A massive retail logistics centre on the outskirts of Moscow remained in flames on Sunday morning following an overnight strike by waves of Ukrainian drones, sending thick dark smoke into the sky.

Hundreds of miles from the scene, Ukrainian drone operators had barely paused after their night operations before preparing for another attack.

In a sunflower field in southern Ukraine, a small unit of troops gathered around 20 small, plane-like drones packed with explosives, swiftly launching them towards targets in Russia.

The operation by Ukraine’s 413th “Raid” Unmanned Systems Regiment was witnessed by journalists, offering a rare look into a rapidly expanding element of Kyiv’s military capabilities.

The deployment of long-range drones represents Ukraine’s latest tactic to project the conflict deep into Russian territory, hitting industrial, logistical and military infrastructure far beyond the front lines.

Kyiv has intensified its strikes inside Russia this year using missile barrages and drone swarms against energy facilities and military manufacturers.

Attacks have also repeatedly hit vast Wildberries warehouses, destroying billions of dollars of goods belonging to the Russian e-commerce giant.

The campaign has brought the war directly to the Russian public nearly four-and-a-half years after Moscow began its full-scale invasion.

The breadth of the strikes has forced Russian commanders to stretch air defences over broader areas, causing airport delays, fuel shortages and damaging morale.

The Ukrainian regiment’s commander, Yevhen Karas, said his unit had also taken part hours earlier in the strike on the Wildberries warehouse, about 45 kilometres (28 miles) south of Moscow, during one of Ukraine’s largest attacks on Russia to date.

Ukraine will need to punish the Kremlin “if we want to get a stable and long period of peace, and normal peace”, Mr Karas said.

“The bigger casualties they have”, the sooner they will go for peace, he added.

Kyiv officials aim to make the Russian public feel the war’s consequences and pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into negotiating a peace settlement. Putin has so far shown no sign he intends to end the war.

Mr Karas, however, believes the impact of Ukraine’s long-range strike campaign on Russia’s economy is bringing home the cost of the war to ordinary Russians and hopes this will drive Moscow back to the negotiating table after months of US-brokered talks between the two sides stalled.

On Sunday morning, before the drones took to the skies, Mr Karas took out a black marker and wrote a message on the fuselage: “Moscow burns under the sky, red flame rises so warm and high, dark smoke moves above the town, fire lights the night all around.”

Like the majority of Ukraine’s serving military, Mr Karas had a very different life before Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 24, 2022.

But on that day, the 38-year-old who majored in philosophy in his university studies and his brother, Volodymyr, both volunteered for the front. His brother was killed while defending the Kyiv region. In the months that followed, Mr Karas rose through the ranks to become an officer in Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces.

In 2024, he was appointed commander of the newly-formed 413th Raid Unmanned Systems Regiment, which began as a unit using drones for reconnaissance and other battlefield tasks.

As drone technology developed and flight range increased from hundreds to over a thousand miles, his unit was tasked with mounting long-range operations using Ukraine’s domestically produced FP-1 drones against targets deep inside Russia.

Others in the unit include a former opera singer, a computer programmer, a rapper and a cellist. Their routine now focuses on a very simple sequence of tasks: prepare the drone, check the systems, move it into position and launch.

Wait for the result, then repeat.

The unit’s medallion — something militaries across the world refer to as a “challenge coin” — carries the troops’ insignia on one side, a stylised, three-prong arrow. On the other is a relief depiction of a Kremlin in flames, with a drone flying over it.

Mr Karas said that in this phase of the war, Moscow should fear the skies.

“Muscovites should spend their nights in their wonderful metro, just as residents of Kyiv have spent years going underground to escape Russian missile and drone attacks,” he said.

Back in the sunflower field, once the drones were airborne, the soldiers packed up their equipment and drove away, leaving hardly any traces of their activity.

They were on to the next launch site.