Ukraine hits Moscow with major drone barrage, killing three

MOSCOW - At least three people were killed in the Moscow region when Ukraine attacked Russia with hundreds of drones overnight, local authorities said on Sunday.

Another five people were injured as several residential buildings were damaged and caught fire in the Moscow region, Governor Andrei Vorobyov wrote on Telegram.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 12 construction workers were injured during an attack on an oil refinery in the Russian capital. The site itself remains operational, he added.

While Moscow is considered to have the most effective and extensive air defense system in Russia, the capital has been hit by Ukrainian drones in the past.

Last night's strikes were among the heaviest Ukrainian attacks seen in Moscow since the start of the Russian invasion more than four years ago.

Passengers remained stuck for hours at Moscow's airports as takeoffs and landings had to be temporarily suspended due to the attacks. Dozens of flights were canceled or rerouted to other airports.

The Russian Defense Ministry said a total of 586 of Ukrainian drones had been downed across several regions overnight, while Moscow Mayor Sobyanin said more than 120 drones had been intercepted within 24 hours over the capital alone.

A man was reportedly killed in the Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border when a truck was hit by a drone. There was initially no official confirmation from authorities.

Ukraine also attacked the Russian-occupied Black Sea peninsula of Crimea overnight, damaging several apartment blocks in the capital Sevastopol, according to local authorities.

Debris from a downed drone struck a high-voltage power line, causing power cuts, Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev wrote on Telegram. However, the city's power station was not hit, he said.

A total of 25 drones were shot down over the city and the Black Sea, according to Razvozhayev.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, though the peninsula is still recognized internationally as Ukrainian territory.

Zelenskyy calls strikes ‘entirely justified'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the strikes on Moscow and the surrounding region as "entirely justified," calling them a response to Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine.

"The concentration of Russian air defense in the Moscow region is the highest. But we are overcoming it," Zelensky said on social media, adding that Ukrainian long-range drones had struck targets up to 500 kilometers from the border.

"We are clearly telling the Russians: their state must end its war," he wrote, thanking Ukraine's security service SBU and the armed forces for their "precision."

The Ukrainian attacks came after Russia launched one of its heaviest and longest air assaults on Ukraine. Zelenskyy said 52 people had been killed and 346 injured, including 22 children, over the past week.

He said Russia had deployed more than 3,170 attack drones, over 1,300 guided aerial bombs and 74 missiles of various types, most of them ballistic, against Ukraine in that period.

Russia also attacked Ukraine again with around 300 drones overnight, Ukraine's air defense said, adding that 279 had been intercepted.

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This story was originally published May 17, 2026 at 1:48 PM.