This picture launched by Moscow Area Governor Andrei Vorobyev’s official telegram channel exhibits the injury after a Ukrainian drone assault, simply outdoors Moscow, Russia, on Sunday, Could 17, 2026.
Andrei Vorobyev/Moscow Area Governor Andrei Vo/AP
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Andrei Vorobyev/Moscow Area Governor Andrei Vo/AP
KYIV, Ukraine — Certainly one of Ukraine’s largest drone strikes on Russia killed no less than 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 “completely justified.” Russia has repeatedly launched comparable assaults on Ukraine’s capital and different cities in the course of the struggle, and an knowledgeable 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 dwelling 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 a number of 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, no less than 12 folks have been wounded within the nighttime strike, largely close to the doorway to town’s oil refinery, mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported. Sobyanin reported that the “expertise” 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 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 methods concentrated in and across the capital.
“Our responses to Russia’s prolongation of the struggle and assaults on our cities and communities are completely justified. This time, Ukrainian long-distance sanctions have reached the Moscow area, and we’re clearly telling the Russians: their state should finish its struggle,” Zelenskyy mentioned.
This picture launched by Moscow Area Governor Andrei Vorobyev’s official telegram channel exhibits a home on fireplace after a Ukrainian assault in Khimki, simply outdoors Moscow, Russia, on Sunday, Could 17, 2026.
Andrei Vorobyev/Moscow Area Governor Andrei Vo/AP
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Andrei Vorobyev/Moscow Area Governor Andrei Vo/AP
Revenge for Russian assaults, knowledgeable 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 assaults 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 Battle II.
“It brings dwelling the actual fact Ukraine has the capability to strike at very important scale at or across the Russian capital,” taking the struggle dwelling to Russians in a manner that will be “most unwelcome” to the Kremlin, Gould Davies advised The Related Press.
“There isn’t a ongoing peace course of to disrupt. What (the assault) is extra more likely to do is add to the darkening cloud of tension over Russia which has developed palpably over the past three or 4 months,” he mentioned.
He cited a mix of things, together with Russia’s latest battlefield setbacks, a deteriorating financial state of affairs at dwelling, and the Kremlin’s intensifying crackdown on the web, together with in Moscow and Russia’s second-largest metropolis, St. Petersburg.
“The truth that Ukraine is reminding the Moscow inhabitants that it’s weak to those assaults is more likely to intensify the combination of issues now,” Gould Davies mentioned. “I see no prospect although, within the shorter time period, that even these elements collectively will induce Russia to think about the compromises that will probably be obligatory for peace negotiations.”
Ukrainian drones are additionally flying deep into Russia to strike oil services, sending up plumes of smoke that may be seen from house 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 impression is up to now unclear — because the rise in oil costs from the Iran struggle, and a associated easing of U.S. sanctions, have helped replenish the Kremlin’s coffers — the vary of the strikes and their environmental impression is bringing the struggle dwelling to atypical 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 places, the service mentioned.
