Ukraine conducts large-scale drone strikes on Russia, killing 4 and wounding a dozen others

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — One of Ukraine's largest drone strikes on Russia killed at least four people, including three near Moscow, and wounded a dozen others, local authorities said Sunday. Debris fell on Russia's largest airport without causing damage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the drone strikes, saying that they were “entirely justified.” Russia has repeatedly launched similar attacks on Ukraine's capital and other cities during the war, and an expert said that the strikes appeared to be retaliation for recent Russian attacks on Kyiv.

Russian drone strikes on Ukraine overnight wounded eight people, Ukrainian authorities said.

In Ukraine's strikes on Russia, a woman was killed after a drone hit her home in Khimki, a Russian city just northwest of Moscow, and two men died in the village of Pogorelki, which is 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the capital, according to local Gov. Andrei Vorobyev.

Ukrainian drones had also damaged unspecified “infrastructure” and several high-rise buildings, Vorobyev said on social media.

One man was also killed after a drone struck a truck in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, according to local authorities.

In Moscow itself, at least 12 people were wounded in the nighttime strike, mostly near the entrance to the city’s oil refinery, mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported. Sobyanin reported that the “technology” of the refinery hadn't been damaged.

Hours later, the Indian Embassy in Moscow reported that an Indian worker died in a drone strike “in (the) Moscow region,” while three other Indian nationals were hospitalized with injuries. It wasn't immediately clear whether the worker was one of the three people reported dead by Moscow region officials, or a further fatality.

Russia’s largest airport — Moscow’s Sheremetyevo — said that drone debris had fallen on its grounds without causing damage or affecting flights.

Russian defenses shot down 81 drones headed for Moscow overnight, state agency Tass reported, citing Sobyanin, marking one of the largest attacks on the city since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Russian air defenses overnight destroyed 556 drones over Russia, the occupied Crimean Peninsula and the Azov and Black Seas, the Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday morning. Shortly after midday local time, it reported that more than 1,000 drones had been shot down or jammed in the previous 24 hours.

Zelenskyy said that the drones had flown more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Ukrainian territory, and that Ukraine was “overcoming” Russian air defense systems concentrated in and around the capital.

“Our responses to Russia’s prolongation of the war and attacks on our cities and communities are entirely justified. This time, Ukrainian long-distance sanctions have reached the Moscow region, and we are clearly telling the Russians: their state must end its war,” Zelenskyy said.

Nigel Gould Davies, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank, said that Ukraine's large-scale attack appeared to be “the retaliation or revenge that President Zelenskyy promised after the fierce attacks that Russia carried out on Kyiv.”

Those strikes came immediately after the end of a brief ceasefire that allowed Russia to hold its annual Victory Day parade on May 9 commemorating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during World War II.

Russia and Ukraine accused each other of repeatedly violating the pause in hostilities.

“It brings home the fact Ukraine has the capacity to strike at very significant scale at or around the Russian capital,” taking the war home to Russians in a way that would be “most unwelcome” to the Kremlin, Gould Davies told The Associated Press.

“There is no ongoing peace process to disrupt. What (the attack) is more likely to do is add to the darkening cloud of anxiety over Russia which has developed palpably over the last three or four months,” he said.

He cited a combination of factors, including Russia's recent battlefield setbacks, a deteriorating economic situation at home, and the Kremlin's intensifying crackdown on the internet, including in Moscow and Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg.

“The fact that Ukraine is reminding the Moscow population that it is vulnerable to these attacks is likely to intensify the mix of concerns now,” Gould Davies said. “I see no prospect though, in the shorter term, that even these factors together will induce Russia to consider the compromises that will be necessary for peace negotiations.”

Ukrainian drones are also flying deep into Russia to strike oil facilities, sending up plumes of smoke that can be seen from space and bringing toxic rain to tourist destinations on the Black Sea. The attacks are aimed at slashing Moscow’s oil exports, a key source of funding for Russia's grinding invasion of Ukraine.

While their the economic impact is so far unclear — as the rise in oil prices from the Iran war, and a related easing of U.S. sanctions, have helped replenish the Kremlin’s coffers — the range of the strikes and their environmental impact is bringing the war home to ordinary Russians far from the front lines.

Russia attacked Ukraine with 287 drones overnight into Sunday, 279 of which were shot down or jammed, the Ukrainian air force reported.

