Ukrainian cities once again found themselves under the relentless sights of enemy shelling. Towns in border and frontline regions suffered brutal attacks: Konotop and Balakliia were hit by massive drone attacks, while Pryluky endured a ballistic missile strike. Russian aviation terrorized Kramatorsk and Druzhkivka, and the Kherson region was subjected to round-the-clock drone terror. It was a difficult week for residents of the Dnipro and Odesa regions due to regular enemy shelling day and night. The night of May 24 turned into a true ordeal for Kyiv and the surrounding region, as a combined attack of missiles and UAVs brought widespread destruction, fire, and claimed the lives of civilians.
Chronicle of Russian Shelling from May 18 to May 24, 2026
On the night of May 18, Russians used 524 strike UAVs and 22 missiles of various types—ballistic and cruise—against Ukraine. In the Chernihiv region, residential buildings and a dairy workshop at one of the enterprises caught fire, and two people were hospitalized; in Chernihiv, a two-story building was damaged, a UAV hit an enterprise, and a residential building and cars caught fire, injuring two people. In the Hlukhiv community of the Sumy region, an educational institution premises was damaged, and the region reported one fatality and several injured. In Druzhkivka, Donetsk region, one person was killed in a Russian airstrike, multi-story buildings were damaged, and a fire broke out in one of the houses. In the Kirovohrad region, a private residential building was damaged by a UAV attack, and its roof caught fire. A strike drone hit the center of Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv region, injuring three people. In the Mykolaiv region, residential buildings were damaged by drones of various types and MLRS fire. Three people were wounded in the Zaporizhzhia district, and two were killed in the Kherson region.Throughout the night and morning of May 19, the industrial, civilian, and residential infrastructure of Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, suffered massive airstrikes; the day before, the state flag of Ukraine on the flagpole in the “Yuvileinyi” park was attacked, but the flag was replaced; one person was killed and three were wounded in the city, and another person was killed in Druzhkivka. In the morning and in the evening, Russians attacked Naftogaz facilities in the Chernihiv region, where hits on the territory of production sites destroyed critically important equipment. A missile strike on Pryluky claimed the lives of four people, including a 15-year-old boy who died in the hospital, with 23 others reported injured; enterprises, shopping centers, shops, pharmacies, educational institutions, multi-story buildings, private homes, and three dozen cars, including fire equipment, were damaged in the city. Two people were killed and four wounded due to an attack on Hlukhiv, Sumy region, according to “Kordon.Media”; administrative buildings and multi-story buildings were also damaged. In Zaporizhzhia, a fire broke out at an industrial site following an attack, and 17 private houses were destroyed. The Kharkiv region reported two fatalities and 12 injuries, including a child, with significant damage in the Bohodukhiv district; in Kharkiv, 30 private houses, a post office, and cars were damaged. In central Kherson, the Russian army attacked a medical facility with a drone, damaging the building's windows. Residential neighborhoods in Zelenivka, Kherson community, were under devastating shelling throughout the weekend, injuring one person. The enemy struck Ochakiv, Mykolaiv region, with MLRS—two people were wounded, one was hospitalized, and a multi-story building, five private houses, garages, and cars were damaged.
On May 20, one person was killed and six were injured in the Kharkiv region, including a 16-year-old girl in Kharkiv; a private house, a warehouse, and railway infrastructure were damaged. Russians launched airstrikes and various UAV attacks on the Kramatorsk community, injuring four people and damaging critical infrastructure; they also struck a hospital, a flagpole, a gas station, and residential buildings. Towards morning, Russians attacked Vilniansk, Zaporizhzhia district—four people were wounded, including two children, a two-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl. Residential areas in the Konotop and Shostka communities of the Sumy region were under a massive UAV attack overnight. In Konotop, an elderly woman was killed and 11 were injured; a drone hit caused three floors of a building to partially collapse; two private houses, three multi-story buildings, and five administrative buildings were damaged, including the destruction of a local museum; a hospital was also damaged, and the city is partially without gas. In the region, four people were killed and 21 more were injured. Two wounded people died in Kherson hospitals during the day; a woman was injured due to the shelling of a residential area in the Korabelnyi district, and the house was significantly destroyed. The enemy intensified the mining of residential neighborhoods in Kherson and other frontline settlements, using increasingly new types of explosive devices, from improvised to factory-made, according to the Regional Military Administration (RMA).
