Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky lays roses at the site where Russia killed 24 civilians in Kyiv, May 15, 2026

EA-Ukraine VideoCast: Kyiv’s Retaliation v. Russia’s Mass Killings

Friday’s Coverage: Russia Murders 24+ in Kyiv

UPDATE 0722 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defenses downed 269 of 294 drones launched by Russia overnight, but 20 hit 15 locations.

In Odesa in southern Ukraine, strikes severely damaged port infrastructure, including a warehouse and an administrative building, and hit a five-story residential building. Several civilians were injured.

In Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, public transit networks were disabled, and private homes were damaged in Poltava in central Ukraine.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised long-range strikes in response to Russia’s latest mass killings of Ukrainian civilians.

On Friday, Zelensky laid red roses on the rubble of a Kyiv apartment building where a Russian missile strike killed 24 people, including three children, a day earlier.

“Ukraine will not allow any of the aggressor’s strikes that take the lives of our people to go unpunished,” he posted after meeting top military and intelligence officials. In his nightly video address, he said retaliatory actions had already been approved, noting drone strikes that sparked a large fire on the Ryazan oil refinery, one of Russia’s largest.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Russia murdered 38 civilians and wounded more than 150 in attacks by more than 1,600 drones and scores of missiles across Ukraine.

Zelensky warned on Friday night:

We have Russian documents outlining targets for strikes…[on] political and military facilities where army leadership and government officials may be located, including here on Bankova Street. They have been nursing this plan for a long time, and now, after Iran, have become active again – trying to locate us and track our movements.

The same applies to other members of the Ukrainian leadership, intelligence agencies, and our special services. Some in Moscow have still failed to understand that Ukrainians will never surrender their independence. One way or another – whether on Bankova or without Bankova – we will not surrender our land, our sovereignty, or our state.