Russia Launches Record 355 Drones at Ukraine; 6 Killed, 24 Injured
Russia launched its third large-scale aerial and drone assault against Ukraine in three nights, killing at least six people and injuring 24 across multiple oblasts over the past 24 hours, regional authorities reported on May 26.
Moscow's forces launched nine Kh-101 cruise missiles from Tu-95MS bomber planes and a record number of 355 Shahed-type attack drones and decoys overnight, Ukraine's Air Force reported.
Ukrainian air defenses shot down all nine missiles and 233 drones, and 55 Russian drones were neutralized by electronic warfare systems or disappeared from radars, according to the statement.
The attack marked the most extensive drone strike against Ukraine during the full-scale war, topping the previous record of 298 drones overnight on May 25.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
MTV Lebanon
an hour ago
- MTV Lebanon
Putin Tells Trump Russia Must Respond to Ukrainian Attacks
Russian President Vladimir Putin told U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday that he would have to respond to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's nuclear-capable bomber fleet, while also describing peace talks with Ukraine as "useful." The war in Ukraine is intensifying after nearly four months of cajoling and threats to both Moscow and Kyiv from Trump, who says he wants peace after more than three years of the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two. After Ukraine bombed bridges and attacked Russia's fleet of bombers deep in Siberia and Russia's far north, Putin on Wednesday said he did not think Ukraine's leaders wanted peace. Shortly after Putin discussed the attacks with top ministers in Moscow, Trump said he had spoken by telephone with Putin for one hour and 15 minutes, and that they had discussed the Ukrainian attacks and Iran. "We discussed the attack on Russia's docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides. It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace," Trump said on social media. Russia has unleashed several massive aerial attacks on Ukraine over recent weeks. "President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields," Trump said. A foreign policy aide to Putin, Yuri Ushakov, said the Russian leader told Trump on the call that ceasefire talks between Moscow and Kyiv have been productive, despite what he termed attempts by Ukraine to "disrupt" them. "Let me stress that our president described in detail the content of the talks and that these talks on the whole were useful," Ushakov said. Memorandums outlining peace plans were exchanged and will be analysed, Ushakov said, "and we hope that afterwards the two sides will be able to continue their talks." Ushakov confirmed the two presidents discussed other international issues, particularly the Middle East conflict and how Russia could help deal with Iran and its nuclear programme. On Iran, Trump said he believed Putin agreed with Washington that Iran "cannot have a nuclear weapon," and accused Tehran of "slowwalking" decisions regarding the talks. Trump has been unusually silent on the Ukrainian attacks on the Russian bombers - one of the three pillars of Russia's nuclear arsenal - though Moscow demanded that the United States and Britain restrain Ukraine. The Kremlin said Trump had told Putin that Washington was not informed in advance of the Ukrainian attacks. Trump's Ukraine envoy said the risk of escalation from the war in Ukraine was "going way up" after the strikes. Russia and the United States are by far the world's biggest nuclear powers: together they hold about 88% of all nuclear weapons. Each has three ways of nuclear attack - strategic bombers, land-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles - and any attack on any part of the "triad" is considered a grave escalation.
Ya Libnan
8 hours ago
- Ya Libnan
How Ukraine pulled off a spectacular attack deep inside Russia
Spider Web operation Months of planning went into a covert operation that relied on cheap, short-range drones By Mike Collett-White , Prasanta Kumar Dutta and Mariano Zafra Three days after Ukraine launched its most complex attack against Russia since the full-scale war began, details of how it was carried out and the damage it caused to Russia's strategic bomber fleet are still emerging. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the operation, dubbed 'Spider's Web', as 'absolutely brilliant', although the extent of Russian military losses remains unclear. On Wednesday, he said that of the 41 planes damaged, half cannot be repaired. The attacks targeted at least four Russian military air bases, the furthest of which from Ukraine is the Belaya base in the Siberian region of Irkutsk, around 4,850 km (3,000 miles) from Kyiv. Olenya air base (1,982 km from Kyiv) RUSSIA Ivanovo air base (1,017 km) Moscow Dyagilevo air base (781 km) Kyiv Belaya air base (4,849 km) UKRAINE A map showing four air bases in Russia, reportedly attacked during Ukraine's drone strike operation: Olenya air base, Ivanovo air base, Dyagilevo air base, Belaya air base. Source: Institute for the Study of War and AEI Critical Threats Project. According to Ukrainian authorities, the operation involved 117 drones that were smuggled into Russia: they were concealed beneath the retractable roofs of wooden sheds, transported to locations close to military bases and piloted remotely to hit strategic, nuclear-capable bombers. In some cases, artificial intelligence was used to guide the drones to their target. Russian officials said on Wednesday that military options were 'on the table' for its response to Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russia and accused the West of being involved in them. Ukraine's main offensive threat in the war so far has been its long-range drones, which have struck targets