OLEKSIJEVA DRUZHKIVKA, UKRAINE – MAY 23: View of destruction after Russian shelling of the non-public sector in Oleksijeva Druzhkivka, Donetsk oblast, Ukraine on Could 23, 2025. (Photograph by Jose Colon/Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs)
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Russia launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles at Kyiv in a single day in one of many greatest mixed aerial assaults on the Ukrainian capital of the three-year warfare, damaging a number of house buildings and injuring 15 folks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated in a social media put up it had been a “powerful evening” for Ukraine, and known as for brand spanking new worldwide sanctions to stress Moscow into agreeing to a ceasefire.
Within the early hours of the morning, Reuters witnesses noticed and heard successive waves of drones flying over Kyiv, and a collection of explosions jolted the town. The capital additionally reverberated with the sound of anti-aircraft batteries attempting to convey down the drones.
Photos from Reuters photographers confirmed an orange-red glow lighting up the town as plumes of smoke blew throughout the horizon. On the highest ground of 1 house constructing, smoke and flames billowed out of a balcony window as firefighters tried to strategy.
By dawn, authorities officers reported harm in six districts of the Ukrainian capital, and a complete to date of 15 folks wounded. Three required hospitalisation. Two of the injured had been youngsters, the officers stated.
The Kyiv metropolis army administration described it as one of many largest mixed drone and missile assaults of the warfare.
The assaults come as U.S. President Donald Trump is encouraging Russia and Ukraine to take a seat down for ceasefire talks to finish the warfare, however has pushed again in opposition to a European plan to impose new sanctions on Russia.
Halyna Tatarchuk, a 63-year-old pensioner, was in her house when a drone hit the constructing. She and her husband had been within the hall, away from the home windows. “That saved us,” she stated.
She fled to a bomb shelter at a close-by college, then at daylight returned to examine the harm. All of the home windows of her house had been smashed, and the ground was coated in fragments of glass.
“I would like Trump to see this,” she stated, standing in her kitchen. “What’s he doing? Can he actually not see this? …It is the destruction of a folks, they’re simply destroying us,” she stated, referring to the Russian army.
On the street under her third-floor home windows, bushes had been splintered by the blast and automobile home windows had been smashed. Municipal employees had been utilizing a mini-excavator to clear up particles from the bottom.
Ceasefire talks
Ukraine’s air drive stated that Russia had fired 14 ballistic missiles at targets throughout Ukraine in a single day and launched 250 long-range drones, with Kyiv the principle goal.
The strikes adopted a number of days of Ukrainian drone strikes — some 800 assaults — on targets inside Russia, together with the capital Moscow.
Russian International Minister Sergei Lavrov had vowed on Friday to answer these assaults.
Hours earlier than the drones and missiles reached Kyiv, Russia and Ukraine had exchanged a number of hundred prisoners, in a transfer that Trump instructed could possibly be a prelude to progress on peace talks.
Russian negotiators stated they had been getting ready a memorandum that may function the place to begin for the subsequent spherical of peace talks. No date or venue has been agreed.
“Russia nonetheless has not despatched its ‘peace memorandum.’ As an alternative, it’s sending lethal drones and missiles at civilians,” Ukrainian International Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote in a put up on the Telegram social media platform.
In his personal put up on Telegram, Zelenskyy stated the Russian assaults had been proof to the remainder of the world that Russia is the impediment to peace.
“Solely further sanctions in opposition to key sectors of the Russian financial system will drive Moscow to conform to a ceasefire.”
There was no instant remark from Russia on the in a single day assaults.
Russia has stated it’s dedicated to searching for a peaceable settlement to the battle. But it surely says Kyiv wants to just accept the fact that Russia controls a part of its territory, and it should not be used as a bridgehead for Western states to threaten Russia.
On Saturday, Russia’s Defence Ministry stated its troops had captured the settlements of Stupochki, Otradne and Loknia in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Sumy areas.
Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the battlefield report.
