Moscow was plunged into darkness in the middle of the night.

A massive power outage hit wide areas of the Moscow region on Tuesday following a drone attack attributed to Ukraine, leaving an estimated one hundred thousand to six hundred thousand residents without electricity for more than four hours.

Images circulating on social media showed entire neighborhoods shrouded in darkness, residential buildings unlit and streetlights disabled, with the only illumination coming from vehicle headlights.

Russian authorities said air defense forces intercepted twenty-seven aerial devices over a three-hour period beginning at eight o’clock local time, three of them over the capital region.

Regional governor Andrey Vorobyov reported that twenty-one unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down during the day and that one civilian was injured.

The attack is also believed to have forced the temporary suspension of operations at Moscow’s airports, amplifying the disruption to the city’s systems.

The precise cause of the power outage remains unclear.

Some reports pointed to a fire at an electrical substation, without specifying whether it was directly caused by drone activity.

In the absence of official confirmation, estimates of the number of people affected continue to vary.

An account on X specializing in open-source intelligence shared nighttime footage of the blackout, accompanied by a post documenting the scale of the incident.

Meanwhile, Yuliya Mendel, a former spokesperson for Volodymyr Zelensky, said, “No electricity, no mobile signal, complete isolation”.

The strike on the metropolis carries both symbolic and strategic weight.

The city, stretching along the winding Moscow River, is home to more than thirteen million people and serves as the country’s political, economic, and military center.

Such a widespread disruption of essential services underscores the vulnerability of infrastructure even far from the front lines.

Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February two thousand twenty-two, attacks using remotely operated aerial units have increasingly extended beyond the battlefield, striking bases, warehouses, and, with growing frequency, urban areas.

The incident comes amid rising diplomatic tension.

Just a day earlier, Moscow accused Kyiv of attempting an attack on the home of President Vladimir Putin, without presenting evidence.

Ukraine rejected the allegation as an effort to undermine peace talks.

President Zelensky reiterated his willingness to meet directly with the Kremlin leader and confirmed contacts with Washington regarding possible security guarantees, including the prospect of an American military presence.

As diplomacy hangs in the balance, the attack and the ensuing blackout mark a new escalation in the conflict.

A war that began nearly four years ago continues to redraw its boundaries, bringing instability to the very nerve center of the state.