The strikes wounded 8 people in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region: three in the regional capital of Dnipro, four in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih, and one in the district of Synelkove, Ukraine’s state emergency service said.

Residential buildings were damaged in all three locations, the service said.

Emma Burrows contributed to this report from Tallinn, Estonia.

FILE - Aeroflot's passengers planes are parked at Sheremetyevo airport, outside Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. (AP Photo, File)

This photo released by Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev's official telegram channel shows the damage after a Ukrainian drone attack, just outside Moscow, Russia, on Sunday, May 17, 2026. (Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev's official telegram channel via AP)

This photo released by Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev's official telegram channel shows a house on fire after a Ukrainian attack in Khimki, just outside Moscow, Russia, on Sunday, May 17, 2026. (Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev's official telegram channel via AP)

WEST BERLIN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 17, 2026--

United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 360 ( https://www.ufcw360.org/cannabis-campaign ) announced today that manufacturing workers at New Jersey cannabis company Smiling Bud ( https://smilingbud.com/ ) have voted to unionize with Local 360, extending the union’s growing presence across the state’s legal cannabis industry.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260917917824/en/

Based in Ridgefield, NJ, Smiling Bud operates a 52,000-square-foot cannabis facility providing services that include extraction, manufacturing, packaging and fulfillment. Its manufacturing capabilities include edibles and concentrates, along with white-label, private-label and co-manufacturing services for cannabis brands.

For Smiling Bud employee Jessyca Padilla, the decision to organize was about having a meaningful voice in the workplace and standing with coworkers.

“I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t scary,” said Padilla. “Taking a stand and speaking up for yourself and your coworkers can feel incredibly vulnerable, especially when you don’t know how the people above you will respond. But I also know how much my team cares about this work and about each other. For me, this is about building a workplace where people feel respected, heard, supported and valued. Unionizing is our way of saying that we believe our voices matter. I’m proud to stand alongside my coworkers, and hopeful that together we can create a better future at Smiling Bud.”

The Smiling Bud vote represents another step in UFCW Local 360’s efforts to organize workers across New Jersey’s cannabis supply chain. Through its Cannabis Workers Rising campaign, the union represents workers in retail dispensaries, cultivation, and manufacturing, as well as other areas of the industry.

“Jessyca’s words say a lot about why workers organize,” said Hugh Giordano, UFCW Local 360’s director of organizing. “It takes courage to stand up and say you want a voice in your future, and it takes commitment to join your coworkers in making it happen. Manufacturing workers are essential to developing and creating the products that ultimately reach consumers. And like all workers, they deserve respect, stability and the opportunity to build real careers as this industry grows.”

An important component of New Jersey’s regulated marketplace, manufacturers transform cannabis into finished products, including concentrates and edibles, and provide production, packaging and related services so brands and retailers can bring those products to market.

For Local 360, organizing manufacturing employees is part of its broader effort to ensure that New Jersey’s cannabis industry creates sustainable career opportunities at every level. Its Cannabis Workers Rising team has been central to the development and stabilization of New Jersey’s legal cannabis industry, helping workers organize and negotiate for better wages, workplace protections, benefits and career opportunities.

“New Jersey cannabis isn’t an experiment anymore. It’s an industry, and an increasingly sophisticated one,” said Sam Ferraino, Jr., president of UFCW Local 360. “That means any conversation about its future must include workers throughout the supply chain. From cultivation and manufacturing to sales and retail, it’s the workers who move this industry forward, every day. They deserve to have a say in what it becomes. We’re very proud to welcome the workers at Smiling Bud to Local 360.”

From seed to sale, UFCW is a national leader in cannabis labor organizing and is the official cannabis union recognized by the AFL-CIO. UFCW represents tens of thousands of workers in dispensaries, grow operations, labs, delivery services, manufacturing and processing facilities across the U.S., working with employees and business owners toward the shared goal of a regulated cannabis industry that delivers family-sustaining jobs and is focused on social equity.

About United Food and Commercial Workers: The UFCW International Union represents over 1.3 million hardworking families across the U.S. and Canada. These members work in essential industries such as Retail, Warehousing, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Transportation, the Public Sector and Cannabis. More at www.ufcw360.org.

Some of the manufacturing employees at Ridgefield, NJ, based Smiling Bud gathered to celebrate their recent successful vote in favor of unionizing with UFCW Local 360.