The Russian military unleashed one of its most devastating and heaviest aerial bombardments of the entire war overnight, pounding the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and multiple other regions with hundreds of explosive drones and cruise missiles. Ukrainian authorities confirmed on Sunday, May 24, that the coordinated assault killed at least four people, wounded dozens more, and caused catastrophic destruction across the country. The sophisticated attack, which Ukrainian officials revealed included the deployment of Moscow’s highly advanced, nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile, sent thousands of terrified residents scrambling into underground metro stations and bomb shelters as thunderous explosions echoed across the capital through the early hours of the morning.
Journalists on the ground in Kyiv reported that repeated, violent blasts shook the entire city for hours while thick plumes of dark smoke rose from multiple heavily hit districts. By daylight, emergency response crews, firefighters, and medical personnel were battling raging infernos and frantically combing through piles of smoldering rubble left behind by the strikes. The incoming fire heavily damaged numerous residential buildings, primary schools, shopping centers, local theaters, historical museums, and prominent universities. According to an official statement issued by Ukraine’s air force, Russia launched a staggering wave of around 600 loitering munitions and 90 cruise and ballistic missiles during the multi-pronged assault. Ukrainian air defense systems actively engaged the targets, claiming that 549 drones and 55 missiles were successfully intercepted across various sectors.
Among the thousands of civilians sheltering deep underground during the midnight barrage was 21-year-old Sofia Melnychenko. She described scenes of pure panic inside a central metro station after nearby detonations sent shockwaves through the structure, causing parts of the plaster ceiling to crumble down onto the tracks. She stated that there was complete chaos, children started screaming, and people were panicking, describing the intense experience as very frightening.
The widespread strikes came just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly issued a stern warning of harsh retaliation following recent Ukrainian long-range drone attacks in Russian-occupied territory in eastern Ukraine. Moscow claimed those prior Ukrainian strikes had killed 21 people, many of whom were young students housed inside a vocational school dormitory in the town of Starobilsk.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky strongly condemned the relentless overnight barrage, accusing the Kremlin of deliberately targeting critical civilian infrastructure to terrorize the population. Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Zelensky stated that Russia is genuinely deranged, citing extensive damage to a vital municipal water facility, public schools, and densely populated residential neighborhoods. He also highlighted the reported launch of the sophisticated Oreshnik missile toward the city of Bila Tserkva, located southwest of Kyiv.
Conversely, Russia’s defense ministry formally confirmed that it had deployed the hypersonic Oreshnik missile for only the third time since the outbreak of the full-scale conflict. The ministry stated that the high-precision strike was carried out in direct response to Ukraine’s terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure situated on Russian territory. Officials in Moscow insisted that their forces had exclusively targeted Ukrainian military command centers and intelligence posts, denying any deliberate attempts to strike civilians or non-military buildings.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced during a press briefing that severe structural damage had been recorded in every single district of the capital. He confirmed that two people were killed within Kyiv city limits, while regional officials later stated that two additional individuals had died in the surrounding suburban areas.
The geopolitical fallout of the massive bombardment quickly reverberated internationally. Albanian authorities announced they had officially summoned the Russian ambassador after the diplomatic residence of Albania’s envoy in Kyiv sustained notable physical damage during the strikes. Furthermore, the prominent German public broadcaster ARD reported that its studio building in Kyiv was also struck and damaged by falling debris. Elsewhere across Ukraine, regional administrators reported multiple civilian injuries in the Kharkiv, Cherkasy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions as secondary missile and drone strikes continued well into Sunday.
European leaders reacted with sharp condemnation of the escalating Russian assault. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen characterized the latest strikes as blatant terror against civilians, while French President Emmanuel Macron stated that the devastating barrage clearly demonstrated the deep dead end of Russia’s war of aggression. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the specific use of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile a reckless escalation that threatened to push the conflict into a more dangerous phase.
In recent months, Ukraine has increasingly expanded its long-range domestic drone operations, targeting strategic infrastructure, fuel depots, and military logistics hubs inside Russian-controlled territory as well as deep within the borders of the Russian federation itself. Kyiv maintains that these operations are necessary retaliatory measures against Moscow's sustained aerial campaign, which has continually battered Ukrainian cities and crippled the national energy grid since the full-scale invasion was launched in early 2022.
Despite the worsening violence on the ground, high-level diplomatic efforts led by the United States to broker a sustainable ceasefire or end to the conflict have slowed significantly in recent months, with global diplomatic focus increasingly shifting toward parallel geopolitical tensions and conflicts in the Middle East.
