchers back in service is a multiplier. Ukraine's Defense Ministry said its units hit more Russian air defense systems and radars in September than in any month since 2024, and analyst Oleksandr Kovalenko counted 76 destroyed that month. If the Serpukhov hit is confirmed, it goes after the repair loop that backfills those losses. Until satellite imagery lands, it stays a reported strike.

21 ballistic missiles on Kyiv in three waves

"Russian 'humanists' have launched three waves of ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv, using a total of 21 missiles," Zelensky wrote Thursday, per Kyiv Post, mocking Witkoff's praise of Putin as a "humanitarian." He called it a "demonstrative strike" that came "almost immediately" after the talks. The waves came around 10 p.m., 2 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., per Euromaidan Press.

Ukraine's Air Force listed Iskander-M, S-400, Zircon and Oniks missiles plus 210 drones, 110 of them jet-powered. By 9 a.m., 181 drones were down, including 87 jets. Its report mentioned no ballistic missiles shot down. Weapons hit 32 locations. That is the same shape as the 16-missile, three-wave raid on Kyiv three days earlier, and the same gap our Patriot shortage brief described.

Aftermath of the overnight strike on Kyiv, October 22. Photo: DSNS via ArmyInform, CC BY 4.0

In Kyiv, one man was killed and at least 24 people were injured, including four children, according to Ukrainian officials. Thirteen houses were destroyed in Dniprovskyi district. In Pecherskyi, an ambulance station and six ambulances were damaged, though Mayor Vitali Klitschko said no medics were hurt. Metro infrastructure on the Southern Bridge was damaged, and by morning the green line ran in two separate pieces. That bridge was already the most-hit crossing in our Kyiv bridge strikes file.

Zelensky added a claim that changes the read: three of the missiles carried cluster warheads that burst in the air and cover up to 400 meters, and one landed in the historic Pechersk district between the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the Sviato-Vvedenskyi Monastery, with no military target nearby, per ArmyInform. That is his account and has not been independently verified.

Damage in Kyiv after the October 22 strike. Photo: DSNS via ArmyInform, CC BY 4.0

Talks in principle, missiles in practice

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Putin told Witkoff Russia was "in principle" ready to resume three-way talks with the U.S. and Ukraine in mid-November, per Euromaidan Press. The same Kremlin said Ukrainian and European proposals lacked "substance," per Al Jazeera. Russia freed American teacher Stephen Hubbard. Trump, speaking while Kyiv was under red alert, called a deal "maybe now the closest we've been," per the Kyiv Independent. Our Witkoff Putin meeting brief covered what Russia said it would not cross.

Kyiv's answer was blunter. "Appeasement, servility, and flattery will not stop this war," Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X, per Al Jazeera. "Only strength will." Zelensky asked partners for faster air defense, the means to destroy ballistic launchers, and sanctions.

Across Ukraine, local authorities reported at least nine killed and 57 injured over the past day, per the Kyiv Independent. On Thursday, a missile hit a market in Lozova, Kharkiv region, killing two and injuring 34, per the State Emergency Service. Zelensky says important energy facilities have taken more than 170 hits since October 11.

Rescuers at the market strike in Lozova, Kharkiv region, October 22. Photo: ArmyInform, CC BY 4.0

Why it matters

Both capitals are now inside each other's nightly strike rhythm, and neither side used the Witkoff visit as a reason to pause. Russia is spending ballistic missiles on Kyiv faster than Ukraine can intercept them. Ukraine, if the Serpukhov report holds, is reaching past Moscow's air defense rings to the industry that maintains them. A mid-November table, if it happens, inherits whatever each side has broken by then.

What to watch

Satellite imagery of 75 Arsenal, and whether Kyiv ever claims it. Whether the cluster warhead claim is backed by fragments. Whether the mid-November date gets a venue. And the Southern Bridge metro repair, because a split green line is a daily cost for the city.

Real-time updates, footage and the next strike map land first on the channel: t.me/TheLeaflet.

Read next: St. Petersburg drone attack and Ukraine Patriot missile shortage.

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Your call: should Ukraine keep hitting the plants that repair Russia's air defenses while talks are pending, or does that hand Moscow an excuse? Drop it in the comments or tell the channel what to cover next.

Sources

Kyiv Independent (Oct 21 and Oct 22, 2026); Kyiv Post (Oct 22, 2026); The Moscow Times (Oct 22, 2026); Euromaidan Press (Oct 22, 2026); Meduza (Oct 22, 2026); Ukrinform (Oct 22, 2026); Al Jazeera with AFP (Oct 22, 2026); ArmyInform, citing Ukraine's Air Force, the State Emergency Service and the President's statement (Oct 22, 2026). Photos: DSNS via ArmyInform and ArmyInform, CC BY 4.0.