Putin Tells Trump of 524 Drones and Storm Shadow Missiles that Ukraine Launched at Moscow Ahead of May 9 Parade

During the phone call on May 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin told US President Donald Trump about the prevention of terrorist attacks near the Kremlin and Red Square on the night of May 7, Putin's aide, Yuri Ushakov said.

"On the night of May 6 to 7, Ukraine launched 524 drones against Russian territory, as well as American Storm Shadow missiles (which are actually British-made), with most of them targeting Moscow. Virtually all were intercepted. At the same time, threats of terrorist attacks in central Moscow, near the Kremlin and Red Square, were also prevented," Ushakov quoted the president as saying.

Putin emphasized that the Ukrainian objective was to intimidate guests attending the 80th anniversary of Victory Day in order to deter foreign leaders from traveling to Moscow.

According to Ushakov, a significant part of the conversation between the two presidents focused on the wartime alliance between the Soviet Union and the United States during World War II.

"Trump remembers that wartime brotherhood and regretfully noted that, for strange reasons, our countries today are quite far apart," Ushakov said.

Trump reportedly added that people in the US don't believe him when he says the Soviet people suffered the highest losses during the war.

Between May 6 and 7, several drone attacks were repelled in the Moscow region, with temporary disruptions at airports in various Russian cities. Drone interceptions also occurred in the regions of Yaroslavl, Kaluga, Tula, Ryazan, Oryol, Kursk, Voronezh, Bryansk, and others.

The following leaders attended the May 9 Victory Day parade on Red Square:

• Chinese President Xi Jinping,
• Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić,
• Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico,
• Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev,
• Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko,

as well as representatives from Venezuela, Cuba, the Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, and others – nearly 30 leaders in total.

Details

The Storm Shadow is a Franco-British low-observable, long-range air-launched cruise missile developed since 1994 by Matra and British Aerospace, and now manufactured by MBDA. "Storm Shadow" is the weapon's British name; in France it is called SCALP-EG (which stands for "Système de Croisière Autonome à Longue Portée – Emploi Général"; English: "Long Range Autonomous Cruise Missile System – General Purpose"). The missile is based on the French-developed Apache anti-runway cruise missile, but differs in that it carries a unitary warhead instead of cluster munitions.