The May 24 attack caused unprecedented destruction of cultural sites in Kyiv since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Russians are deliberately destroying educational institutions—academic buildings of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy were damaged, a drone strike completely burned down a school in the Chernihiv region, and a school in Derhachi was damaged. The enemy continues airstrikes on Kramatorsk, terrorizes Odesa day and night, and attacks foreign civilian vessels in ports. In Kherson, a Russian shell exploded on a children’s playground, killing a father; doctors are fighting for the lives of the mother and three-year-old daughter, while the six-year-old daughter is in moderate condition.
Chronicle of Russian Shelling from May 25 to May 31, 2026
As of May 25 in the Kharkiv region—18 casualties, including a child injured in Bohodukhiv, where the city sustained significant damage following the previous day's Russian UAV attack. A missile strike on Derhachi killed two people and injured 24, 17 of whom were hospitalized with blast injuries, three remain in serious condition; damaged were warehouse premises on the territory of a civilian enterprise, a multi-story building, cargo and passenger cars, and a fire broke out. In the morning, Russians struck Pavlohrad, and in the afternoon—Dnipro. In Pavlohrad, administrative buildings, a multi-story building, and cars were damaged, there were fires, and 12 people were injured, among them a six-year-old boy; four of them were hospitalized, two in serious condition, including an 18-year-old young man. In Dnipro, windows were blown out in a school, college, and residential buildings; of the three hospitalized, two are in serious condition, including another 18-year-old young man. Eight more people were injured in the region, including a seven-year-old boy. In Kherson, two people were killed and 14 wounded during a day of drone terror; three people were wounded in the Zaporizhzhia district.
On the night of May 26, Russian drones attacked the city of Romny, Sumy region, injuring three people, causing damage to critical and residential infrastructure, fires, and power outages. In Sumy, enemy drones hit the roof of a private house and a car parts store. The Regional Military Administration (RMA) reported that during the drone attack in the city, the office and vehicles of the Norwegian humanitarian organization Norwegian People's Aid Ukraine (NPA), which is involved in humanitarian demining in the region, were damaged. Fifteen people were injured in the strike on Zaporizhzhia, including an infant; 17 multi-story and non-residential buildings were damaged. Starting in the morning, Russians shelled residential neighborhoods in the Korabelnyi district of Kherson with artillery, wounding five people. The Chernihiv region and its regional center, the Poltava region, and the Zhytomyr region were under enemy shelling, resulting in damage and casualties.
May 27 saw the enemy again attack Pavlohrad and the Dnipro district. In Pavlohrad, six private houses and a garage were damaged, and a fire broke out. At night, Chernihiv and neighboring communities came under a massive drone attack, damaging dacha houses, a woodworking enterprise, a logistics company, and critical infrastructure. Earlier, the enemy had massively struck transport infrastructure and a cemetery in the border town of Snovsk, and the Petro-Pavlivskyi Church also sustained damage; in another community, a woman was killed and a man was injured by a strike on a farm. In Mykolaiv, an administrative building and two multi-apartment buildings were damaged. In the Central district of Kherson, a UAV hit a multi-story building, damaging several apartments. In the Korabelnyi district, a children's playground was hit by artillery, affecting an entire family: the father was killed, and the mother and two children, aged three and six, were hospitalized with mine-blast injuries and multiple shrapnel wounds. The mother and the younger child are in serious condition, and the older girl is in moderate condition.
May 28 saw fatalities and injuries in border and frontline regions. In the Sumy region—two killed, one in the Kharkiv region; civilians were wounded in the Zaporizhzhia district, the Dnipro region, and Kherson, including an eight-year-old boy. Komyshany in the Kherson district is under constant massive shelling, with more than ten private houses and power lines damaged, and 75% of households without electricity. In Mykolaiv, fragments of enemy drones damaged the windows of multi-story buildings, a car service station, and a non-residential building.
In the Kharkiv region on May 29, three people were injured as a result of an unknown device exploding, including a 16-year-old girl and a boy. Russians struck a school in the Derhachi community, damaging the ground part of the building, the facade, and a school bus; children were in the underground school during the attack. The enemy attacked Zaporizhzhia, damaging four multi-story buildings and non-residential buildings, causing a fire; gas supply was temporarily cut off to one entrance of a residential building, and three people were injured. In the border town of Semenivka, Chernihiv region, the enemy destroyed a school whose children were studying remotely. In the Nikopol region, two people were hospitalized in serious condition, five more were injured, and six multi-story buildings, a gymnasium, infrastructure, and a city bus were damaged; in Kryvyi Rih, a bus and a passenger car were damaged. The enemy attacked Naftogaz facilities in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions, resulting in serious damage and fires.
