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The interiors of apartments in a damaged residential building are exposed following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Russia launched a massive overnight missile and drone assault on Kyiv early Sunday, striking residential areas, a school and commercial buildings across the Ukrainian capital, days after Moscow vowed retaliation for Ukrainian attacks in Russian-occupied territory that it said killed 18 people. The barrage injured at least 10 people, triggered fires in multiple districts and forced residents into underground shelters as air raid sirens echoed across the city for hours.The attack, which Ukrainian authorities described as a “mass ballistic missile attack”, continued into Sunday morning with officials warning that additional missiles and drones were still approaching the capital.“The capital has come under a mass ballistic missile attack,” Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, wrote on Telegram. “There are currently reports of at least 4 locations affected by the attack: Shevchenkivsky, Dniprovsky and Podilsky districts. Fires and damage to residential buildings are preliminarily reported.”“A strike drone attack is ongoing; the ballistic missile threat remains present. Stay in shelters!” he added.Powerful explosions were heard across central Kyiv overnight, including near government offices, according to Associated Press journalists on the ground. Buildings shook from the impact of the strikes as thick smoke billowed across parts of the city.Kyiv mayor Vitalii Klitschko said a school building in the Shevchenkivsky district was damaged while civilians were sheltering inside. “A school has been hit… in Shevchenkivsky district,” Klitschko posted on Telegram, adding that a fire had broken out.Emergency crews were also dispatched to Kyiv’s Podilsky district after debris fell in a non-residential area, while fires erupted near residential buildings in the Shevchenkivsky district, damaging windows and surrounding structures.Authorities said damage was reported across at least nine districts of the capital, with supermarkets, warehouses and residential complexes among the sites hit. Multiple communities in the wider Kyiv region also suffered damage, regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk said.The strikes came after Russia warned of retaliation for recent Ukrainian attacks in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. Moscow earlier accused Kyiv of carrying out strikes on a college dormitory that allegedly killed 18 people.Ahead of the assault, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia could launch a major airstrike involving the Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile, citing intelligence shared by the United States and Western allies. Ukraine’s Air Force later issued a warning about a possible Oreshnik launch, although it was not immediately clear whether the missile was used in Sunday’s attack.Russia first deployed the Oreshnik missile against the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024 and used it again in the western Lviv region earlier this year.Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed the nuclear-capable missile travels at Mach 10 and can penetrate underground bunkers several floors deep. Describing the weapon as travelling “like a meteorite”, Putin has also asserted that the missile is immune to existing air defence systems and that multiple conventional strikes using the weapon could rival the devastation caused by a nuclear attack.
