Kyiv, Ukraine | May 14, 2026
Russia launched the largest sustained aerial attack in the history of the Ukraine war overnight, hammering the capital Kyiv and other cities with more than 1,560 drones and 56 missiles since Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities reported. At least 17 people were killed in Kyiv, including two children, and dozens more were injured as residential buildings collapsed under the sustained bombardment.
Among the dead were a 12-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl, according to emergency services. Sixteen people were killed in a single nine-story residential building in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv, where rescue teams continued to search for survivors beneath the rubble Thursday. More than a dozen residents remained unaccounted for. A seventeenth victim died in hospital after an attack on a gas station.
Air raid alarms sounded for roughly 11 hours throughout Wednesday and into the night. Mayor Vitali Klitschko described it as “the enemy’s largest-scale attack on the capital” and declared a day of mourning for Friday. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the two-day barrage surpassed anything Ukraine has faced since the full-scale invasion began.
Air defence systems intercepted hundreds of incoming drones and missiles, though significant damage was done to residential infrastructure in multiple districts. Residents described chaos as explosions shattered buildings overnight.
“I heard a loud explosion. I ran out to the kitchen and saw people running around the yard, calling for help. Then I rushed out of the building and saw that the front entrance was gone,” said Olena Suntovska, 38, a resident of a building struck in the attack.
The assault comes amid collapsed efforts to negotiate a ceasefire. A U.S.-brokered three-day truce unraveled earlier this week, and talks in Qatar between American and Russian diplomats ended without a breakthrough. Russia has demanded Ukrainian withdrawal from the Donbas as a precondition for any renewed peace talks — a demand Kyiv has rejected.
Western governments condemned the attacks. The United Kingdom summoned Russia’s ambassador for protest. France and Germany issued a joint statement calling the strikes a war crime. The European Union held an emergency session Thursday to consider further sanctions on Moscow.
Zelensky again called on Western allies to authorize long-range strikes on military targets inside Russia, saying current restrictions left Ukraine unable to prevent attacks before they are launched.
The Kremlin has not commented publicly on the strikes. Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed the attacks targeted energy infrastructure and military command centers, though civilian residential areas bore the brunt of the damage.