Debris on fire on the premises of a school in Kyiv, Ukraine, after Russian missile and drone strikes, May 24, 2026 (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

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Sunday’s Coverage: Russia’s “Massive” Attack Kills 2+, Injures 83 in Kyiv

UPDATE 1837 GMT:

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has announced plans for more mass long-range strikes on Kyiv, including on Ukraine’s “decision-making centers and command posts”.

On Sunday, the Russians killed two civilians and injured more than 80 with scores of missiles and several hundred drones fired on the capital.

The Russian threat uses the pretext of retaliation for a Ukrainian strike on the occupied Luhansk region in the east of the country. Moscow claims 21 people were killed in a college dormitory, while Kyiv says it targeted a Russian drone command facility.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called on foreign citizens, including diplomats, to leave Kyiv. Ukrainian civilians were told to stay away from “military and administrative infrastructure”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov informed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of the threat.

The UN says Russia has killed at least 15,850 Ukrainian civilians, including 791 children, during its 51-month full-scale invasion. The real figures are much higher, given the lack of independent verification of thousands of deaths, including during Russia’s siege of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine in spring 2022.

UPDATE 1102 GMT:

At least four civilians have been murdered and 69 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses downed 246 of 262 drones fired by Russia overnight. Ten UAVs struck nine locations.

In the Sumy region in northeast Ukraine, a 24-year-old man was killed by a drone strike on a car. Four people were injured amid 90 attacks on 43 settlements.

In the Kherson region in the south, two civilians were murdered and 16 injured in attacks on 34 settlements, including Kherson city.

In the Donetsk region in the east, one person was killed and 14 injured.

Casualties were also reported in the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv regions.

UPDATE 1003 GMT:

A Royal Air Force jet carrying UKJ Defense Secretary John Healey from his visit to Estonia had its signals jammed near the Russian border last Thursday.

A “UK defense source” said the incident was “reckless Russian interference.”

The satellite signal of the Dassault Falcon 900LX was disabled for the entire three-hour flight. Pilots had to use “revisionary” navigation systems to calculate their location.

The plane was carrying political and military advisors, a general, two photographers, and a journalist.

UPDATE 0729 GMT:

Pjotr Sauer and Shaun Walker of The Guardian write of Vladimir Putin as an “increasingly isolated leader surrounded by an elite that is becoming rapidly disillusioned”.

A “well-connected business leader” summarizes, “There’s definitely been a shift in mood among the elites this year….There is profound disappointment in Putin [with] a growing sense that some kind of catastrophe is looming.”

No one believes everything will suddenly collapse tomorrow. But there is a growing realisation that utterly senseless, self-destructive decisions keep being made. People who once defended Putin no longer do. Any sense of a future has disappeared.

But Putin is determined to continue Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, believing Moscow can seize the rest of the Donetsk region by the end of 2026.

“Putin is fixated on Donbas [the Donetsk and Luhansk regions] and he will not stop before that,” a source said.

A Ukrainian intelligence official said Russian generals have convinced Putin that he will have his achievement: “Fabricated reports [are] being fed up the chain of command, claiming victory is imminent.”

A “person familiar with discussions in the Kremlin” echoed, “Of course, officials and the military paint a rosy picture for the president. They lie to him. That’s how the system Putin has built works.”

A “source close to Putin” and an official involved in back-channel talks said Putin has lost faith in the Trump Administration pressuring Ukraine into surrendering territory.

“There was this widespread optimism in Moscow that Trump could deliver the Donbas after his election. It has largely evaporated,” one source in contact with Putin said.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: International leaders have condemned Russia’s mass missile and strikes, including its third use of a nuclear-capable intermediate-range Oreshnik ballistic missile, on Kyiv and across Ukraine on Sunday.

At least four civilians were murdered and more than 100 wounded. Two of the fatalities and 87 of the injured were in the capital.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the “nuclear brinkmanship” in Russia’s firing of the Oreshnik. “They are genuinely deranged,” he said of the Kremlin.

European Union foreign policy head Kaja Kallas followed up:

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola added, “We will not be silent. These acts of brutality do not serve to strengthen Russia’s hand. It weakens it.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Estonian President Alar Karis, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker, and European Council President António Costa were among the leaders posting similar messages.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko, after Minsk’s involvement in nuclear drills with Russia this week, against any role in Moscow’s invasion.

In their first phone call since the early days of Russia’s full-scale assault in February 2022, Macron “stressed the risks for Belarus of allowing itself to be drawn into Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine”, said an official.

The President urged Alexander Lukashenko “to take the necessary steps to improve relations between Belarus and Europe”.