“The cat stood on end”

That night, Moscow and the Moscow region faced the largest attack by Ukrainian Armed Forces drones since the beginning of the war. Here's what residents of Khimki and Kurkino told Bereg about it

On the night of May 17, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked Moscow and several districts of the Moscow region with drones. In Ukrainian publics, this attack on the capital region was called the largest since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russian troops in Ukraine, and Vladimir Zelensky said that Kiev’s response to Moscow’s attacks was “completely justified.” As a result of the drone attack, according to official data, three people were killed and 16 were injured. Two oil industry facilities , apartment buildings and private houses were destroyed. The Bereg cooperative of independent journalists spoke with residents of Khimki and Kurkino near Moscow about what they saw and heard last night, as well as how they feel after such a devastating attack on their cities. With the permission of the publication, Meduza is publishing this material in full.

The names of the characters have been changed for security reasons.

Yaroslav

Resident of Khimki

We [my family] found out about what was happening completely by accident - there were no sirens or SMS alerts at all. Explosions just started going off at night. We looked out the window and saw drones.

We didn’t leave the house, we spent the night in the bathroom. It hit residential buildings directly about two kilometers on the left - in Putilkovo [in Krasnogorsk] - and about one and a half kilometers on the right, on Kudryavtseva Street [in Stary Khimki]. It flew into a friend's house in Moscow and broke the windows.

Fortunately, none of my friends were among the wounded or dead. But we feel bad. Previously, it seemed that Moscow was definitely protected. Now, we probably better understand the feelings of Belgorod residents and residents of other regions when drones arrive and there is no air defense at all.

We were there on the first May Day in the Lipetsk region, and there were all the notifications like clockwork. They are even “color-coded”: there are yellow and red levels of missile or drone danger. For us it’s just silence. Why is this so?

As I understand it, no matter how much air defense is brought into the region, the human factor still decides a lot: something was shot down, something was overslept. If there are not enough people, maybe it’s time to create a Khimki territorial volunteer air defense association? From our 25-story building we saw about five UAVs flying by - give us interceptor drones, and they [Ukrainian drones] wouldn’t fly anywhere else.

Arina

Resident of Kurkino

To be honest, the children and I slept very deeply and only learned about everything from our neighbors. They said there were no sirens at all, and the house was literally shaking. And that three drones were shot down above us: two between the 10th and 12th houses, another one between the 12th and 14th. One drone flew further, and fragments fell all around, including a kindergarten. The children later found these fragments - they lay literally like rain.

When we called the [EMERCOM] services, the usual squad arrived first. We were told that there was nothing dangerous or scary, and they simply left the fragments in place. Then the operatives arrived. One of them took a piece of glass and said: “Ha, it’s okay, is that why they called you?” I answered: “Well, yes, actually.” He laughed and smiled. I told him that according to the regulations, such things should be checked. In the end, the fragments were taken away.

The neighbors are feeling very bad now - everyone is scared because the drones have reached us. Personally, on the one hand, I feel a little calmer than they do, because my children and I slept through it all. On the other hand, it’s scary to realize that we didn’t hear anything. If the evacuation began, we would not even wake up.

Olga

Resident of Kurkino

We woke up at about 04:10 in the morning from the sounds of air defense - I then looked at my watch. There were about 17 loud explosions, and three were right above our house. The cat stood on end. At first my husband insisted that it was thunder—a kind, naive soul. But then it became clear that such thunderstorms do not happen.

There were no sirens in our area - neither before, nor now. We just woke up from the noise. They didn’t go outside - they sat at home, in the corridor, between two walls. Among my friends, thank God, there were no casualties, but everyone was very scared.

It also happened before - we heard the same “boom” twice, but that was a long time ago, and then no one understood what was happening. Now it has become clear that even then it was most likely air defense.

And today a drone fell on my parents’ dacha in the western Moscow region. The windows there were broken, the veranda caught fire, and the bathhouse was damaged. Neighbors helped put out the fire.

To be honest, we already have enough of all this. I would like the country’s leadership to finally have enough.

Marina Antonova for “Berega”