At least 4 people have been killed in the biggest Ukrainian strike on Russia since the start of the war

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 Ukraine strikes in Russia, a woman died after a plane hit her home in Khimki, a Russian city northwest of Moscow, and two men died in the village of Pogorelki, about six kilometers north of the capital, according to Gov. Andrei Vorobyev.

Ukrainian drones it also damaged 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.

One of those killed in Russia is an Indian citizen, the Indian embassy in Russia said. Three other Indian citizens were among the injured, the embassy said.

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, the Tass news agency reported, citing Sobyanin, marking the biggest attack on the city since Russia launched its offensive. full invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

The Russian Air Force destroyed 556 drones in Russia overnight, the Ministry of Defense 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 flew more than 310 miles from Ukrainian territory, and that Ukraine was “defeating” Russian air defense systems centered on the capital and surrounding areas.

“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 of Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think tank based in London, said that the large-scale 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 temporary ceasefire that had allowed Russia to hold back the annual Victory Day parade May 9 is the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during World War II.

“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 to disrupt. What (the attack) might do is add to the dark cloud of concern about Russia that has developed inexplicably over the past 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 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 drones are also flying deep into Russia to oil strikeswhich emits invisible smoke into the atmosphere and brings toxic rain to Black Sea tourist destinations. The attack is there aimed at reducing oil exports to Moscowthe main source of funding for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

While their economic impact is still unclear – as rising oil prices from war in Iranand other related easing of US sanctionshave helped fill the Kremlin’s coffers – the scale of the strikes and their environmental impact bring the war home to ordinary Russians far from the front lines.

8 were injured in Russian airstrikes against Ukraine

Russia invaded Ukraine of 287 drones on Sunday night, 279 of them were shot down or intercepted, the Ukrainian military reported.

The strikes injured 8 people in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk: three in the regional capital of Dnipro, four in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s city of Kryvyi Rih, and one in Synelkove region, Ukrainian emergency services said.

Residential buildings were damaged in all three areas, the ministry said.