At least three people were killed near Moscow after Ukraine targeted Russia with more than 500 drones overnight, Russian state news agency TASS reported Sunday, citing local and military officials.
The attack on Moscow is “the largest in over a year,” according to TASS, citing information released by the city’s mayor, and follows a huge wave of Russian strikes earlier in the week targeting Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
Those attacks killed at least 25 people and injured dozens of others, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Overnight into Sunday, a woman was killed after a drone hit a private home in Khimki, a town to the northwest of the Russian capital, mayor Sergey Sobyanin said, adding that another person was trapped under the rubble.
Two men were killed in Mytishchi, to Moscow’s northeast, when drone debris fell on a house under construction, Sobyanin said, adding that a total of 12 people were injured in Moscow, including construction workers at an oil refinery.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted 556 Ukrainian drones overnight, while Sobyanin said air defences shot down more than 120 drones heading for Moscow and its environs.
Fallen debris also caused a house in the village of Subbotino to catch fire, while four people were injured when drones damaged several residential blocks in the western town of Istra, TASS reported.
Some drone fragments fell on the grounds of Sheremetyevo Airport, Russia’s busiest air hub, though no injuries or damage were reported, according to the facility.
The state news agency posted images of a house engulfed in a fireball and several damaged apartment blocks on Telegram, without specifying their locations.
Residents clear debris from broken windows in a damaged apartment building following a Ukrainian drone attack in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Krasnogorsk, Russia, on May 17, 2026.
Stringer/Reuters
People stand in front of an apartment building damaged during a Ukrainian drone attack in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Krasnogorsk, Russia, on May 17, 2026.
Stringer/Reuters
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched 287 drones overnight, injuring at least nine people in the Dnipropetrovsk region and Zaporizhzhia district. It shot down all but eight of those drones across seven locations, it added.
Just a little more than a week ago, Russia held a scaled-down version of its traditionally dazzling Victory Day military parade following intensified Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russian territory, particularly against oil refineries.
As the attack unfolded on Sunday morning, Ukraine’s commander of the Unmanned System Forces posted a message on his official Telegram account, addressed to the residents of Patriarchy, one of Moscow’s elite residential districts.
“The one-way ticket to a peaceful life in Patriarchy and the surrounding areas has been canceled.”
