Russia unleashed one of its heaviest bombardments of the war overnight, pounding Kyiv with hundreds of drones and missiles in an attack that killed at least four people and wounded dozens more, Ukrainian authorities said Sunday, May 24.
The assault, which Ukrainian officials said included the use of Moscow’s nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile, sent residents scrambling into underground shelters as explosions echoed across the capital through the early hours of the morning.
AFP journalists in Kyiv reported repeated blasts shaking the city as smoke rose from multiple districts. By daylight, emergency crews were battling fires and combing through rubble left behind by strikes that damaged residential buildings, schools, shopping centres, theatres, museums and universities. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched around 600 drones and 90 missiles during the attack, claiming that 549 drones and 55 missiles were intercepted.
Among those sheltering underground was 21-year-old Sofia Melnychenko, who described scenes of panic inside a metro station after nearby explosions caused parts of the ceiling to crumble. “There was complete chaos. Children started screaming, people were panicking,” she told AFP, describing the night as “very frightening.”
The strikes came days after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of retaliation following Ukrainian drone attacks in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine that Moscow says killed 21 people, many of them students housed in a vocational school dormitory in Starobilsk.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the barrage, accusing Russia of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure. “Russia is genuinely deranged,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram, citing damage to a water facility, schools and residential areas, as well as the reported launch of the Oreshnik missile toward Bila Tserkva, southwest of Kyiv.
Russia’s defence ministry confirmed it had used the Oreshnik missile for only the third time since the start of the war, saying the strike was carried out “in response to Ukraine’s terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure on Russian territory.” Moscow insisted it had targeted Ukrainian military and intelligence command posts and denied deliberately striking civilians.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said damage had been recorded in every district of the capital. Two people were killed in Kyiv itself, while regional officials said two more died in surrounding areas.
The attack also caused international fallout. Albanian authorities summoned the Russian ambassador after the residence of Albania’s envoy in Kyiv was damaged. German broadcaster ARD said its Kyiv studio building was also hit. Elsewhere in Ukraine, officials reported injuries in the Kharkiv, Cherkasy and Dnipropetrovsk regions as missile and drone strikes continued across the country.
European leaders sharply condemned the assault. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the strikes as “terror against civilians,” while French President Emmanuel Macron said the barrage demonstrated “the dead end of Russia’s war of aggression.” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the use of the Oreshnik missile a “reckless escalation.”
Ukraine has increasingly expanded its long-range drone operations in recent months, targeting Russian-controlled territory as well as infrastructure inside Russia. Kyiv says the strikes are retaliatory measures against Moscow’s sustained missile and drone campaign, which has battered Ukrainian cities since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Efforts led by the United States to broker an end to the conflict have slowed in recent months, with diplomatic focus increasingly shifting toward tensions in the Middle East.