War in Ukraine: Russia claims to have shot down more than 500 Ukrainian drones overnight from Saturday to Sunday

Russia announced on Sunday May 17 that it had been targeted by one of the most massive Ukrainian attacks in four years of offensive against its neighbor, saying it had shot down nearly 600 drones during the night. Between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. (between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. in Paris), “Anti-aircraft defense units intercepted and destroyed 556 Ukrainian drones” over 14 Russian regions, then 30 others between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., declared the Ministry of Defense on Russian messaging Max. In total, 14 regions were affected by this attack, including annexed Crimea and the Black and Azov Seas.

Authorities reported at least three deaths in Moscow and its region, and one death in the Belgorod region. Russian anti-aircraft defenses shot down at least 74 drones overnight and more than 120 in the last 24 hours, according to the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergei Sobyanin. In the Moscow region, which does not include the city’s territory, Russia faced “a large-scale drone attack for 3 hours” (2 hours in Paris), declared Governor Andrei Vorobiov on Telegram.

He announced the death of a woman in the town of Khimki, northwest of Moscow, and two men killed in a village in the commune of Mytichchi. In the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, a man was also killed overnight in the Chebekino district, during a Ukrainian drone attack against a truck, according to regional authorities.

For its part, the Ukrainian Air Force claimed on Sunday to have intercepted 279 Russian attack drones and decoys out of a total of 287 launched during the night. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky considered that Ukraine had the right to strike oil and military sites in Russia, in response to the deadly attack which left at least 24 dead in kyiv on Friday. All died buried under the rubble of a building in the Darnitsa district, razed by a cruise missile. “Our responses to Russia’s prolongation of the war and its attacks on our cities and communities are entirely justified”Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated Sunday on X.