Ukraine carried out massive drone strikes in Russia, killing 4 and injuring 12
One of Ukraine’s biggest strikes in Russia has killed at least four people, including three near Moscow, and injured a dozen, local authorities said Sunday. Debris fell on Russia’s largest airport without causing any damage.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, confirmed the drone strike, saying it was “completely justified.” Russia has repeatedly launched similar attacks on Ukraine’s capital and other cities during the war, and an expert said the strikes appear to be in retaliation for Russia’s latest attack on Kyiv.
Russian airstrikes in Ukraine overnight injured eight people, Ukrainian authorities said.
In Ukrainian strikes in Russia, a woman died after a plane crashed into her home in Khimki, a Russian city northwest of Moscow, and two men died in the village of Pogorelki, ten kilometers north of the capital, according to Gov. Andrei Vorobyev.
Ukrainian drones also destroyed unspecified “infrastructure” and several high-rise buildings, Vorobyev said on social media.
One man was also killed after a plane crashed into a truck in the Belgorod region, on the border with Ukraine, according to local authorities.
In Moscow itself, at least 12 people were injured in the overnight strike, most of them near the entrance to the city’s oil refinery, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported. Sobyanin reported that the “technology” of the refinery was not damaged.
Hours later, the Indian Embassy in Moscow reported that an Indian employee had died in a drone strike “in the Moscow region,” and three other Indians were hospitalized with injuries. It is not clear whether this worker is one of the three people reported dead by Moscow region officials, or another fatality.
Russia’s largest airport – Moscow’s Sheremetyevo – said the drone’s debris fell on its runway without causing damage or affecting flights.
The Russian military shot down 81 drones targeting Moscow overnight, state news agency Tass said, citing Sobyanin, marking the largest attack on the city since Russia launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Russian aircraft have destroyed 556 drones in Russia, the Crimean Peninsula and the Azov and Black Seas, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday morning. Shortly after noon local time, it was reported that more than 1,000 drones were shot down in the last 24 hours.
Zelenskyy said the drones were flying more than 500 kilometers from Ukrainian territory, and that Ukraine was “defeating” Russian air defense systems that were focused on the capital and its surroundings.
“Our responses to the escalation of the Russian war and attacks on our cities and communities are absolutely correct. At this time, the long-standing Ukrainian sanctions have reached the Moscow region, and we clearly tell the Russians: their position must end the war,” said Zelenskyy.
Revenge for the Russian attack, said the expert
Nigel Gould Davies, senior director for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank, said the major attack on Ukraine appears to be “revenge or retaliation that President Zelenskyy promised after Russia’s brutal attack on Kyiv.”
Those strikes came shortly after the end of a brief ceasefire that allowed Russia to hold its annual Victory Day parade on May 9 commemorating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during World War II.
Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of repeatedly violating the ceasefire.
“It brings home the fact that Ukraine has the ability to strike on a very significant scale in or near the Russian capital,” taking the war home to the Russian people in a way that is “very unacceptable” to the Kremlin, Gould Davies told the Associated Press.
“There is no ongoing peace process that can interfere [the attack] “What is likely to be done is to add to the dark cloud of concern about Russia, which has grown appreciably over the last three or four months,” he said.
He cited a combination of factors, including Russia’s recent military setbacks, a deteriorating economic climate at home, and the Kremlin’s cyber-tightening, including in Moscow and Russia’s second-largest city, St.
The US deal between Russia and Ukraine is expected to expire on Monday. Both sides accuse each other of breaking the law. Journalist Emmanuelle Chaze reports from Kharkiv, where she says the sound of air raid sirens is constant.
“The fact that Ukraine is reminding people in Moscow that they are vulnerable to this attack is likely to strengthen the mix of concerns now,” said Gould Davies.
“I don’t see hope, however, in the short term, that even these things combined will entice Russia to consider the compromises that will be necessary for peace talks.”
Ukrainian jets are also flying high into Russia to hit oil facilities, sending plumes of smoke into the atmosphere and bringing toxic rain to Black Sea resorts. The attack is aimed at cutting off oil exports to Moscow, a key source of funding for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Although their economic impact is not yet clear – as rising oil prices in the Iran war, along with the easing of US sanctions, have helped fill the Kremlin’s coffers – the range of strikes and their environmental impact are bringing the war home to ordinary Russians far from the front lines.
8 were injured in Russian airstrikes against Ukraine
Russia attacked Ukraine with 287 aircraft on Sunday night, 279 of which were shot down or downed, the Ukrainian military reported.
The strikes injured eight people in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk: three in the regional capital Dnipro, four in the city of Zelenskyy Kryvyi Rih, and one in the Synelkove region, Ukraine’s emergency services said.
Residential buildings were damaged in all three areas, the ministry said.
