May 17, 2026 | Burma Independent Voice
Ukrainian forces launched a massive overnight drone strike inside Russian territory involving more than 500 drones, leaving three people dead in the Moscow region, Russian authorities announced on Sunday.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed its air defense systems intercepted and shot down 556 Ukrainian drones targeted at more than a dozen regions across the country, including Moscow.
Moscow Regional Governor Andrei Vorobyov shared updates on his Telegram channel, stating, “A drone crashed into a residential home, killing one woman, while another individual remains trapped beneath the debris. Two additional men also lost their lives in the early morning strikes.”
Governor Vorobyov added that air defense units had been actively repelling the large-scale drone assault targeting the capital region since 3:00 AM, noting that four individuals were wounded and several infrastructure facilities were targeted.
The escalation follows a deadly Russian bombardment on Kyiv earlier last week that claimed 24 lives, prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to vow intensified retaliatory actions on Friday.
Local authorities in the Russian capital reported that air defense systems intercepted at least 74 drones overnight, with 12 people sustaining injuries. The Mayor of Moscow wrote on Telegram that “falling drone debris caused minor damage in several areas,” adding that a total of 120 drones had been shot down within the capital’s vicinity over the past 24 hours.
While outer areas surrounding the capital are frequently subjected to drone attacks, strikes directly targeting central Moscow remain rare.
Following the expiration of a three-day ceasefire and the completion of prisoner exchanges last Tuesday, both Moscow and Kyiv have sharply intensified their cross-border strikes.
In response to more than four years of continuous daily bombardments by the Russian military, Ukraine has regularly conducted strikes deep inside Russian territory, consistently maintaining that its targets are strictly limited to military and energy infrastructure facilities.