deep inside Russia, including oil refineries, military bases and arms depots. Yet, despite some technological advances and increased production, the drones have a maximum range well short of 5,000 km and can be detected as they fly into Russian air space, meaning air defences down many of them. The June 1 operation, including the attack on the Belaya air base, relied on a different threat: relatively small 'kamikaze' drones launched from locations just a few kilometers away. The element of surprise was vital, denying Russia's military the time to move mobile air defenses into place or block the drones with electronic jamming. How the attack unfolded According to Ukraine's security service, the SBU, the drones were smuggled into Russia by its operatives and concealed within the roof space of wooden sheds. An image shared by Ukrainian authorities showed around 20 drones, each with four propellors, placed in wooden cavities below a roof. Trucks carrying FPV (First Person View) drones were quietly parked near key Russian air bases. Cafe Teremok An illustration of the position of a truck carrying drones used in Ukraine's surprise strike. The truck was parked at a roadside stop about 7km from Belaya air base. Video footage verified by Reuters shows that the roof of at least one of the sheds had been removed to release the attack drones at the designated place and time. FPV drones On the day of the strike, a hidden mechanism retracted the trucks' roofs, revealing drone launch platforms inside. Retractable roof Source: Social media, Ukrainian Presidential Press Service. The attack. Hundreds of FPV drones surged from the trucks, targeting dozens of Russian aircraft on the ground. Retractable roof First Person Viev (FPV) drone An illustration shows that the roof of at least one of the sheds remotely removed to release the attack drones at the designated place and time. Russian authorities have given few details about the attack. The Defense Ministry said Ukraine had launched drone strikes targeting military airfields in Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions. Air defenses repelled the assaults in three regions, but not Murmansk and Irkutsk, it said, adding that in those places several aircraft caught fire. The Kremlin said on Tuesday that an official investigation into the attack was underway. The Baza news service, which has close contacts in Russian security and law enforcement, named the main suspect as a 37-year-old Ukrainian who had moved to the Russian region of Chelyabinsk in recent years. Reuters has not been able to verify independently Baza's account. According to Baza, which cited unnamed sources, the Ukrainian opened a transportation business in October last year and acquired several trucks in December. It was from these vehicles that the drones used in the attacks were launched, the news service said. Baza said the drivers of four trucks, who apparently did not know about the nature of their cargoes, were told to drive to different destinations across Russia carrying wooden sheds. When the trucks were close to their destinations, the drivers were given instructions over the phone where to stop. In one case, Baza reported, the drones began to fly out of the sheds the moment the truck was parked, and in another while the truck was still moving. Neither Ukraine nor Russia has commented on accounts in the Russian media. Based on images posted on social media, Reuters has established that the truck used in the attack on the Belaya base was parked along the P-255 highway at the time, some 7 km from the airfield. A Ukrainian source with knowledge of the matter said the drones were piloted remotely via the Russian cellular telecommunications network. The SBU said in a statement on Wednesday that during the operation, modern drone control technology was used in the operation combining autonomous artificial intelligence algorithms and manual intervention by the operator. Due to signal loss, some drones switched to performing the mission using artificial intelligence along a pre-planned route. When a drone approached and made contact with a specific target, its explosive was automatically triggered. The SBU said the operatives involved were all back in Ukraine by the time the attacks began. President Zelenskiy said the Ukrainian agents worked across multiple Russian regions in an operation that was 18 months in the planning. Damaged and destroyed Satellite imagery after the attack on the Belaya base show that several strategic bombers — experts say between six and eight — were either destroyed or badly damaged there. Belaya Air Base Tupolev Tu-22M A before and after satellite image of Belaya Air Base showing Tupolev Tu-95 and Tupolev Tu-22M3 planes parked on May 17, 2025. The after image, taken June 4, shows several of the Tu-95 planes seemingly destroyed in the same parked positions. At Olenya, footage released by the SBU and verified by Reuters showed two burning bombers which appeared to be nuclear-capable Tu-95s and a third, also a Tu-95, being hit by a large explosion. New SBU drone footage released on Wednesday showed drones landing on the dome antennae of two A-50 military spy planes, of which there are only a handful in Russia's fleet. There was no video showing the drones detonate. Reuters was able to independently verify the locations of all four air bases in the footage, including the Ivanovo airbase where the A-50s were stationed. The news agency could not independently verify what date the footage was filmed. The SBU said in a statement that the struck aircraft included the A-50, the Tu-95 strategic bomber, Tu-22 supersonic jet bomber, Tu-160 strategic bomber, as well as the An-12 and Il-78 military cargo planes. There was no immediate public response from Moscow to the SBU statement. A Ukrainian security official said strikes were conducted on Sunday on four air bases, and that 41 Russian warplanes were hit. FPV drones Tupolev TU-95 bomber Tupolev TU-22M BELAYA AIR BASE An illustration of Tupolev TU-95 and Tupolev TU-22M bomber at Balaya air base. Verified video of a Ukrainian FPV drone shown attacking a Russian bomber. Video obtained by Reuters via Ukrainian Presidential Press Service. Fabian Hinz, research fellow for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), said the attack would prove costly to Russia, partly because the types of aircraft that were hit are mostly out of production. 