On the night of May 30, the enemy attacked Ukraine with one ballistic missile, six Kh-101 cruise missiles, and 290 strike UAVs of various types. Air defense managed to shoot down/suppress 5 cruise missiles and 279 drones in the north, south, center, and east of the country. Two enemy missiles (one cruise and one ballistic) did not reach their targets, according to the Air Force Command press center. At night, Russians massively attacked Shostka, Sumy region, damaging residential and non-residential buildings, administrative buildings, and transport; fires broke out, and Russian drones, in particular, destroyed the railway station building and damaged the railway station infrastructure. In the morning, an enemy drone hit a gas station in Sumy, causing it to ignite. In the Chernihiv region, houses and agricultural machinery were damaged, and there were hits on critical infrastructure. In the morning, the enemy attacked a stopped industrial enterprise in the Rivne region, causing smoke. In the Kharkiv region, two people were killed and four injured; a Russian UAV attacked the Kyiv district of Kharkiv. In the Kherson region, the Komyshany village council area suffered from Russian attacks, with damage to the administrative building and at least 5 private houses. Russians carried out several attacks on Zaporizhzhia during the day. In the Nikopol region, a gymnasium, residential buildings, and a shop were damaged; nine people were injured, five of whom were hospitalized in moderate condition.
As a result of enemy attacks on May 31, two people were killed and seven injured in Zaporizhzhia and the surrounding district; there were hits on the territory of an industrial infrastructure facility, and residential buildings and a dormitory were damaged in three city districts. In the Chernihiv region, an enemy UAV hit a parking lot at an enterprise, sparking a fire that killed the driver and burned seven cargo vehicles. Shostka in the Sumy region was again attacked, injuring one person, and a residential building caught fire after a hit. In the morning, the enemy attacked a stopped enterprise in the Rivne region. In the Nikopol region, enemy attacks damaged a kindergarten, a medical office, and residential buildings; in the Dnipro district, the enemy attacked an agricultural enterprise; in Pavlohrad, infrastructure and a private house were damaged; in the morning, Russians struck Dnipro, and a fire broke out. Eleven civilians were injured in the Kharkiv region.
In total, over the last week of May, Russians used more than 2,300 strike drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs, and 108 missiles of various types against Ukraine.
Devastating Consequences of the Strike on Kyiv and the Region
The Russian night attack on Kyiv on May 24 was the largest since the start of the full-scale invasion in terms of the number of locations with damage. Massive fires raged at the sites of hits and falling debris, and more than 100 SES employees were involved in the work in Kyiv.
The enemy struck historical architecture: the National Chornobyl Museum was destroyed, and the National Art Museum, the International Center for Culture and Arts, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cabinet of Ministers buildings, the Hinaus cultural space, the Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature, the Ukrainian House, the Small Opera building, and Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, among others, were damaged.
“Ukrainska Pravda. Zhyttia” reports that the library, book depositories, and most departments of the Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature were damaged. At Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, five academic buildings, the scientific library, the museum, and the cultural and artistic center were damaged; windows were shattered everywhere, and in some places, the roofing, facades, and ceilings inside were ruined. In the building of the ICCA, the blast wave damaged the roof, followed by ignition, as well as damage to the facade, windows, and parts of the interior premises.
At the National Chornobyl Museum, about 40% of the museum exhibits were destroyed. Immediately after the strike, emergency workers and museum staff began the evacuation of exhibits; they managed to save items from the fund depositories, a painting by Maria Prymachenko, and the flag of Ukraine that was raised at the ChNPP immediately after the de-occupation in 2022.
The oldest McDonald's fast-food restaurant in Ukraine, which opened on May 24, 1997, at Lukyanivska metro station, was damaged again. It is located near the "Kvadrat" shopping center, which was completely destroyed by fire after the strike. The restaurant announced its reopening on May 27. The attack also damaged the Zhytnyi market, and a fire also destroyed the Lukyanivka market.
In the capital, a total of about 300 objects were damaged, most of which were residential buildings. The enemy struck a five-story building, destroying the entrance from the first to the fifth floor. Two people were killed, and 92 casualties were reported, among them three minors. As of May 25, 21 people were in city hospital inpatient units, including two children.
On the fourth day after the strike, volunteers rescued a cat that had been under the rubble for three days. Burned and exhausted, it was transferred to veterinarians, who are currently fighting for its life.
