Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the nation, Kyiv, May 17, 2026

EA-Ukraine VideoCast: Kyiv’s Retaliation v. Russia’s Mass Killings

Sunday’s Coverage: Kyiv Launches Largest Drone Attack on Moscow

UPDATE 1110 GMT:

At least two civilians have been murdered and 49 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

In the Kherson region, one person was killed and nine injured. At least 15 houses, a shop, a bus, and several cars were damaged.

In the Sumy reigon in the north, one person was slain and four injured amid 50 strikes focused on residential infrastructure.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region in southeast Ukraine, 26 people were wounded, including 18 after a missile strike on a residential neighborhood in Dnipro. Among the injured are a 2-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy.

Casualties were also reported in the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, and Kharkiv regions.

UPDATE 1102 GMT:

Andrii Yermak, former Chief of Staff to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, has been released from prison on bail of Hr 140 million ($3.1 million).

Yermak was charged last Monday with money laundering over a construction project near Kyiv. He said he could not afford the bail himself and would “rely on friends for help.”

Six suspects face trial over allegations that more than Hr 460 million ($8.9 million) was laundered between 2021 and 2025 in the project for an elite residential compound in the village of Kozyn, a wealthy enclave south of Ukraine’s capital. The funds were allegedly generated from the $100 million corruption scheme centered on the state nuclear monopoly Energoatom.

UPDATE 0844 GMT:

The Russian missile which murdered 24 civilians, including three children, in a Kyiv residential block on Thursday was produced this year with western components.

Photographs of missile debris display the components in the Kh-101 which hit the apartment block. The images were examined by Ukrainian officials, an independent expert, and the Financial Times.

Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Ukraine’s top sanctions official, said all the Kh-101 cruise missiles that struck Kyiv had been manufactured in the second quarter of 2026: “Each missile contained more than 100 western-made components.”

An identical Kh-101 missile, examined after an attack on January 20, contained chips from US brands such as Texas Instruments, AMD and Kyocera AVX, as well as Germany’s Harting Technology Group, the Netherlands’ Nexperia, and other companies.

UPDATE 0819 GMT:

Ukraine’s weekend drone strikes have closed the Mega Khimki shopping and entertainment center in the Moscow region “due to technical reasons”.

Mega Khimki, opened in 2004, is one of the first and largest megamalls in Russia. Before the war in Ukraine, it belonged to the Swedish group Ingka, which operates the IKEA chain. It was acquired by Gazprombank in autumn 2023.

Russian State media have avoided coverage of the Ukrainian attacks, spending only about a minute on the topic and focusing on Russia’s “retaliatory actions”.

UPDATE 0653 GMT:

At least 20 civilians, including two children, have been wounded by Russian drone and missile attacks on central and southern Ukraine overnight.

Air defenses downed 503 of 524 drones but only four of 22 missiles. Sixteen drones and the other missiles hit 34 locations.

At least 18 of the casualties, including the children, were in the city of Dnipro, attacking between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. A 24-story residential building was hit, and several fires set throughout the city.

In the port city of Odesa in the south, an 11-year-old boy and a 59-year-old man were injured. A lecture hall and a kindergarten were damaged.

A Russian drone struck a Chinese-owned, Marshall Islands-flagged commercial vessel at sea in Ukrainian waters near the Odesa region.

Ukrainian Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said, “It’s interesting what motivated the Russians when they decided tonight to hit a Chinese commercial vessel in our sea with a Shahed drone. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but this is something new.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has hailed the changed dynamic over the Kremlin’s 51-month full-scale invasion, with Kyiv’s counter-attacks inside Russia.

On Saturday and Sunday, Ukraine launched its largest drone attack on the city of Moscow, targeting 12 facilities including an oil refinery; the Moscow region; and other areas including occupied Crimea.

Ukraine’s State security service SBU highlighted strikes in the Moscow region on the Angstrom plant, which specializes in the production of hi-tech products and microcircuits for high-precision weapons, and a pumping station which is part of the ring oil pipeline around Moscow.

Within Ukraine, a Russian command post in the ​​Donetsk region and enemy drone control points in the Donetsk, ​​Kharkiv, and Kherson regions were hit.

Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation:

Our long-range capabilities are significantly changing the situation – and, more broadly, the world’s perception of Russia’s war. Many partners are now signaling that they see what is happening and how everything has changed – both in attitudes toward this war and in the reachability of Russian targets on Russian territory.

The war is quite predictably returning to its “native harbor”, and this is a clear signal that one should not pick a fight with Ukraine or wage an unjust war of conquest against another people.

He cited the Kremlin’s efforts to protect Moscow from attack, “but Ukrainian long-range steps are already overcoming this.”

He added, “Russians should be thinking about their refineries, their oil facilities and enterprises.”

The President also spoke of the frontlines, noting that there were more Ukrainian “active operations” than Russian over a 24-hour period spanning Sautrday and Sunday.

“A lot has been done this year, and the shift in the balance of actions on the battlefield is visible,” he asserted, vowing to increase supplies needed to sustain operations.