At least four people are dead and 44 others wounded, including two children, after Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults on Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, striking overnight on Thursday, May 14, just days after a short-lived ceasefire collapsed.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said more than 670 drones and 56 missiles were fired across the country in a single night. The capital Kyiv bore the worst of the violence, where a nine-storey residential building was partially destroyed, trapping residents under rubble.
Police recovered three bodies from the wreckage, two men aged 21 and 30 and an unidentified woman, all pulled from the building’s destroyed entrance. A fourth victim, a man present at a petrol station hit during the attack, died in hospital. Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klychko confirmed 18 apartments were destroyed and the city’s water supply disrupted.
More than 1,500 rescue workers and police officers deployed across the country in the aftermath, with around 600 operating in Kyiv alone. Search teams moved over 20 cubic metres of debris, with canine units assisting in locating survivors. More than ten people are still reported missing.
Beyond Kyiv, strikes hit the regions of Kharkiv, Sumy, Odesa, Kremenchuk and Bila Tserkva, damaging residential buildings, a school and a veterinary clinic.
The assault marks the third consecutive day of reported deaths since a United States-brokered three-day ceasefire expired Monday. Russia resumed attacks on Tuesday, killing nine people, followed by a Wednesday barrage involving 892 drones that killed six more. Zelensky said more than 1,560 drones had targeted Ukrainian cities since Tuesday night alone.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha condemned the strikes as a “barbaric attack” and called on United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who were meeting in summit at the time, to pressure Moscow directly.
“I am certain that the leaders of the United States and China have enough leverage over Moscow,” Sybiha said.
In a separate development, a Kyiv court ordered 60 days of pretrial detention for former presidential aide Andriy Yermak over a money-laundering case linked to a luxury construction project valued at approximately £7.5 million. Yermak denied the accusations and said he would appeal.
