Category
Latest news

After Four Days of Relentless Bombing, Russia Promises More Strikes, Blaming Ukraine for “Escalation”

3 min read
Authors
Photo of Vlad Litnarovych
Vlad Litnarovych
Author
After Four Days of Relentless Bombing, Russia Promises More Strikes, Blaming Ukraine for “Escalation”
Illustrative image. Drones explode as they are being destroyed by Ukrainian air defense during a mass night strike on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on September 30, 2024. (Source: Getty Images)

The Russian Defense Ministry has claimed its recent wave of airstrikes on Ukraine—launched over the past week and resulting in numerous civilian casualties and widespread destruction—were in retaliation for Ukrainian drone attacks and targeted only military infrastructure, the Ministry wrote on May 27.

The assertion comes after four days of some of the most intense Russian aerial bombardments in months, which killed and injured dozens of civilians, including children, and damaged critical civilian infrastructure across Ukraine.

Moscow accused Kyiv of escalating hostilities by launching repeated drone and missile strikes on Russian territory and alleged that Ukraine had deliberately targeted civilian areas.

“Since May 20, the Kyiv regime has significantly increased the number of attacks using unmanned aerial vehicles and Western-made rockets against civilian sites on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the ministry said, claiming that air defenses had intercepted or destroyed 2,331 Ukrainian drones between May 20 and 27, including 1,465 outside the area of the so-called "special military operation.”

The ministry also claimed that Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian regions had resulted in injuries to civilians, “including women and children.”

Moscow presented its own strikes as a measured military response. “In response to the actions of the Kyiv regime, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out precision strikes using air-, sea-, and ground-launched weapons, as well as strike drones—exclusively on military targets and enterprises of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex,” the statement said.

Despite independent reports of widespread civilian casualties and the destruction of non-military infrastructure in cities including Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Dnipro, Russian officials insisted their strikes were limited to military objectives.

The ministry further alleged that Ukraine had sabotaged direct peace negotiations. “At the initiative of the Russian Federation, direct Russian-Ukrainian dialogue on a peaceful settlement was resumed. However, the Kyiv regime, with the support of certain European countries, has taken a number of provocative steps aimed at disrupting the negotiation process,” the statement said, offering no evidence to support the claim.

Russia concluded by warning that its forces would continue launching “massive and group strikes” in response to what it called “terrorist attacks and provocations by the Kyiv regime,” reiterating that future strikes would also be “exclusively on military targets and enterprises of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.”

Earlier, reports emerged that on May 26 Russia conducted its third consecutive large-scale aerial and drone assault on Ukraine, killing at least six people and injuring 24 across several regions in one day of strikes.

Ukraine’s Air Force reported that Russian forces launched nine Kh-101 cruise missiles from Tu-95MS strategic bombers and deployed a record 355 Shahed-type attack drones and decoys. Ukrainian air defenses intercepted all nine missiles and downed 233 drones. An additional 55 drones were either neutralized by electronic warfare systems or lost from radar detection.

See all