Russia struck Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with a massive wave of missiles and drones on Sunday, killing four people in the city and surrounding region and injuring more than 80, officials said.
Explosions reverberated through Kyiv just after 1am, following a warning by Ukraine’s air force on its Telegram channel that Russia might launch a hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky later confirmed Russia’s use of the nuclear-capable intermediate-range missile.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that two people had been killed and 56 others injured in the attacks on the city, with 30 of those hospitalised. Some damage was reported in the city’s historic Independence Square.
“It was a terrible night for Kyiv,” Klitschko said in a Telegram message from the site of one attack. “Right now, rescuers are putting out fires and clearing debris. Medics are providing assistance to the victims.”
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had used 600 drones and 90 missiles in the overnight strikes, including a medium-range ballistic missile. Ukraine’s air defences intercepted 549 of the drones and 55 of the missiles.
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© France 24
01:39
Many residents sought shelter overnight in the city’s metro stations. Nataliia Zvarych, 62, said she had rushed to her local station as explosions started 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.”
The head of the city’s military administration said that more than 40 locations in the city had been damaged.
Strikes were reported in other parts of Ukraine. A further two people were killed and nine others injured in attacks on the broader Kyiv region surrounding the capital, said regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk.
Putin had warned of retaliation
As the sun rose, black smoke from several fires drifted across the skyline, leaving an acrid smell in parts of the city. Firefighters used hoses to douse the flames in damaged buildings while rescue workers evacuated the wounded.
The front facade of one five-storey residential building had collapsed, images showed. Officials reported damage to offices, shops, warehouses and the foyer of a metro station.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had warned on Saturday that Russia was preparing a strike against Ukraine using the Oreshnik missile, citing intelligence from Ukraine, the US and Europe.
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Varios residentes retiran cristales rotos en un edificio de apartamentos dañado tras un ataque ucraniano con drones en el transcurso del conflicto entre Rusia y Ucrania, en Krasnogorsk, en la región de Moscú, Rusia, el 17 de mayo de 2026. REUTERS - Stringer
01:48
Russia has already attacked Ukraine twice with the Oreshnik, a missile with a range of several thousand kilometres and capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Russian President Vladimir Putin has boasted that it is impossible to intercept because of its reported velocity of more than 10 times the speed of sound.
Zelenskiy’s warning came after Putin ordered his military to prepare options for retaliation against Ukraine for a drone strike on a student dorm in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine on Friday.
Ukraine’s military denied the accusations and said it had targeted a Russian drone command unit.
Neighbouring Poland activated its military aviation during the strikes on Sunday, but no violations of its airspace were detected, the Polish army said.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AFP)
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