The Russian Defense Ministry (MoD) announced Monday that its forces executed a massive missile and drone barrage across Ukraine, which is clearly the expected big retaliatory response following Ukraine's large-scale drone wave attack on Moscow over the weekend.
Kremlin officials specifically described the new assault as indeed direct retaliation for "terrorist attacks" carried out by Kiev, which killed at least three in the Russian capital, injured dozens, hit a refinery, and unleashed havoc and fear among the population. The MoD said it targeted military and defense industrial sites, but Ukraine's account differed.
Ukrainian forces had deployed at least 130 UAVs during the capital-bound raid, and damaged a major regional airport. Large fires were spotted near major roadways, sometimes in the heart of busy city areas.
Russia's nighttime into early Monday retaliation has been expectedly fierce, as overnight it specifically targeted Odesa and Dnipro, leaving at least one person dead and over 30 injured. In the port city of Odesa, the drone strikes damaged residential buildings, a school, and a kindergarten, according to Ukrainian officials.
Ukrainian media chronicled some of the following:
- On Sunday, Russia carried out a combined overnight attack on the city of Dnipro, striking a residential area, sparking multiple fires, and causing casualties.
- According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russian forces began launching drones toward Dnipro at approximately 8 p.m.
- On Monday, May 18, at 2:32 a.m., Ukraine was under threat of ballistic missile strikes. Shortly afterward, missiles were detected heading toward Dnipro, including both ballistic and cruise missiles.
- According to local authorities, Russian drones struck three residential buildings in Odesa’s Kyivskyi and Prymorskyi districts.
- One of the buildings, a single-story house in the Prymorskyi district, was completely destroyed. Other buildings sustained damage to facades, roofs, and windows. Several fires broke out but were quickly extinguished.
But Ukraine's cross-border drones have also continued unabated, as two people were killed and two more were injured following a a Monday UAV attack on Russia's southern Belgorod region, local authorities said. Belgorod has come under regular attack since near the start of the war, given its southern-most location, close to the front-lines to the south in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Kremlin announced Monday that Moscow anticipates an eventual resumption of the Russia-Ukraine peace process, though it noted that negotiations are currently paused.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the statement in response to comments from President Trump, who on Friday suggested that a Russian missile strike hitting a Kiev residential building had delayed progress toward ending the four-year conflict.
Per the Associated Press, "The death toll from a Russian missile attack that flattened a Kyiv apartment building rose Friday to 24, including three teenagers, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said as he led the mourning for one of the deadliest attacks on the capital in the 4-year-old war."
"The cruise missile hit the nine-story corner apartment block Thursday during what the Ukrainian air force said was Russia's biggest barrage on the country of the full-scale invasion. Emergency workers finished digging through the rubble searching for victims after more than a day, Zelenskyy said on X," the report adds.
But in response, Peskov emphasized that focus should also be directed toward persistent Ukrainian strikes targeting civilian infrastructure inside Russia.