Russia Launches Largest Aerial Barrage of War on Ukraine

Russia's largest single-day aerial barrage of the four-year war landed on Ukraine on May 13 while President Volodymyr Zelensky was at the Bucharest Nine summit selling Ukraine's combat experience to Europe — and while Russian forces on the ground were pulling back from one of the war's hardest-fought settlements.

Russia launched 753 drones at Ukraine in waves from midnight onwards, hitting Kyiv, Lviv near the Polish border, Odesa on the Black Sea, and energy, defence and government infrastructure in attacks that ran for hours; at least six were killed and dozens including children wounded. Ukrainian military intelligence said the waves were deliberately routed near NATO borders and timed to coincide with Trump's arrival in Beijing. The barrage was the largest Russian aerial attack against western Ukraine of the war and reached Zakarpattia Oblast for the first time. Strikes targeted infrastructure rather than the open battlefield, in keeping with Moscow's recent shift away from the contested forward edge.

Zelensky's response was political. Addressing the Bucharest Nine summit in Romania during the barrage, he urged Europe to incorporate Ukraine's battlefield experience into the EU SAFE rearmament programme and offered bilateral drone deals with NATO's eastern flank, arguing that modern warfare requires not just weapons but the rapid adaptation only an active combatant can supply. The Bucharest Nine and Nordic countries issued a joint call for increased pressure on Russia and reaffirmed support for Ukraine's NATO trajectory, pledging to strengthen NATO's eastern defences. In a separate Tuesday-evening address, Zelensky announced the formation of an "anti-ballistic coalition" with European partners after a Kyiv meeting that brought together national security advisers from 13 nations plus a representative from the NATO Secretary General's office; Ukraine continues to coordinate with the United States on air defence.

The ground picture undercut Russia's force-projection narrative. Brigade commander Ihor Burdeinyi (128th Separate Zakarpattia Mountain Assault Brigade) said Russian forces were abandoning attempts to take Stepnohirsk in Zaporizhzhia Oblast after heavy losses, with the average newly mobilized Russian soldier surviving roughly 12 minutes in the sector; the settlement remains fully under Ukrainian control with no Russian troops inside. The civilian toll was quantified separately. Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets reported May 13 that 2025 had become the deadliest year for civilians since the start of the full-scale invasion: 2,514 killed and 12,142 wounded in government-controlled territory, against a running tally since February 2022 of 15,172 civilians killed including 686 children, with the figure from occupied territories still unknown.

Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russian energy infrastructure continued through the same window. A Ukrainian drone hit on May 7 forced a complete shutdown of Russia's Perm oil refinery — three primary distillation units and secondary units halted, with repairs expected to take weeks. Overnight on 12-13 May, Ukrainian Special Operations Forces struck the loading pier of the Tamanneftegaz oil terminal on the Taman Peninsula, more than 300 km from the front line. Drones also targeted Kacha Airfield, Hvardiiske, Simferopol and the Tavriya Thermal Power Plant in Crimea overnight; occupying forces closed the Kerch Bridge, turned off its lighting, and reported gunfire and explosions over the strait.

Diplomatic friction kept pace with the strikes. Putin and Zelensky both voiced scepticism about the US-led peace initiative, widening the gap between Washington's framing and the parties' actual stance. Trump, departing for Beijing, said the end of the war was "very close" — the US-brokered three-day ceasefire had expired May 11 with no diplomatic follow-on. A Russian drone struck a residential building on Konovaltsia Street in Ivano-Frankivsk, injuring several with no reported fatalities according to Mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv. Slovakia closed all border crossings with Ukraine at 3 pm local time citing unspecified security concerns, with no end date set.