Ukraine drones kill four in Russia; biggest attack on Moscow in over a year

MOSCOW – At least four people were killed, including three in the Moscow region, after Ukraine launched its biggest overnight drone attack on the Russian capital in more than a year, local officials said on May 17.

The fourth person was killed in the Belgorod region bordering north-eastern Ukraine, the local authorities said, while Russia’s Defence Ministry said by midday that more than 1,000 Ukrainian drones had been downed over the country in the past 24 hours.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky had vowed retribution on May 15, following Russia’s heaviest drone and missile attack on Kyiv over a two-day period since the war started more than four years ago.

Confirming the Ukrainian attack, Mr Zelensky posted a video on X of a drone in flight, columns of black smoke and fire crews trying to extinguish the flames.

“Our responses to Russia’s prolongation of the war and its attacks on our cities and communities are entirely justified,” he said.

He added that Ukraine was able to strike targets more than 500km from the border despite dense Russian air defences around Moscow.

“We are clearly telling the Russians: Their state must end its war,” he said.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry accused Kyiv of targeting civilians.

“To the sound of Eurovision songs, the Kyiv regime, financed by the (European Union), carried out yet another mass terrorist attack,” TASS news agency cited the ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.

Both sides in the conflict deny deliberately targeting civilians.

Long-range attacks

Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on targets deep inside Russia in recent weeks, aiming to knock out oil refineries, depots and pipelines, as both sides seek to degrade each other’s infrastructure.

TASS cited Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin as saying that air defences had destroyed 81 drones headed for Moscow since midnight, making it the largest attack on the capital in more than a year.

Mr Sobyanin said 12 people were wounded, mostly near the entrance to Moscow’s oil refinery, while three houses were damaged. The “technology” of the refinery was not damaged, he added.

Moscow regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said a woman was killed when a home was hit in Khimki, north of the capital, adding that rescuers were searching the debris for another person. Two men were killed in the village of Pogorelki in the Mytishchi district.

Several residential high-rises and infrastructure facilities were damaged, he said.

The country’s largest airport – Moscow’s Sheremetyevo – said drone debris had fallen on its territory without causing any damage. REUTERS