Ukraine conducts large-scale drone strikes on Russia, killing 4 and
wounding a dozen others
[May 18, 2026]
By SAMYA KULLAB
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — One of Ukraine's largest drone strikes on Russia
killed at least four people, including three near Moscow, and wounded a
dozen others, local authorities said Sunday. Debris fell on Russia's
largest airport without causing damage.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the drone strikes,
saying that they were “entirely justified.” Russia has repeatedly
launched similar attacks on Ukraine's capital and other cities during
the war, and an expert said that the strikes appeared to be retaliation
for recent Russian attacks on Kyiv.
Russian drone strikes on Ukraine overnight wounded eight people,
Ukrainian authorities said.
In Ukraine's strikes on Russia, a woman was killed after a drone hit her
home in Khimki, a Russian city just northwest of Moscow, and two men
died in the village of Pogorelki, which is 10 kilometers (6 miles) north
of the capital, according to local Gov. Andrei Vorobyev.
Ukrainian drones had also damaged unspecified “infrastructure” and
several high-rise buildings, Vorobyev said on social media.
One man was also killed after a drone struck a truck in the Belgorod
region, which borders Ukraine, according to local authorities.
In Moscow itself, at least 12 people were wounded in the nighttime
strike, mostly near the entrance to the city’s oil refinery, mayor
Sergei Sobyanin reported. Sobyanin reported that the “technology” of the
refinery hadn't been damaged.
Hours later, the Indian Embassy in Moscow reported that an Indian worker
died in a drone strike “in (the) Moscow region,” while three other
Indian nationals were hospitalized with injuries. It wasn't immediately
clear whether the worker was one of the three people reported dead by
Moscow region officials, or a further fatality.
Russia’s largest airport — Moscow’s Sheremetyevo — said that drone
debris had fallen on its grounds without causing damage or affecting
flights.
Russian defenses shot down 81 drones headed for Moscow overnight, state
agency Tass reported, citing Sobyanin, marking one of the largest
attacks on the city since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of
Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Russian air defenses overnight destroyed 556 drones over Russia, the
occupied Crimean Peninsula and the Azov and Black Seas, the Russian
Defense Ministry said Sunday morning. Shortly after midday local time,
it reported that more than 1,000 drones had been shot down or jammed in
the previous 24 hours.
Zelenskyy said that the drones had flown more than 500 kilometers (310
miles) from Ukrainian territory, and that Ukraine was “overcoming”
Russian air defense systems concentrated in and around the capital.
“Our responses to Russia’s prolongation of the war and attacks on our
cities and communities are entirely justified. This time, Ukrainian
long-distance sanctions have reached the Moscow region, and we are
clearly telling the Russians: their state must end its war,” Zelenskyy
said.
Revenge for Russian attacks, expert says
Nigel Gould Davies, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the
International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think
tank, said that Ukraine's large-scale attack appeared to be “the
retaliation or revenge that President Zelenskyy promised after the
fierce attacks that Russia carried out on Kyiv.”
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This photo released by Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev's
official telegram channel shows the damage after a Ukrainian drone
attack, just outside Moscow, Russia, on Sunday, May 17, 2026.
(Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev's official telegram channel
via AP)
Those strikes came immediately 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 accused each other of repeatedly violating the
pause in hostilities.
“It brings home the fact Ukraine has the capacity to strike at very
significant scale at or around the Russian capital,” taking the war
home to Russians in a way that would be “most unwelcome” to the
Kremlin, Gould Davies told The Associated Press.
“There is no ongoing peace process to disrupt. What (the attack) is
more likely to do is add to the darkening cloud of anxiety over
Russia which has developed palpably over the last three or four
months,” he said.
He cited a combination of factors, including Russia's recent
battlefield setbacks, a deteriorating economic situation at home,
and the Kremlin's intensifying crackdown on the internet, including
in Moscow and Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg.
“The fact that Ukraine is reminding the Moscow population that it is
vulnerable to these attacks is likely to intensify the mix of
concerns now,” Gould Davies said. “I see no prospect though, in the
shorter term, that even these factors together will induce Russia to
consider the compromises that will be necessary for peace
negotiations.”
Ukrainian drones are also flying deep into Russia to strike oil
facilities, sending up plumes of smoke that can be seen from space
and bringing toxic rain to tourist destinations on the Black Sea.
The attacks are aimed at slashing Moscow’s oil exports, a key source
of funding for Russia's grinding invasion of Ukraine.
While their the economic impact is so far unclear — as the rise in
oil prices from the Iran war, and a related easing of U.S.
sanctions, have helped replenish the Kremlin’s coffers — the range
of the strikes and their environmental impact is bringing the war
home to ordinary Russians far from the front lines.
8 wounded in Russian drone strikes on Ukraine
Russia attacked Ukraine with 287 drones overnight into Sunday, 279
of which were shot down or jammed, the Ukrainian air force reported.
The strikes wounded 8 people in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk
region: three in the regional capital of Dnipro, four in President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih, and one in the
district of Synelkove, Ukraine’s state emergency service said.
Residential buildings were damaged in all three locations, the
service said.
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Emma Burrows contributed to this report from Tallinn, Estonia.
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