During the week of May 19-25, 2025, Ukraine suffered one of the largest waves of attacks from Russia. Missile and drone strikes hit dozens of cities, causing numerous casualties, injuries, and destruction of civilian infrastructure. Kyiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, and Khmelnytskyi were the most affected. The attack on the capital on the eve of Kyiv Day was particularly cynical.
May 19
Donetsk region: Russia attacked 10 settlements, destroying 50 civilian objects, killing one civilian and injuring six.
May 20
Kherson: Russian troops attacked a passenger bus, injuring five people.
May 21
Sumy: As a result of a Russian drone attack on Sumy, part of the city was left without electricity. One casualty is known.
May 22
Russia once again struck peaceful Ukrainian cities, attacking with drones at night while most people were asleep. Air raid sirens were sounded in a number of regions, and air defenses were activated. Explosions were heard in Kherson, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Dnipro and its suburbs, Kryvyi Rih, Pavlohrad, the Myrhorod district of Poltava region, the Pokrovsk, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk districts of Donetsk region, as well as in Chuhuiv in Kharkiv region. One person was injured in the attack on Kharkiv.
May 23
At night, Russia again struck peaceful Ukrainian cities with kamikaze drones. Explosions were heard in Sumy, Mykolaiv, Khmelnytskyi, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Chernivtsi regions, as well as in a number of districts of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Poltava, and Donetsk regions, including Zhurivka, Bila Tserkva, Lubny, Kremenchuk, Chuhuiv, and Pokrovsk.
Separately, on the morning of May 23, Russian drones attacked the Odesa region: a private house was damaged in the suburbs of Odesa, and two civilians were wounded.
On May 24
At night, Russia carried out another massive attack with strike drones on Ukrainian cities. Explosions were heard in Kyiv and the Kyiv region (Brovary, Boryspil, Obukhiv, and Fastiv districts), as well as in the Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, and Kharkiv regions (in particular, the Izyum district), Dnipropetrovsk region (including Dnipro), Donetsk region (Kramatorsk and Pokrovsk districts), in Odesa and Chornomorsk. The most powerful strike was delivered to the capital — air defense forces were working over Kyiv, damage and injuries were reported.
May 25
During a massive night attack from 8:40 p.m. on May 24 to the morning of May 25, 2025, Russia used 367 air attack weapons against Ukraine — 69 missiles and 298 Shahed strike drones and various types of drone simulators. Explosions were heard in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, and in the Ternopil region. This is one of the largest air attacks since the start of the full-scale war. As a result of the attack, 12 people were killed and more than 60 were wounded. Among the dead are three children from one family in the Zhytomyr region.
Strikes on Kherson through the lens of Ivan Antypenko
On May 20, the Russian army once again attacked Kherson, a city that is under daily threat of shelling. This time, the strikes hit residential areas and public transport, again causing damage to the civilian population.
In the morning, the Korabelny district of the city was hit by artillery fire. One of the shells hit near an apartment building. The explosion blew out windows and damaged balconies and facades. An ambulance crew provided medical assistance to two residents who were at home during the shelling: a 45-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman with blast injuries and cuts.
Later, another victim was taken to the hospital—a 76-year-old man who suffered concussion and shrapnel wounds to his head and arm. Doctors assessed his condition as moderate. Later, medical assistance was provided to another victim—an 88-year-old woman with blast trauma, concussion, and head wounds.
"Kherson. Four people were wounded in the morning shelling of the Korabelny district. Shells fell directly into the courtyards of residential buildings. All day long, people have been clearing glass and stones, sweeping up and taking away rubbish. It would seem that this is already a familiar sight for a city on the front line. But every time, it is just as painful to see the hopeless longing in people's eyes," — commented photojournalist Ivan Antypenko, who documented the aftermath of the attack.
On the same day, Russian troops attacked a passenger bus in the Dnipro district of Kherson. The vehicle, belonging to the municipal enterprise Kherson Municipal Transport Service, was hit and sustained significant damage. Initially, one casualty was reported—a woman born in 1960.
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Later, the Kherson Regional State Administration reported that the number of wounded had risen to five. Among them were the bus driver and three passengers: men aged 56, 62, and 41, as well as a 45-year-old woman. All were diagnosed with concussions and mine-blast injuries.
The attack on the capital on the eve of Kyiv Day through the lens of Oleksandr Babenko and Serhiy Nuzhnenko
On the night of May 24, on the eve of Kyiv Day celebrations, Russian troops carried out one of the largest combined air strikes on the capital since the start of the full-scale war.
The strike on the city included 14 Iskander-M (KN-23) ballistic missiles and about 250 Shahed kamikaze drones, which approached Kyiv from different directions.
According to data from the Ukrainian Air Force, six of the nine ballistic missiles were successfully destroyed by air defense forces. At the same time, air defense forces dealt with massive waves of drones, resulting in a series of powerful explosions heard in the city.
As a result of the attack, at least 15 residents of the capital were injured. Explosions and falling debris were reported in six districts of Kyiv, with Obolon being the most affected. In the Obolon district, a drone damaged a residential high-rise building, affecting apartments on the 3rd to 6th floors, with at least five residents injured. A shopping center was also hit, but no fire broke out. An operational headquarters was set up at 32-B Obolonskyi Avenue.
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In the Solomyanskyi district, a fire broke out on the 4th and 5th floors of a building — seven people were injured, and one was rescued. In the Holosiivskyi district, debris hit several locations — cars were damaged and one person was injured. In the Sviatoshynskyi district, non-residential infrastructure was damaged. In the Dniprovskyi district, debris hit a high-rise building, injuring two people. In the Shevchenkivskyi district, a fire broke out in a non-residential building — the fire was quickly extinguished.
Hits were also recorded in the Kyiv region. In the town of Berezan, two people were injured when debris hit a private household, causing a fire that was extinguished.
Photojournalists Oleksandr Babenko and Serhiy Nuzhnenko captured these events in their reports. The photos show shattered windows, damaged facades, and the exhausted faces of residents of the capital, who were forced to take shelter for the second time in 24 hours.
President Volodymyr Zelensky commented on the night attack on May 24, calling it one of the most difficult for the whole of Ukraine. According to him, explosions and fires continued in Kyiv during the night, residential buildings and businesses were destroyed, and cars were damaged. Rescuers worked at the sites where drone and missile debris fell, and there were injuries among the civilian population.
The head of state emphasized the scale of the shelling, which hit the Odesa, Vinnytsia, Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Kyiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. “Everywhere — civilians. There are dead,” the president said, expressing his condolences to the families of the victims.
Zelensky also called for tougher sanctions against Russia and stressed that Moscow was responsible for prolonging the war: “Only additional sanctions against key sectors of the Russian economy will force Moscow to cease fire.”
Contributors:
Researcher, author: Vira Labych
Image editor: Olga Kovalova
Literary editor: Yulia Futey
Website manager: Vladislav Kukhar
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