Ukraine conducts large-scale drone strikes on Russia, killing 4 and wounding 12 others

KYIV, Ukraine — One among Ukraine’s largest drone strikes on Russia killed at the very least 4 folks, together with three close to Moscow, and wounded a dozen others, native authorities mentioned Sunday. Particles fell on Russia’s largest airport with out inflicting injury.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the drone strikes, saying that they have been “entirely justified.” Russia has repeatedly launched related assaults on Ukraine’s capital and different cities in the course of the warfare, and an professional mentioned that the strikes gave the impression to be retaliation for latest Russian assaults on Kyiv.

Russian drone strikes on Ukraine in a single day wounded eight folks, Ukrainian authorities mentioned.

In Ukraine’s strikes on Russia, a lady was killed after a drone hit her house in Khimki, a Russian metropolis simply northwest of Moscow, and two males died within the village of Pogorelki, which is 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the capital, in accordance with native Gov. Andrei Vorobyev.

Ukrainian drones had additionally broken unspecified “infrastructure” and several other high-rise buildings, Vorobyev mentioned on social media.

One man was additionally killed after a drone struck a truck within the Belgorod area, which borders Ukraine, in accordance with native authorities.

In Moscow itself, at the very least 12 folks have been wounded within the nighttime strike, largely close to the doorway to the town’s oil refinery, mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported. Sobyanin reported that the “technology” of the refinery hadn’t been broken.

Russia’s largest airport — Moscow’s Sheremetyevo — mentioned that drone particles had fallen on its grounds with out inflicting injury or affecting flights.

Russian defenses shot down 81 drones headed for Moscow in a single day, state company Tass reported, citing Sobyanin, marking one of many largest assaults on the town since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Russian air defenses destroyed 556 drones over Russia in a single day, the nation’s protection ministry mentioned Sunday morning. Shortly after noon native time, it reported that greater than 1,000 drones had been shot down or jammed within the earlier 24 hours.

Zelenskyy mentioned that the drones had flown greater than 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Ukrainian territory, and that Ukraine was “overcoming” Russian air protection techniques concentrated in and across the capital.

“Our responses to Russia’s prolongation of the war and attacks on our cities and communities are entirely justified. This time, Ukrainian long-distance sanctions have reached the Moscow region, and we are clearly telling the Russians: their state must end its war,” Zelenskyy mentioned.

This photograph launched by Moscow Area Governor Andrei Vorobyev’s official telegram channel reveals a home on fireplace after a Ukrainian assault in Khimki, simply exterior Moscow, Russia, on Sunday, Could 17, 2026.

Andrei Vorobyev/Moscow Area Governor Andrei Vo/AP

conceal caption

toggle caption

Andrei Vorobyev/Moscow Area Governor Andrei Vo/AP

Revenge for Russian assaults, professional says

Nigel Gould Davies, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia on the Worldwide Institute for Strategic Research, a London-based assume tank, mentioned that Ukraine’s large-scale assault gave the impression to be “the retaliation or revenge that President Zelenskyy promised after the fierce attacks that Russia carried out on Kyiv.”

These strikes got here instantly after the top of a short ceasefire that allowed Russia to carry its annual Victory Day parade on Could 9 commemorating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany throughout World Struggle II.

“It brings home the fact Ukraine has the capacity to strike at very significant scale at or around the Russian capital,” taking the warfare house to Russians in a approach that may be “most unwelcome” to the Kremlin, Gould Davies instructed The Related Press.

“There is no ongoing peace process to disrupt. What (the attack) is more likely to do is add to the darkening cloud of anxiety over Russia which has developed palpably over the last three or four months,” he mentioned.

He cited a mixture of things, together with Russia’s latest battlefield setbacks, a deteriorating financial state of affairs at house, and the Kremlin’s intensifying crackdown on the web, together with in Moscow and Russia’s second-largest metropolis, St. Petersburg.

“The fact that Ukraine is reminding the Moscow population that it is vulnerable to these attacks is likely to intensify the mix of concerns now,” Gould Davies mentioned. “I see no prospect though, in the shorter term, that even these factors together will induce Russia to consider the compromises that will be necessary for peace negotiations.”

Ukrainian drones are additionally flying deep into Russia to strike oil amenities, sending up plumes of smoke that may be seen from area and bringing poisonous rain to vacationer locations on the Black Sea. The assaults are aimed toward slashing Moscow’s oil exports, a key supply of funding for Russia’s grinding invasion of Ukraine.

Whereas their the financial affect is to date unclear — because the rise in oil costs from the Iran warfare, and a associated easing of U.S. sanctions, have helped replenish the Kremlin’s coffers — the vary of the strikes and their environmental affect is bringing the warfare house to extraordinary Russians removed from the entrance traces.

8 wounded in Russian drone strikes on Ukraine

Russia attacked Ukraine with 287 drones in a single day into Sunday, 279 of which have been shot down or jammed, the Ukrainian air power reported.

The strikes wounded 8 folks in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk area: three within the regional capital of Dnipro, 4 in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih, and one within the district of Synelkove, Ukraine’s state emergency service mentioned.

Residential buildings have been broken in all three areas, the service mentioned.