Report: Russian state TV channels played down scale of Ukraine’s strike on Moscow
Russia’s three main state television channels — Channel One, Russia-1, and NTV — played down one of the largest Ukrainian drone strikes on Moscow, the independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo reported on May 17.
On Channel One’s 10 a.m. broadcast, anchor Maxim Sharafutdinov left the mass drone attack out of his four-story rundown, waiting a minute and a half into the program before covering it in the first full segment.
Anchors on Russia-1‘s Vesti and NTV’s Segodnya did the same. The channels framed the Ukrainian strike as a just-breaking development, Agentstvo noted, even though several hours had passed since the attack.
None of the channels aired a full-length segment on the strike, the outlet said — though all three described it as one of the most massive in recent years.
Channel One’s noon broadcast announced that Russia had already delivered a “response” to the mass attack. “The VSU’s infrastructure is on fire,” the program opened, with the on-screen caption reading “Response to the attacks.” “In response to Kyiv’s terrorist attacks, our army is striking military targets in the rear areas of Ukraine,” Channel One said.
Ukraine launched one of the largest drone strikes on Moscow overnight on May 17, striking the city with several dozen drones, according to Russian authorities. Three people were killed and 16 wounded in Moscow and the Moscow Region, with residential buildings and oil facilities damaged. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it a “just” response to Russian strikes.
Russia struck Ukraine overnight on May 17, deploying around 300 drones. According to Ukrainian authorities, a factory and private homes were damaged in Dnipro, with three people wounded. A gas station burned down in Zaporizhzhia Region, and a local resident was injured.
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