“On May 24, Russia carried out another massive missile strike on Kyiv. Dozens of missiles and drones flew towards the capital. The entire city was on fire. Every strike that Russia aimed at supposedly military targets — actually was a strike on civilian infrastructure, destroying the homes and businesses of ordinary people,” said the photographers Kostiantyn and Vlada Liberov after speaking with people who lost property and businesses the day after the shelling.
In the Kyiv region, rescuers extinguished a massive warehouse fire covering an area of 10,000 sq.m. Firefighting robots and two SES helicopters had to be involved in the operation. SES Head Andrii Danyk reported that the Russian attack destroyed one of the SES units. Thirty employees, mostly women, were on shift at the time of the strike on the unit, and they managed to move to a shelter. Ten fire trucks were destroyed by the strike. This building housed the operational-coordination center and the server room that ensured the stable operation of the "101" line and the processing of signals from the "112" system. Andrii Danyk said that specialists from the unit continued to receive calls from victims even from the shelter.
Aviation Attacks on the Donetsk Region
On May 25, the Russian army launched an airstrike on Yasnohorivka and several airstrikes on Kramatorsk, Donetsk region. In the morning, the enemy dropped five FAB-250 bombs on Kramatorsk, then four more, and in the evening used two aerial bombs, reported the Kramatorsk City Military Administration (CMA). During the day's bombardment in the city, two people were killed, 12 were wounded, among them an eight-year-old boy. Multi-story buildings, administrative buildings, an educational institution were damaged, and a fire broke out in a private house; destroyed building structures of a warehouse premises also burned, and part of the city was left without gas. The next airstrike on Kramatorsk occurred on May 29, injuring one person, damaging 16 residential buildings, and causing a fire.
In Yasnohorivka, two people were killed and three more were wounded by aerial bombs; private houses and an outpatient clinic were damaged.
The Russian army shelled Sloviansk several times. On May 26, a fire and rescue unit was attacked; the blast wave damaged garage boxes, roofing, and windows, and a fire broke out. Multi-story buildings and infrastructure facilities in the city were also damaged. On May 28, Sloviansk was attacked by Russian UAVs, damaging a sports club located in the central part of the city and two multi-story buildings. On May 31, enemy UAVs hit a Nova Poshta (New Post) branch and a gas station, causing an administrative building and a warehouse structure to catch fire; five private houses, trade pavilions, and a gas pipeline were damaged. During the attack, a seven-year-old boy and his mother were wounded.
Over the week, besides the two residents of Yasnohorivka, Russians killed six residents in Mykolaivka, three in Druzhkivka, and one each in the Lyman and Bilozerske communities.
Press officer of the 93rd Brigade "Kholodnyi Yar," photographer Iryna Rybakova, spoke about the shelling of Kramatorsk on May 25 on Facebook:
“All yesterday the Russians terrorized Kramatorsk with KABs. They struck houses, the “Nova Poshta” (New Post), roads, set cars on fire, and left Ukrainians without homes. Among them are elderly people who have difficulty moving.”
Attacks on Odesa and Threats to Vessels
On the night of May 26, Russians launched a missile and drone strike on the Odesa region. One person was killed and three were injured in Odesa, one in serious condition; the facade and window glazing in adjacent buildings and an educational institution were damaged, and a fire broke out.
On the afternoon of May 27, the enemy deliberately attacked civilian infrastructure in the Odesa district with strike drones. As a result of a UAV hit in Odesa, residential buildings, a Nova Poshta (New Post) branch, a grocery store, and a pet store were damaged—a dog was killed there. A large-scale fire erupted in the city, covering an area of 1,700 sq.m. Eleven people were injured, including two children aged 11 and 12; eight people were hospitalized, three of whom are in serious condition, and the rest in moderate condition.
“Another terrorist shelling of the city in broad daylight, when residents are going to shops for groceries, to ‘Nova Poshta’ for parcels, or just walking along the hot, almost summer streets. Eight people were injured…”, — wrote photojournalist Oleksandr Hymanov on social media.
For two nights in a row, May 28 and 29, Russians attacked the south of the Odesa region, with hits on a private house and an infrastructure facility; due to damage to power lines, about four thousand subscribers were left without electricity. In the Black Sea, three merchant vessels flying the flags of Vanuatu, the Comoro Islands, and Panama were damaged, and two foreign sailors were injured.
Material created with the support of the British Council's "Grants for Creative Economy Development" program
The Team That Worked on the Material:
Topic Researcher, Text Author: Yana Yevmenova
Image Editor: Olga Kovalova
Literary Editor: Yuliia Futei
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