14:02 18-05-2026

Moscow Drone Attack Came From Western Route, Steshin Says

Maxim Subotin, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dmitry Steshin says Ukrainian drones approached Moscow from the west, gathered before striking, and may have used relay UAVs and gray-zone links.

Military correspondent Dmitry Steshin believes that during the Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow on the night of May 17, the UAVs approached the capital from the west and then gathered before the main strike.

According to Steshin, the drones first broke into the protected perimeter by exhausting or distracting air defenses. After that, he said, they likely loitered in the air, accumulated in groups and then attacked the chosen target simultaneously.

He considers the western route the only direction from which the drones could have reached the Russian capital. Steshin also did not rule out that, during the final stage of the flight, the UAVs entered a so-called «gray zone» of communication using frequencies from 6180 to 6420 MHz.

In his view, some of the groups may have included special relay drones maintaining communication between the aircraft. Steshin believes such UAVs should be the first targets to be destroyed.

The May 17 attack on Moscow was described as the largest in the past year. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said that more than 130 drones were destroyed on approach to the city over the course of a day. The Russian Defense Ministry also reported that from 22:00 on May 16 to 07:00 on May 17, air defense systems shot down 556 Ukrainian UAVs, some of them over the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.