The Ukrainian capital woke Sunday to a skyline choked with black smoke.
Russia pummeled Kyiv with a massive wave of missile and drone strikes early Sunday, sparking fires and shaking buildings for hours in what Ukrainian officials described as one of the most severe bombardments the city has endured since the war began. By dawn, the scale of the destruction was becoming clear — and it was staggering.
690 Weapons in a Single Night
Ukraine’s air force confirmed Russia deployed 600 drones and 90 missiles in the attack, including a powerful hypersonic ballistic missile called the Oreshnik, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The combination of sheer volume and the inclusion of a weapon of that caliber elevated the strike into a category of its own in the four-year conflict.
At least 83 people were wounded in the attack. Four people were killed across Kyiv and the surrounding region. In Kyiv’s Shevchenko district, a five-story residential building was hit, which caused a fire and killed one person. The intense aerial assault damaged buildings across the Ukrainian capital, including near government offices, residential buildings, schools, and markets.
“Every District of the City”
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said there was damage in “every district of the city.” Damage was recorded in 40 locations across several districts of the capital, including residential buildings, according to Kyiv military administration head Tymur Tkachenko.
The human toll extended beyond the capital. Two people were killed and nine others injured in attacks on the broader Kyiv region. Eleven people were wounded in the central Ukrainian city of Cherkasy when a drone crashed into an apartment block.
Cultural Destruction on an Unprecedented Scale
Beyond the physical casualties, Sunday’s attack inflicted deep cultural wounds. Ukraine’s culture minister Tetyana Berezhna said the attacks damaged the largest number of cultural institutions in Kyiv since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
The National Museum “Chernobyl” in Podil was almost completely destroyed. The museum was housed in the historic early 20th-century Fire Watchtower — a monument of architecture, history, and monumental art of national significance. It was here in the 1980s that the fire department operated, one of the first to participate in the cleanup of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Of particular significance is the fact that the museum had only been reopened following extensive restoration in early May 2026, ahead of the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy. One of the city’s oldest markets also burned to the ground.
Windows were blown out in Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry building, and damage was reported in Kyiv’s historic Independence Square.
Zelenskyy Demands Consequences
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had warned on Saturday that Russia was preparing a major strike using the Oreshnik based on intelligence from Ukraine, the United States, and Europe, did not mince words after the attack. “It’s important that this does not remain without consequences for Russia,” he said on Telegram. “Decisions are needed — from the United States, from Europe and others.”
Zelenskyy also said Russia had targeted water-supply facilities, accusing Moscow of deliberately trying to damage them before summer increases demand.
Russia’s Justification — and the International Response
Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed it used the Oreshnik along with other missile types to strike Ukrainian military command and control facilities, air bases, and military industrial enterprises, adding the attack was retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on civilian facilities on Russian territory. Ukraine denies targeting civilians.
At a U.N. Security Council emergency meeting on the strike — held at Russia’s request — Ukrainian Ambassador Andrii Melnyk denied his Russian counterpart’s accusations of war crimes, calling them a “pure propaganda show” and asserting that Ukraine’s recent operations had exclusively targeted the Russian war machine.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was sending more support to help Ukraine reinforce its air defense systems, stating: “Russia’s massive attack on Ukraine last night shows the Kremlin’s brutality and disregard for both human life and peace negotiations. Terror against civilians is not strength. It’s despair.”
Many residents had sought shelter through the night in Kyiv’s metro stations. Nataliia Zvarych, 62, described rushing to her local station as the first explosions began rocking the city. “It was terrifying, scary,” she said. “We have been sitting here for more than three hours now, listening to the explosions up there.”
Ukrainian air defense forces intercepted most of the drones and more than half of the missiles — but what got through was enough to mark May 24, 2026 as one of the darkest nights of the war.