Ukraine launches the largest drone attack of the war on Moscow and the surrounding region. Ukraine designs its own precision glide bomb, and it’s now ready for combat. Ukraine regains control of key areas in Stepnohirsk.
Ukraine launches largest drone attack of war on Moscow and surrounding region
Ukraine launched a major drone attack on Moscow and the surrounding region overnight on Sunday. Eyewitness reports on social media said explosions rocked the villages and cities of Khimki, Durykino, Lobnya, Zelenograd and Naro-Fominsk in the Moscow region. They also reported fires and plumes of smoke in some areas, Ukrainian media said.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said the attack was the largest since the invasion.
Commenting on the attack on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on X: “Our responses to Russia’s prolongation of the war and its attacks on our cities and communities are entirely justified. This time, Ukrainian long-range sanctions reached the Moscow region, and we are clearly telling the Russians: their state must end its war.”
The Russian defense ministry said the air defenses intercepted 556 drones around the country overnight on Sunday.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 120 drones were shot down in the Moscow region.
Three people were killed in the Moscow region and 12 people were injured in Moscow itself as a result of the attack, the Russian authorities said.
Commenting on the Sunday drone attack, Commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, Major Robert Brovdi who goes by the call sign Magyar said in a post to social media that Moscow had lost a “one-way license [to live] a calm life.”
Ukraine’s May 16 to 17 strike series proved that Russia is unable to effectively defend the Russian capital, a weakness that generated significant frustration in the Russian ultranationalist information space, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an update on Sunday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the report.
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Spokesperson Maria Zakharova criticized the Ukrainian strikes for their purported impact against civilians, omitting the several successful strikes against Russian defense industrial plants and oil infrastructure objects.
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded to a media question about the use of “powerful bombs” by a “nuclear power state” after the Ukrainian strikes against Moscow City and Oblast, stating that Russia still ”cannot be threatened as a nuclear power and its very existence cannot be threatened.”
Independent Russian media outlet Agentstvo reported on May 17 that Russian state media TV channels, including Perviy Kanal, Rossiya-1, and NTV, devoted only about one minute to Ukraine’s strikes against Moscow, only focusing briefly on the response to civilian implications.
Ukraine designs own precision glide bomb, it’s now ready for combat
Ukraine has created its first glide bomb that was successfully tested and is now ready for combat, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on social media on Tuesday.
The new glide bomb was designed by a company, member of the Brave1 cluster, Ukraine’s national platform for developing defense technologies. The development of the weapon took 17 months.
“Ukraine’s glide bomb is not a copy of Western or Soviet-designed systems. It is an indigenous development created by Ukrainian engineers over the course of 17 months,” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said in a statement Monday. “The guided aerial bomb incorporates a unique design tailored to the realities of modern warfare,” it added.
The new glide bomb is designed to strike fortifications, command posts and other targets dozens of kilometers behind the enemy lines, it said. The weapon is said to carry a 250-kilogram warhead.
The ministry also said it had placed the first order, and that pilots are now training with the weapon to adjust it to combat realities.
“Ukraine is shifting from importing individual solutions to building indigenous high-tech weapons that systematically enhance the capabilities of the Defence Forces and provide technological superiority on the battlefield,” Fedorov was quoted as saying by his office.
Ukrainian glide bombs will be soon used to strike Russia’s military targets, he added.
Ukraine regains control of key areas in Stepnohirsk
The Main Intelligence Department of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that the Artan unit had conducted successful assault operations and regained ground in some areas of Stepnohirsk in the Zaporizhzhia direction.
The defense intelligence said it had cooperated with other branches of the military to carry out the operation. It conducted a series of offensive moves to force Russian forces out of Stepnohirsk and stabilize the situation in the village.
Russian forces tried to strike the Ukrainian vehicles used in the operation with an FPV drone. The drone was destroyed, it explained.
As a result of combat engagements in urban areas, Russian forces were forced out of the areas with fortified positions.
Ukrainian troops conducted the assault operations relying on aerial reconnaissance and precision strikes, Commander of the Artan unit of Ukraine’s defense intelligence, Colonel Viktor Torkotyuk said.
“Each building was checked for traps and remaining enemy personnel,” Artan commander Viktor Torkotiuk said. “We do not rule out that the enemy will continue trying to re-enter the town, but we are ready for this,” he added.
The operation to retake Stepnohirsk is underway, the defense intelligence said.