'The Russians can find a billion here and there, but these aircraft are not produced anymore,' he said. 'That's actually probably much more serious than losing a billion dollars or a few billion dollars. So I think it was a very significant attack.' Estimates of the number of aircraft struck vary, but some experts said that between 10 and 13 strategic bombers – Tu-95s and Tu-22s – were destroyed and others damaged, based on imagery from two of four bases targeted – in Irkutsk and Murmansk. This is only a part of the total fleet, but it reduces the number of planes that Russia can use to carry out cruise missile attacks on Ukraine. Hinz said that Russia could take measures to protect its air bases in the future, but this kind of operation using drones launched locally could be applied to many targets. 'You suddenly have this whole new world of opportunities for sabotage within a country,' he said. 'And this is the most spectacular attack and probably the most impactful attack we've seen that has worked like that.' U.S. President Donald Trump's Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, told Fox News that the damage to the bombers was less important than the psychological impact on Russia. He added that he was particularly concerned by unconfirmed reports of a Ukrainian attack on a naval base in northern Russia. Meanwhile, on the battlefields of Ukraine, Russia continues to grind out steady gains, potentially strengthening its position as the two parties embark on exploratory peace talks. Reuters
Nahar Net
10 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Russian strike kills 5 in Ukraine, including 1 year old, hours after Trump-Putin call
by Naharnet Newsdesk 05 June 2025, 11:53 At least five people, including a 1-year-old child, his mother and grandmother, were killed Thursday in a nighttime Russian drone strike that hit the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky, officials said. Six drones hit a residential area in the city at 5:30 a.m. local time, according to authorities. The child killed was the grandson of an emergency responder, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. "One of the rescuers arrived to respond to the aftermath right at his own home," Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram. "It turned out that a Shahed drone hit his house." The attack came just hours after Donald Trump spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Trump, Putin said "very strongly" that Russia will retaliate for Ukraine's weekend stunning drone attacks on Russian military airfields. Drones struck across regions Six people were wounded in the Pryluky attack and are in hospital, officials said. Pryluky, which had a prewar population of around 50,000 people, lies about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Kyiv, the capital. The city is far from the front line and does not contain any known military assets. Zelenskyy said a total of 103 drones and one ballistic missile targeted multiple Ukrainian regions overnight, including Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, Chernihiv, Dnipro and Kherson. "This is another massive strike," Zelenskyy said. "It is yet another reason to impose the strongest possible sanctions and apply pressure collectively." US peace effort remains stalled Zelenskyy, who has accepted a U.S. ceasefire proposal and offered to meet with Putin in an attempt to break the stalemate in negotiations, wants more international sanctions on Russia to force it to accept a settlement. Putin has shown no willingness to meet with Zelenskyy, however, and has indicated no readiness to compromise. U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the more than 3-year-long war have delivered no significant progress, and the grinding war of attrition has continued unabated. Germany's new leader Friedrich Merz was due to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday as he works to keep the U.S. on board with Western diplomatic and military support for Ukraine. Ukraine's top presidential aide, Andriy Yermak, met with senior American officials in Washington on Wednesday and called for greater U.S. pressure on Russia, accusing the Kremlin of deliberately stalling ceasefire talks and blocking progress toward peace, according to a statement on the presidential website. Yermak, who traveled to the U.S. as part of a Ukrainian delegation, met with senior American officials to bolster support for Ukraine's defense and humanitarian priorities. He said Ukraine urgently needs stronger air defense capabilities. More people wounded in Kharkiv Hours later, seventeen people were injured in a Russian drone strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Those hurt included children, a pregnant woman, and a 93-year-old woman, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. At around 1:05 a.m., Shahed-type drones struck two apartment buildings in the city's Slobidskyi district, causing fires and destroying several private vehicles. "By launching attacks while people sleep in their homes, the enemy once again confirms its tactic of insidious terror," Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. Russian aircraft also dropped four powerful glide bombs on the southern city of Kherson, injuring at least three people, regional authorities said.
