“I heard them flying. It’s like there are a lot of motorcycles coming.”

Be careful, this text contains obscenities. If this is unacceptable to you, do not read it.

“When will they calm down?!”

Local resident Natalya hears for the first time from a Bereg correspondent that Zelenograd was hit by drone strikes on the night of May 17. Natalya is 57 and usually gets her news from federal TV channels, but propagandists did not pay attention to the largest drone attack on Moscow since the beginning of the war.

“I still thought it was so loud?! - Natalya recalls how at three o’clock in the morning she woke up from loud sounds from the street. “When will they calm down?!”

They are Ukrainian military. Natalya believes that Ukraine started the war, and Russia “had no choice” but to launch a full-scale invasion.

At first, the Zelenograd media and telegram channels also wrote almost nothing about the drone strikes, and they tried to delete comments from alarmed citizens as quickly as possible. In their justification, journalists and community administrators explained that they were only obeying the demands of the Moscow anti-terrorism commission. On May 12, she banned the dissemination of information about drone attacks and their consequences until the Ministry of Defense or the Moscow City Hall publishes this data.

“If you are ready to pay us a fine of up to 200 thousand, then we will write more definitely,” representatives of one of the local telegram channels quipped in response to a subscriber’s comment.

Household and district chats became the main platforms for discussing attacks. On the night of the attack, neighbors shared their emotions with each other and consulted on how best to protect themselves. “Is it time to sit in the bath yet? It’s a bit restless in the bed near the window,” one of the residents asked. “I put the youngest [child] in the hallway,” writes another. “We’re sitting on the staircase,” responded a third. Judging by reports, some took refuge in the hallways with their pets during the explosions.

Zelenograd has been the target of drone strikes more than once . This area of ​​Moscow is of interest to the Ukrainian Armed Forces because more than a dozen defense enterprises are concentrated there. Some of them were attacked by the Ukrainian army twice in May 2026: the Angstrem plant, which produces microcircuits and semiconductor devices, and the Elma technology park located in a nearby building, whose residents also produce micro- and radioelectronics products.

In addition to sensitive facilities, drones hit two residential buildings. One of them, a 14-story building built at the end of the 2000s for displaced people from five-story Khrushchev-era apartment buildings, is located in the very center of Zelenograd.

“Are there any bomb shelters here?”

A day after the strike, emergency services continue to work: several construction lifts are stationed near the house. Workers in hard hats collect the remaining debris and take measurements so they can later replace the windows knocked out by the shock wave.

The corner of the first floor where the Papa John's pizzeria was located was hit the hardest - only small fragments of the company's green cladding now remind us that one of the chain's outlets operated here. The window openings are sealed with slabs of compressed wood chips. Next to the high-rise building there are two cars: one has a windshield that is cracked like a cobweb, the other has no front glass at all - instead there is a plastic film stretched over it.

On the side of the roadway, near the house that came under attack, metal fences with red and white warning tape and the inscription “Passage closed” were put up. Workers in hard hats and men with badges and documents in their hands scurry past.

Passers-by walking along the sidewalk slow down, cyclists slow down - almost everyone is interested in considering the consequences of the attack.

“Nothing, look, some windows are intact!” — a man of about forty says to his friend in surprise.

Having reached the most destroyed part of the facade, the blonde in a blue dress looks around, takes out a smartphone, films the work of the emergency service on video and hides the gadget in her bag. Next to her is a schoolgirl on a scooter - it looks like it's her daughter. She also takes out her phone and points the camera at the building.

“Baby, you can’t take pictures. Went!" — the blonde commands. The girl lowers her phone in bewilderment.

In the vicinity of the high-rise building there are several more buildings with broken windows: nearby the façade of the Perekrestok supermarket is covered with red and white tape; across the road there is a lift operating at another residential building. The lawn next to the roadway is almost scorched; several trees and bushes have branches with dark green leaves that have dried out from the explosion.

“We need to prevent a drone from flying into the 16th [Zelenograd microdistrict],” argues an elderly man in a cap, leaning on a bicycle and addressing a young man sitting on a bench, whose arms and neck are almost completely covered with tattoos.

“We must not fly anywhere, there are people everywhere,” the young man clarifies.

The man in the cap takes out his smartphone and begins to read news about the war out loud. He is dissatisfied: in the telegram channel to which he subscribes, they talk about attacks on Mytishchi, Krasnogorsk, Khimki and Istra - but do not mention the attacks on Zelenograd. The author of the telegram channel reports that “the enemy is planning a [new] mass launch of drones on Moscow.”

“The crests also want to launch missiles at us, then it will be a complete mess!” — he looks up from the phone. — I don’t know, are there any bomb shelters here?

“It seems like there is in the 14th [microdistrict],” answers his tattooed interlocutor.

- Yeah, in 14th. Until you get to him...

Speaking about the fact that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will launch long-range missile strikes deep into Russian territory, the man in the cap recalls the statement Donald Trump made in the fall of 2025. Then the American president said that he accepted the possibility of providing Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles if Russia continued to drag out the war.

“Unlike Putin, Trump keeps his word! - says the Zelenograd resident. “Putin only talks about his Sarmatians and Oreshniki.”

In fact, three weeks after his statement about the Tomahawks, the US leader suddenly told reporters that he was not going to provide these missiles to Ukraine after all.

The man in the cap apparently doesn’t know this. He continues to curse both Putin and Ukraine, and with them the countries of Europe and China.

