Russia used its hypersonic Oreshnik missile during a mass drone and missile attack on Kyiv on Sunday, killing at least two people and damaging buildings across the Ukrainian capital. The strike also hit Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region, while Russia said it tar
Kyiv woke to another night of explosions, and by Sunday morning the damage was visible in places residents have come to associate with war—but not with this weapon’s growing frequency.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia used the hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile during a mass drone and missile attack on Kyiv on Sunday that killed at least two people. the third time the weapon has been used in the four-year war. The aerial assault damaged buildings across the Ukrainian capital, including near government offices, residential buildings and schools.
Zelenskyy said the Oreshnik struck the city of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region. adding that the target was not immediately clear. Russia’s Defense Ministry later confirmed it used the Oreshnik. along with other missile types. to strike Ukrainian “military command and control facilities. ” air bases and military industrial enterprises. without specifying where those targets were.
The ministry said the attack was retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on “civilian facilities on Russian territory,” but did not immediately provide details.
In the background, the exchange of accusations has been escalating. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday denounced a drone strike on a college dormitory in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine—an attack Moscow blames on Kyiv—and ordered the Russian military to submit its proposals for retaliation. He said there were no military or law enforcement facilities near the college. The death toll from the strike in Starobilsk had risen to 21 as search-and-rescue operations closed. the press service of Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations said late on Saturday. It said 42 other people had been injured in the attack the previous night. Kremlin-installed authorities of the Luhansk region announced two days of mourning on Sunday and Monday to honor the victims.
At a U.N. Security Council emergency meeting on the strike. held at Russia’s request. Ukrainian Ambassador Andrii Melnyk denied Russia’s accusations of war crimes. calling them a “pure propaganda show. ” and asserted that the May 22 operations “exclusively targeted the Russian war machine.” Ukraine and its allies have accused Russia of routinely targeting civilians and key civilian infrastructure since the early days of the war; the Kremlin denies that.
Zelenskyy’s account placed the Oreshnik in the center of Sunday’s mass assault. and the weapon’s track record is now part of the grim calculation for Kyiv residents. Russia first used the multiple-warhead Oreshnik on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024. and used it a second time in January in the western Lviv region. The Oreshnik, Zelenskyy said, is capable of carrying nuclear or conventional warheads.
Putin described the missile on a separate track. saying it streaks at 10 times the speed of sound. or Mach 10. and is capable of destroying underground bunkers “three. four or more floors down.” He said the weapon travels “like a meteorite” and is immune to any missile defense system. adding that several such missiles— even fitted with conventional warheads—could be as devastating as a nuclear strike. Russia has also said the Oreshnik is immune to any missile defense system.
The latest attack was huge in scale. Ukraine’s Air Force said the combined assault included 600 strike drones and 90 air, sea and ground-launched missiles. Ukrainian air defenses destroyed and jammed 549 drones and 55 missiles, and the Air Force said around 19 missiles failed to reach targets.
As air raid sirens blared through the night, smoke billowed across the city from the strikes. Associated Press reporters heard powerful explosions near the city center and close to government buildings.
For residents, the threat didn’t stay abstract. Kyiv officials recorded damage in 40 locations across several districts of the capital, including residential buildings. Kyiv military administration head Tymur Tkachenko said that in a Telegram post. In one scene in the city’s Shevchenko district. a five-story residential building was hit. which caused a fire. and Ukraine’s state emergency service reported that one person was killed. Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said a school building was damaged by an attack while people sheltered inside.
Local authorities reported supermarkets and warehouses across the city were also damaged. Mykola Kalashnyk, the regional governor, said multiple communities recorded damage throughout the Kyiv region.
The violence wasn’t limited to Ukraine’s capital. Elsewhere. a Ukrainian drone killed a civilian in the Russian town of Grayvoron in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine. local authorities reported on Sunday morning. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down or jammed 33 Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday. including over the Moscow region. western and southwestern Russia. and Russian-occupied Crimea.
In Shevchenko district. where the blast left an apartment “blown to pieces. ” Yevhen Zosin. 74. said he rushed to grab his dog the moment he heard the explosion. “Then there was another explosion and she and I were thrown back like a pin by the shock wave. We both survived, she and I. My apartment was blown to pieces,” he said.
Another resident, Svitlana Onofryichuk, 55, described the attack in terms that sounded like surrender. She said she worked in the market that was damaged for 22 years. “It was a terrible night, and there had never been anything like it in the entire war,” she said. “I am very sorry that I have to say goodbye to Kyiv now. I am not staying there anymore. there is no possibility.” She added. “My job is gone. everything is gone. everything has burned down.”.
For days leading up to the strike. Zelenskyy had warned that Russia was planning to use the Oreshnik. citing intelligence from the U.S. and Western partners. Putin had earlier described its speed and supposed missile-defense immunity. portraying it as a weapon built to break through protections rather than threaten them.
By Sunday’s end. that promise—and the response it provoked—was visible in the same city where residents had already learned how to live with air raid sirens. Ukraine said its defenses destroyed and jammed much of the drone and missile wave. yet the Oreshnik’s use still left damage across Kyiv and deaths behind.
And as Kyiv residents who have stayed until now consider relocating. the question that hangs over Sunday’s attack is not whether the weapon can be countered. but how many times it will be used next—how close the next strike will land to offices. schools and homes. and what “relocating” will mean when the capital keeps absorbing the blast.
Kyiv Oreshnik hypersonic missile Volodymyr Zelenskyy Vladimir Putin Russia Ukraine Air Force drones missiles U.N. Security Council Bila Tserkva Dnipro Lviv