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Russia deployed more than 1,400 drones and 56 missiles in Ukraine on Wednesday and Thursday.
Most of the attacks targeted the capital Kyiv, days after Russia threatened to do so unless Ukraine invaded the country. Victory Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square on May 9. It is Russia’s main holiday commemorating the end of World War II.
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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi he had planned to end the war, starting on May 5.
Moscow did not respond until May 7, and presented its proposal for peace as a one-way street, accompanied by threats to punish Kyiv if it did not respect its demands.
Moscow said Russian front-line units would “launch a major offensive” in the center of Kyiv if attacked.
43 Russian drones and several missiles were dropped on Ukraine on May 9, and another 27 drones on May 10. It wasn’t until May 11 that Ukraine had a day of peace.
Moscow justified these attacks as retaliation for the Ukrainian terrorist attacks. Kyiv accused Moscow of violating its ceasefire.
Finally, on the night of May 11, Russia launched 216 drones and followed up with a major attack involving 892 on the night of May 12 and the afternoon of May 13.
The night of May 13-14 was the worst with 675 drones and 56 missiles.
Ukrainian government reports documented protests in at least 20 places in the capital, including a nine-story building where 12 people were killed in a collapse.
“These are civilian houses, a school, a veterinary hospital, and other civilian facilities,” Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram channel. “This is not the act of people who believe the war is over.”
Throughout the week, Ukraine said it had shot down 92 percent of the 1,930 drones launched, close to Zelenskyy’s 95 percent kill rate, with 41 of 57 missiles downed.
The Russian army is slow
Russia’s attack came as its military presence in eastern Ukraine dwindled.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based military think tank, says it advanced by about 2.9 sq km (1.1 sq miles) in the first four months of 2026, compared to 9.76 sq km (3.76 sq miles) per day in the first third of 2025 and 14.9 sq km (5.8 sq miles) per day between October 2024 and March 2025.
Two weeks into May, the daily average had already dropped 2.63 sq km (1 sq mile), meaning that Russia’s progress is slowing down every day.
The value of ISW he recently compared that Ukraine made a significant gain of 116 sq km (45 sq miles) in April – the first such progress since September 2023.
Some of these successes are due to Ukraine’s successful use of drones behind the front lines.
On May 8, the Azov Army of the National Guard of Ukraine announced that it had “returned to Mariupol”, almost four years after it surrendered the city to Russian forces.
The Corps filmed drone strikes on Russian diesel tanks, military vehicles and other transport equipment 160 km (99 miles) behind the front line on the T-0509 highway, which feeds the Russian offensive in the Donetsk region.
“The depth of the strike will increase,” said the Azov Corps.
Their strikes are part of a broader Ukrainian campaign to hit Russian weapons between 120-150 kilometers (75-90 miles) from the front as announced by Zelenskyy in late April.
“This mainly includes military equipment, enemy storage facilities and headquarters, anti-aircraft defense equipment and other equipment,” he said, adding that Ukraine had increased its deep-sea strikes five times over the past year.
“We are already conducting about 5,000 successful strikes at a depth of 20 plus km (12 miles) every month,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said this week.
Also this week, a Russian military correspondent said Ukrainian Hornet drones were targeting Russian assets on roads near the frontline.
“Although the front line is more than 35 km away from the M-30, it is currently paralyzed by enemy surveillance (First Person View drone),” wrote a Russian journalist.
“In 2014-2015 the front was close, but the M-30 was safe,” he added. “This is because many people think that if the front line is away from the big cities and the control systems are safer, but for some reason no one considers that the variety of enemy weapons, even FPV monitoring, grows faster compared to the movement of the front line.”
Russia’s poor performance is not due to a lack of effort.
The commander of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr Syrskii, on May 8, said: “The enemy has done very dirty things in all areas of the front and is regrouping his forces,” said the commander of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr Syrskii.
Since March, Ukraine has increased its blockade of Russian oil pipelines more than 1,700 km (1,056 miles) inside Russia, in an attempt to starve its military diesel engines of export revenue.
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation in Ukraine, said that the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) hit the Yaroslavl oil refinery and the Perm oil pumping station on May 8 – Perm sends oil in four directions across Russia to refineries and exports.
Russian media reports say that an earlier fire at the pumping station was not put out until May 11.
The SBU also said it hit the Perm refinery the same day.
During the week, the Ukrainian military hit a drone and a radar research facility in Rostov-on-Don, a chemical plant in Bryansk, an explosives storage facility in Nizhny Novgorod and other targets.
Fedorov on Monday thanked Germany for investing $1bn in a major strike in Ukraine, while his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius, visited Kyiv.
“Overall, Ukraine’s positions right now – on the front, on our long-term sanctions, and on our relations with our partners – are the strongest they have been in years,” Zelenskyy said.