“Only four countries are helping us, why can’t we ask China to destroy [Ukraine] too? — the Zelenograd resident is perplexed. - We were surrounded by the fucking Baltic states. Baltic is the size of a chicken egg. German sixes!

“Vladimir Vladimirovich said that the air defense forces worked satisfactorily!”

The second high-rise building, which was hit by another Ukrainian drone, received less attention from passers-by. The building is located in a microdistrict far from the center, and the blow fell on the façade, which is difficult to see from the road.

At the same time, the damage here is much more serious - emergency services had to not only bring lifts, but also build eight-story scaffolding. They are covered with dark green mesh, through which you can see workers throwing broken pieces of facade insulation to the ground. Almost the entire perimeter of the high-rise building is surrounded by metal fences.

It is very noisy nearby: a percussion instrument is playing almost non-stop. But this does not stop those who want to take a look: women with children, couples, pensioners and schoolchildren of different ages gather around the fence. Some occupy benches and swings that offer a better view of the damage, and watch the emergency services work like a show.

In the afternoon, there are noticeably more schoolchildren - their classes should have ended. Groups of teenagers with snacks and two-liter bottles of lemonade in their hands are seated on the lawn.

"This is my home!" — one of the boys shouts boastfully to his comrades, trying to shout over the construction equipment and squabbling workers.

On a bench a little further away, two women in their fifties are discussing what to do in the event of repeated attacks.

— Do you hang any [protective films] on the windows?

- For what?

- Well, from these... planes! Or what's their name?

- It is necessary, it is necessary, the danger persists.

Armored film is unlikely to help if there is a direct hit from the drone. But if the impact hits a building nearby and a blast wave reaches the house, the film will hold the broken glass in the frame and will not allow the fragments to scatter throughout the apartment.

“Imagine, the blow was such that I even heard it all in the 9th microdistrict,” laments a grey-haired, thin woman.

“In 1717, we also had normal clapping,” nods a large man in a light T-shirt.

“I even heard them flying.” It looks like there are a lot of motorcycles coming.

Zelenograd residents are discussing who behaved how during the attack. One resident says that the first thing she did was collect the most important documents, put them in a bag and hang it on the handle of the front door. Another says she started Googling how to insure her apartment.

— And Vladimir Vladimirovich said yesterday that the air defense forces worked satisfactorily! — the large man says with a grin. - I almost fainted!

- Maybe they don’t report this to him at all? This is an incident of local significance, so he doesn’t know.

“Satisfactory—that means a C,” the man continues. - Well, what's a C here?

Townspeople agree that the poor performance of the air defense, in their opinion, is one of the reasons why Muscovites were prohibited from disseminating information about the attacks under threat of a fine. But Zelenograd residents have different attitudes towards the ban itself.

“Okay, you sent [the photo or video] to your friend, but the enemy is not asleep either,” one of the participants in the conversation stands up for the authorities.

- And what? Do you think the enemy himself knows nothing?

When asked who is responsible for the fact that drones began hitting residential buildings in their city, Zelenograd residents do not have a clear answer.

“[Ukraine] says that we are delaying the war, but we say that they are delaying it,” says a grey-haired, thin woman. - I don’t know, but I don’t trust anyone. Our conditions have become completely unbearable. We are tired of the war."

“If the plant had exploded, half of Kapotnya would have been demolished”

In Kapotnya, southeast of Moscow, the target of Ukrainian drones was a Gazprom-owned oil refinery. It was built separately from residential areas back in 1938, but since then residential high-rise buildings have grown around the refinery.

“After all, this is Moscow, how can that be!” - exclaims a 22-year-old Rostovite who moved to the capital a few months ago.

He himself has long been accustomed to shelling: they happen often in his hometown. The Rostov resident spent the night from May 16 to May 17 in Maryino, visiting friends. The group drank for a long time, and met the dawn - and the arrival of the drones at about 4 a.m. - on the balcony.

“To be honest, I was already asleep,” admits the interlocutor of “Berega,” “but mine drank all night. We ran for more three times. Did they hear a wild roar, or as they say, “pop”? In general, this is the “applause” they heard.”

The refinery is huge. It consists of concrete buildings, an endless string of pipes and metal ceilings, among which stands out a building similar to a shopping center with a Gazprom sign. Next to it is a checkpoint through which tired men with sports bags go out into the street. There is also a half-empty parking lot along which there are some broken windows. Some are very small, while others are entire pieces of windows, all covered in a “cobweb”.

At a distance from the entrance there is a small green area with benches and awnings. Three men in shorts, slippers and T-shirts walk past. The two begin to look for something in the fence bars.

- Oh, girl, what’s wrong with your lip? - one of this company approaches the Bereg correspondent.

- It's just an earring, a piercing.

- Oh, I thought you were hit by a drone.

As soon as I asked a question about the night attack, all three suddenly turned pale, fell silent and continued their search.

The consequences of the drone attack in Kapotny could have been extremely severe if the strike had hit a plant with oil waste. But the drones did not hit a single building of the refinery - only the checkpoint, where, according to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, 12 workers were injured.

At a bus stop next to the oil refinery, a woman with two heavy bags is waiting for the bus. She looks thoughtfully towards the plant and says: “Yes, it rumbled, here, but further away. If this plant had exploded, half of Kapotnya would have been demolished.”

"Shore"