President Vladimir Putin has said that Ukraine's biggest drone strike on Moscow was an attempt to scare and provoke Russia, and air defences around the capital would be strengthened.
Russia said eight drones targeted civilian areas of the city and the surrounding region - with a population of over 21 million - early today but were either shot down or diverted with special electronic jammers.
President Putin described the assault, which brought the 15-month war in Ukraine to the heart of Russia, as a terrorist response that came after Russia struck at Ukraine's military intelligence headquarters several days ago.
Ukraine, he said, had chosen the path of attempting "to intimidate Russia, Russian citizens and attacks on residential buildings".
"This is clearly a sign of terrorist activity," President Putin added.
The attacks on Moscow came as Russia launched another wave of strikes on the Ukrainian capital killing one person.
Defence forces in Kyiv said they shot down more than 20 drones today and that, unlike most previous raids, the attack involved only Iranian-made Shahed drones and no missiles.
"A massive attack!" Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. "Do not leave shelters."
A Ukrainian presidential aide denied Kyiv was directly involved in the Moscow attack, but said Ukraine was enjoying watching events and forecast more to come.
"Of course we are pleased to watch and predict an increase in the number of attacks. But of course we have nothing directly to do with this," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said.
There is little sign of peace in one of the deadliest wars in Europe since World War Two, and Moscow has repeatedly warned that the West is escalating the war by supplying Kyiv with so much weaponry.
Russia has repeatedly attacked Kyiv this month, using a combination of drones and missiles, mostly at night, in an apparent attempt to undermine Ukrainians' will to fight.
"These missile attacks of a fairly dense frequency are aimed specifically at exhausting both our air defence forces and our physical and moral strength," said Natalya Gumenyuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine's southern military command.
Ukrainian officials said most of the drones and missiles fired on Sunday and yesterday had been shot down and President Volodymyr Zelensky praised US-supplied Patriot anti-missile defences.
"When Patriots in the hands of Ukrainians ensure a 100% interception rate of any Russian missile, terror will be defeated," he said in his nightly video address yesterday.
The air attacks come as Ukraine prepares a counteroffensive backed with Western weapons to try to drive Russian occupiers out of territory seized since Moscow launched what it calls its "special military operation" in February 2022.
"With these constant attacks, the enemy seeks to keep the civilian population in deep psychological tension," said Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv's military administration.
On the eastern frontlines, Russian paratroops and motorised units are replacing Wagner mercenary units in the city of Bakhmut, according to Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for the eastern group of Ukrainian Forces.
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Drone attacks deep inside Russia have intensified in recent weeks with strikes on oil pipelines and even the Kremlin earlier this month.
Ukraine denied the Kremlin attack but The New York Times reported that US intelligence believes Kyiv was responsible.
Drone debris hit some of Moscow's most prestigious areas including Leninsky Prospekt, a grand avenue crafted under former Soviet Union leader Josef Stalin, and the area of western Moscow where the Russian elite - including President Putin - have their residences.
Residents in south-western Moscow said they heard loud bangs in the early hours of the morning, followed by the smell of petrol.
Some filmed a drone being shot down and a plume of smoke rising over the Moscow skyline.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two people were injured, one of whom was hospitalised.
So far President Putin has kept the war in Ukraine far from Moscow, where life has continued relatively normally despite the biggest rupture in Russia's ties with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Russia began attacking the Ukrainian capital with waves of cheaply produced loitering munitions often known as "kamikaze drones" last October and uses them extensively during its regular air strikes across Ukraine.
Mr Putin has repeatedly cast the conflict in Ukraine as a struggle with what he says is an arrogant and aggressive West which is risking a global war by supporting Ukraine.
Thus far, the war has been described by the Kremlin as a "special military operation".
The United States has repeatedly said it does not want a war with Russia and that Ukraine should not use Western weapons to attack inside Russia.
Russian lawmakers cautioned that there were likely to be more attacks on Moscow, which many said would make it necessary to give the military and security agencies even greater powers.
"The sabotage and terrorist attacks of Ukraine will only increase," said Alexander Khinshtein, from the ruling United Russia bloc.
"It is necessary to radically strengthen defence and security measures, especially in terms of countering drones. This includes finally passing the necessary laws."