In Zaporizhzhia on May 21, two people were wounded; in the Sumy region, one person was killed and five were injured; and in the Donetsk region—one person was killed and 11 were wounded. In the morning, the enemy attacked the Sumy community using long-range artillery, with hits recorded at five addresses in the Kovpakivskyi district of Sumy, the RMA reported. Damage was recorded in the residential and industrial sectors, and six people were injured, three of whom were hospitalized, including a 13-year-old boy with an acute stress reaction. The Kharkiv region reported eight injured, with the most damage to residential infrastructure in the Bohodukhiv district. In the Chuhuiv district, a warehouse, gas station, post office, and administrative building were damaged, and fires broke out; in the morning, the enemy struck a cargo truck in the Kharkiv district with a UAV, killing the driver and causing the truck to catch fire. In the Chernihiv region, the enemy attacked enterprises in various communities: several vehicles were destroyed, and a warehouse and a building on the territory of a recreation complex caught fire; one person was killed and three were wounded.
In Mykolaiv on May 22, windows in an administrative building and a hospital were damaged due to a UAV attack and falling debris, and a fire raged at an industrial facility. Over the past day, Russian shelling resulted in the deaths of four residents of Druzhkivka, Donetsk region. In the Kramatorsk district, a fire and rescue unit was damaged, including two units of fire and rescue equipment and the unit building, and the roof caught fire. The enemy struck the community with FABs and various types of UAVs, damaging warehouses, the private and multi-apartment sectors, an industrial zone, a printing house, critical infrastructure, a post office, commercial establishments, an outpatient clinic, and cars; seven people were wounded in the region. In Sloviansk, a 17-year-old boy was hospitalized after he picked up an unknown object on the street that detonated in his hands, causing the minor to lose his fingers. Fires broke out at industrial enterprises in two districts of the Poltava region. In Kharkiv, private houses were damaged. In the morning, the enemy used a drone to kill a man in the Dnipro district of Kherson. In the Sumy region, one of the 12 injured was a 12-year-old child.
In the Kharkiv region on May 23, three people were killed and five were injured; during the day, Balakliia was under a massive UAV attack: nine people were wounded, and a post office building, a hotel, a cafe, an educational institution, a multi-story building, a religious institution, a sports facility, and cars were damaged; a fire broke out in the sports hall of an educational institution covering an area of 300 sq. m, and a fire also occurred in a church over an area of 1300 sq. m. In the Sumy region, 12 people were injured, including a 21-year-old woman under medical supervision and another man in serious condition. During the day, an enemy drone attacked a funeral procession on the outskirts of Sumy, resulting in one death in the hospital and nine injuries. In Poltava, a Russian attack caused a fire in an administrative building; an administrative building was also damaged in Mykolaiv. In Zaporizhzhia, one person was killed and two were wounded, and one person was also killed in Kherson. For over a day, Russians massively shelled Naftogaz Group oil and gas facilities in the Kharkiv and Poltava regions, seriously damaging equipment and igniting large-scale fires. In the Kramatorsk community, five people were wounded in an artillery shelling, including one child, and 13 multi-story buildings, eight private houses, an educational institution, and municipal equipment were damaged.
On the night of May 24, Russia launched a massive attack on Kyiv and the surrounding region, using 690 means of aerial assault: 600 UAVs of various types and 90 missiles. In Cherkasy, 11 people were injured, including two children, following a Russian UAV attack, which also caused fires in a nine-story building. In the Kharkiv region—three people were killed; in the morning, the enemy attacked Bohodukhiv with drones, resulting in 12 known injuries, some requiring hospitalization; window glazing in a multi-story building and 15 cars were damaged. In the Chernihiv region, residential buildings were damaged, and there was a hit on equipment belonging to the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” and a police car, wounding three police officers; three more civilians were wounded by a drone strike on a shop. Over the past day, two residents of the Donetsk region were killed in Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka, and six more were wounded.
Dnipro Region
On the night of May 18, a combined Russian attack involving missiles, drones, artillery, and air bombs lasted for six hours, affecting Dnipro and the surrounding region, with six districts impacted. Destruction of residential, civilian, and energy infrastructure was recorded. The region reported 26 wounded, including two children. The consequences of the attack were recorded in the Samarskyi, Kamianske, Synelnykove, and Nikopol districts. In Kryvyi Rih, infrastructure and an enterprise were damaged, and two people were hospitalized with injuries. In the Dnipro district, a warehouse caught fire, and there was damage in the private sector; two people were injured, and one was hospitalized.
