Moscow, May 17 (SANA) Russia announced Sunday that it had come under the largest Ukrainian drone attack since the start of the war, with hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles targeting multiple regions and killing at least four people in the Moscow area. Kyiv described the strikes as a justified response to Russia’s continued attacks on its cities.
Russia‘s Defense Ministry, quoted by AFP, said its air defense systems shot down 556 Ukrainian drones in just six hours, with an additional 30 intercepted within a two-hour window. Russian authorities described the attack as one of the widest to strike their territory since the beginning of military operations in Ukraine, with drones intercepted over 14 regions as well as Crimea and the Sea of Azov.
Casualties and damage in the Moscow region
The Moscow suburbs were the hardest hit. The regional governor, Andrei Vorobyov, announced the death of a woman in the town of Khimki northwest of the capital, and two men in a village in the Mytishchi municipality to the northeast. Four others were wounded, and a number of homes and infrastructure facilities sustained damage from drone impacts or falling debris. Inside Moscow itself, authorities said more than 80 drones were intercepted, while one strike wounded 12 people — mostly workers — at a construction site near an oil refinery. Three residential buildings in the area were also damaged, though the refinery’s operations were unaffected. In the Belgorod border region, one man was killed when a drone struck a truck overnight.
Zelensky: “Completely justified”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a social media post that Ukraine’s responses to Russia’s prolongation of the war and its attacks on Ukrainian cities and communities are “completely justified,” adding that “this time Ukraine’s long-range strikes reached the Moscow region,” and calling on Russians to demand that their state end the war. He attached footage he said showed a burning oil refinery. Ukraine’s air force separately announced that its defenses had intercepted 279 of the 287 drones and decoy targets launched by Russian forces overnight.
Diplomatic deadlock
The escalation comes against a backdrop of stalled peace efforts. Indirect U.S.-mediated negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv have been frozen since the outbreak of the war in the Middle East in late February, with no signs of a political settlement on the horizon. The latest drone exchanges also follow the end of a three-day Trump-brokered ceasefire that had coincided with Russia’s Victory Day commemorations. On Friday, Ukraine announced that at least 24 people were killed and around 50 wounded in Russian drone and missile strikes on Kyiv. Also on Friday, both sides announced an exchange of 205 prisoners of war each.
KhA
