Three days after deadly strikes on the Ukrainian capital to which kyiv had promised to retaliate, the Russian Defense Ministry indicated that its anti-aircraft defense had shot down 556 Ukrainian drones.
Russia indicated this Sunday, May 17, that it had been targeted by one of the most massive Ukrainian attacks in more than four years of conflict, mobilizing more than 500 drones and leaving at least four dead on the outskirts of Moscow. A previous report showed three deaths.
Three days after deadly strikes on the Ukrainian capital to which kyiv had promised to retaliate, the Russian Defense Ministry indicated that its anti-aircraft defense had shot down 556 Ukrainian drones between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. local time, i.e. between 9 p.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. this Sunday, Paris time.
These interceptions, at a level much higher than the few dozen most often observed, took place over 14 Russian regions as well as annexed Crimea and the Black and Azov seas, said the same source on Russian messaging Max. Moscow and its region were particularly affected.
Plus de 80 drones interceptés à Moscou même
The governor of the region surrounding the capital, Andreï Vorobiov, reported a woman dead in the town of Khimki, northwest of Moscow, and two men killed in a village in the commune of Mytishchi (north-east).
In the rest of the region, several homes were damaged and “infrastructure” was attacked, leaving four injured, he said.
In Moscow itself, more than 80 drones were intercepted and a strike left 12 injured, “especially workers” on a construction site near a refinery, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
“The refinery’s production was not disrupted. Three residential buildings were damaged,” he said.
A short three-day truce
Ukraine, in response to daily bombings by the Russian army for more than four years, regularly strikes targets in Russia. It claims to target military but also energy sites in order to reduce the possibility for Moscow to finance its military operations.
If the capital region is regularly the subject of drone attacks, Moscow itself, located more than 400 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, is more rarely targeted. Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have stalled.
A three-day truce allowed a break in the massive bombings away from the front on the occasion of commemorations in Russia of the end of the Second World War.
But the attacks resumed as soon as the ceasefire negotiated under the aegis of American President Donald Trump expired on the night of Monday to Tuesday.
24 dead in Ukraine during the night from Wednesday to Thursday
At least 24 people, including three minors aged 12, 15 and 17, were killed in long-range drone and missile attacks on kyiv during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, according to a Ukrainian report on Friday. Around fifty others were injured.
“We are fully justified in responding by targeting the Russian oil industry, its military production and those who are directly responsible for war crimes committed against Ukraine and Ukrainians,” President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Friday.
The negotiations, under American mediation, have been on hold since the start of the war in the Middle East, triggered at the end of February by Israeli-American bombings on Iran.
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