Throughout the day, drones and ballistic missiles attacked critical infrastructure facilities of the Naftogaz Group, including a UKRNAFTA gas station complex, where two female employees were injured, and the premises of the gas station and its equipment were completely destroyed.
In Dnipro, 56 multi-story and private houses, enterprises, two kindergartens, a gymnasium, a mosque, a building of one of the institutes, a tram, and medical institutions were damaged, and fires raged. “Ukrainska Pravda. Zhyttia” reported that the Russian attack damaged four medical facilities relocated from the Luhansk region after the start of the full-scale invasion: the Luhansk Regional Clinical Hospital, the Regional Center for Mental Health, the Primary Health Care Center from Rubizhne, and the Lysychansk Multi-Specialty Hospital.
In Dnipro, 28 people were injured, including a five-month-old boy, a two-year-old girl, and a ten-year-old boy; eight people were hospitalized in moderate condition, primarily suffering from shrapnel wounds, cuts, barotrauma, and fractures.
On the night and early morning of May 19, the enemy attacked Kryvyi Rih with “Shaheds,” wounding a woman and damaging about ten residential buildings. On May 20, the enemy attacked two districts of the region with a missile, drones, and artillery. The night attack in Dnipro killed two young men and wounded six people, three of whom are in serious condition; a grocery warehouse and private houses were damaged. “Ukrainska Pravda” reported that the strike destroyed about 900 pallets of humanitarian aid from the UN High Commissioner's office, valued at over $1 million, intended for internally displaced persons and residents of frontline regions.
On May 21, the Russian army repeatedly attacked Dnipro, with at least 20 people reported injured, including three children: boys aged six and 13, and a nine-month-old girl; the older boy was hospitalized, along with seven adults. Two kindergartens, several local cafes, about two dozen cars, and 13 houses were damaged; in a five-story building, the roof was damaged and an apartment on the top floor was destroyed; in a four-story building, the roof immediately above two entrances was ruined. In Kryvyi Rih, there were several UAV strikes on industrial infrastructure, damaging an enterprise and wounding two men.
The Nikopol district is under daily enemy fire. The bodies of two people were recovered from under the rubble of a summer house the day before Monday. Throughout the week, there were fatalities and injuries, with some hospitalized in serious condition. On Sunday, May 24, a three-month-old and a four-year-old child were hospitalized in the community. In Marhanets, an FPV drone hit near a service vehicle belonging to one of the enterprises, injuring 13 employees, four of whom were hospitalized. Kamianske and Pavlohrad were also shelled. In the Synelnykove district, a mandatory evacuation was announced for five settlements, though it is known that there are no children there. In Shakhtarske, Synelnykove district, emergency workers evacuated 25 residents, including five children, from a damaged multi-story building on the night of May 23.
Odesa Region
On the night of May 18, Russia launched a massive attack with strike UAVs on residential neighborhoods in the Kyivskyi and Prymorskyi districts of Odesa, with three residential buildings confirmed hit. In the Prymorskyi district, three houses were damaged, one of which is an architectural monument; the blast wave damaged the window glazing in a lyceum and a kindergarten. In the Kyivskyi district, multi-apartment and private houses were destroyed, and the building of the local police station was damaged, suffering broken windows and cracks in the supporting structures. Fires erupted at the sites of the hits. Two people were injured, including an 11-year-old boy.
The enemy launched another attack on civilian shipping. Enemy drones hit two civilian vessels sailing under the flags of Guinea-Bissau and the Marshall Islands, which were in the waiting area and moving along the Ukrainian maritime corridor toward the ports of Greater Odesa, the RMA reported. In the morning, a third civilian vessel, flying the flag of Panama, was hit near the port of Chornomorsk. Fires broke out on the vessels due to the hits but were extinguished by the crews themselves. All damaged vessels continued their movement. In total, the enemy used 60 means of destruction for the attack on the region.
“Odesa tries to live despite the war, but the enemy reminds us of its terrorist goals every night. Yesterday—dozens of smiling French Bulldog owners met to improve their emotional state for a couple of hours. This morning—again pain and despair from the news of wounded people, from the appearance of damaged residential buildings and architectural monuments. Fortunately, everyone is alive,” — says photojournalist Oleksandr Hymanov on social media, who regularly documents the consequences of Russian shelling in his hometown.
