Ukraine launches over 500 drones at Russia, killing at least four people

Sunday, May 17, 2026 - A massive overnight drone assault launched by Ukraine targeted multiple regions across Russia, killing at least four people in what Russian authorities described as one of the largest aerial barrages of the war so far.

Russia’s defence ministry said air defence systems intercepted 556 Ukrainian drones overnight, with an additional 30 drones reportedly shot down after dawn.

According to the ministry, interceptions took place across 14 Russian regions, as well as over the annexed Crimean Peninsula and the Black and Azov seas. Volodymyr Zelensky defended the operation, calling it “entirely justified” retaliation for continued Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities.

“Our responses to Russia’s prolongation of the war and its attacks on our cities and communities are entirely justified,” Zelensky said. “This time, Ukrainian long-range sanctions reached the Moscow region, and we are clearly telling the Russians: their state must end its war.”

Ukraine’s defence ministry described the assault as the largest attack on the Moscow region since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. In the Moscow region, Governor Andrey Vorobyov said a woman was killed after a drone struck a private home, while two men also died in the attack.

He added that four people were wounded and infrastructure facilities had been targeted. Authorities in Moscow said air defence systems intercepted more than 80 drones around the capital overnight, with 12 people reportedly injured.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said one strike wounded construction workers near an oil and gas refinery. “Refinery production has not been disrupted. Three residential buildings were damaged,” Sobyanin stated. Although the Moscow region has faced periodic drone attacks throughout the conflict, direct strikes near the Russian capital, located roughly 400 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, remain relatively rare.

In Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, local officials said a man was killed after a drone struck a lorry in the Shebekino district. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force claimed it intercepted 279 Russian drones out of 287 launched overnight by Moscow.

Diplomatic efforts to end the war have largely stalled, with Kyiv rejecting Russian territorial demands in the eastern Donbas region, arguing they would amount to surrender. The United States has continued pushing both sides toward negotiations, though momentum has slowed amid shifting global attention to the conflict involving Israel and Iran.

Following the expiration of a US-brokered three-day truce earlier this week, both Russia and Ukraine resumed heavy attacks, each accusing the other of violating the ceasefire. Ukraine said its latest strikes targeted strategic infrastructure facilities inside Russia.

According to Ukraine’s defence ministry, the attack hit the Moscow Oil Refinery, the Solnechnogorsk oil depot and several microelectronics manufacturing facilities for the first time. “The war is returning to where it came from,” the ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine has increasingly used long-range drone strikes against Russian oil and industrial facilities in an effort to weaken revenues supporting Moscow’s military operations.