On the night of May 19, the enemy massively attacked the south of the Odesa region with strike drones, resulting in a hit on a warehouse building in the Izmail district, damaging the roof and windows, and causing a fire. On the night of May 20, civilian and critical infrastructure objects in the region were shelled. In the regional center, an enemy drone hit a one-story residential building, where a fire broke out and the building was completely destroyed; a hit without detonation was also recorded on the upper floors of a multi-story building. A warehouse storing dishes and an unfinished multi-story building were damaged, and debris fell onto the territory of a park, causing fires.
The State Emergency Service (SES) reported a special operation conducted by rescuers and police officers at the height of the 15th floor: they neutralized an unexploded UAV with a high-explosive incendiary warhead weighing over 50 kg that was lodged in the wall of a 24-story building. Using a hydraulic aerial platform, an explosive ordnance disposal technician manually disarmed and removed the warhead from the wall of the building.
On the night of May 24, the Russian army launched a missile strike on the civilian infrastructure of the Odesa region, with nine people reported wounded, including three children aged 8 to 12. Seven injured people were taken to hospitals, one of whom is in serious condition, and the children are in moderate condition.
Kyiv and Kyiv Region
On the night of May 24, the enemy carried out a massive attack on the capital, causing large-scale fires and damaging civilian infrastructure and residential buildings across at least fifty locations in all city districts: multi-story buildings and private houses, shopping centers, a market, educational institutions, administrative buildings belonging to the SES and police, and the National Museum “Chornobyl.” Two fatalities and 77 injuries have been reported, with 31 wounded hospitalized, including two children in moderate condition and three injured in serious condition. The number of casualties is constantly increasing.
Significant destruction and fires occurred in the Shevchenkivskyi district: fires raged on the territory of two schools; a five-story building suffered destruction and a fire from the first to the fifth floors within an entrance; there was a hit on a nine-story building between the upper floors and an office center building; a fire broke out on the territory of a market; in another nine-story building, a fire occurred on the second floor over an area of five sq. m; and the museum building of the Main Directorate of the SES of Ukraine in the Kyiv region was damaged.
In the Dniprovskyi district, a private residential building caught fire, and there was an ignition on the territory of a garage cooperative, damaging warehouse buildings. In the Desnianskyi district—hits occurred on a shopping mall and a supermarket building; garages and a hangar caught fire on the territory of a garage cooperative, and cars were damaged by fire over a total area of 100 sq. m. In the Sviatoshynskyi district—a nine-story building was hit. In the Solomianskyi district—structural damage and a fire occurred on the 23rd floor of a 24-story residential building, with reports of damage to warehouses in the industrial zone and a damaged school.
In the Obolonskyi district, a one-story residential building was hit; residential buildings and a construction hypermarket were ablaze; and a hit occurred on a business center building, followed by a fire spreading from the third to the fifth floors. In the Pecherskyi district, a 20-story new development caught fire on the 13th floor, along with a nearby temporary building. In the Darnytskyi district, the roof of a two-story dormitory caught fire over an estimated area of 150 sq. m, and residents were evacuated; non-residential premises, a car service station, and cars were damaged.
In the Holosiivskyi district, missile debris fell onto the roof of a 24-story building, and a fire on a tennis court over an area of 100 sq. m was extinguished. In the Podilskyi district, debris also fell onto the territory of non-residential construction.
In the Kyiv region, damage to residential buildings and warehouses was recorded, and fires raged: multi-apartment and private houses, outbuildings, a logistics center, educational and medical institutions, shops, warehouses, and a private sauna building were damaged. A fire broke out in a garage cooperative in Bila Tserkva, where the enemy struck with an “Oreshnik” medium-range ballistic missile, as reported by Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A multi-story building in Vyshhorod was hit. Two men were killed in the Bucha and Obukhiv districts, and nine people were injured, two of whom were hospitalized, including a child less than a year old.
The cleanup of destruction caused by the enemy shelling is ongoing in the capital and the region. Engineering, robotic, and unmanned equipment has been deployed. Due to the large-scale fires, there is a danger to firefighters. A secondary collapse of the structure occurred in one of the damaged buildings, the SES reports.
This material was created with the support of the British Council’s “Creative Economy Grants” program
The material was prepared by:
Topic Researcher, Text Author: Yana Yevmenova
Image Editor: Olga Kovalova
Literary Editor: Yuliia Futei
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