Massive Russian Missile and Drone Assault Leaves Parts of Kyiv Burning Overnight

Kyiv woke to smoke, fires and damaged buildings after one of the largest Russian overnight attacks on the Ukrainian capital in recent months.

Russian forces launched a large combined missile and drone assault overnight into May 24, according to Ukrainian officials and reporting from Reuters and The Kyiv Independent. Air alerts spread across Ukraine shortly after midnight, followed by explosions in Kyiv around 1 a.m. and additional waves between roughly 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.

What happened overnight

Ukraine’s Air Force warned of missiles and large numbers of drones moving toward the capital. Monitoring groups cited by The Kyiv Independent reported more than 50 missiles and upwards of 700 drones launched toward Ukraine, with Kyiv absorbing the main pressure of the attack.

Those numbers should be treated as Ukrainian and monitoring-source estimates until a final Air Force tally is published. But the visible result was clear by sunrise: fires, smoke columns, damaged homes and emergency crews working across multiple districts.

Damage across the capital

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said damage had been recorded in every district of the city. Officials reported damage to multi-story residential buildings in Obolonskyi, Shevchenkivskyi, Dniprovskyi, Holosiivskyi, Solomianskyi and Pecherskyi districts.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said there was a structural collapse from the first through fifth floors of a building in Shevchenkivskyi district. Other reported damage included a supermarket or shopping center, an office center, dormitory, service station, garages, parked vehicles, warehouses and a postal facility near central Kyiv.

Casualties and rescue work

Early official figures put the toll at at least one person killed and 21 to 24 injured in Kyiv, with several hospitalized. Three additional injuries were reported in Kyiv Oblast. As with most mass overnight strikes, those numbers may change as rescue teams finish checks and local authorities update district-level reports.

The destruction was not limited to the city center. Kyiv Oblast officials reported damage in communities including Fastiv, Bucha, Brovary, Bila Tserkva, Vyshhorod and Boryspil.

The Oreshnik warning

The attack came hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia appeared to be preparing a broader combined strike, potentially including the Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile. During the air raid, Ukraine’s Air Force issued a warning about a possible Oreshnik launch.

That point remains unconfirmed. The confirmed story is the scale of the combined assault and the damage across Kyiv. Whether Oreshnik was actually used requires official technical confirmation, not social-media inference from explosions or air alerts.

What Russia said

No clear Russian statement confirming or explaining the Kyiv attack was identified in the initial major reporting. Russia typically frames long-range strikes as attacks on military or infrastructure targets, while Ukraine says residential and civilian sites were hit in Kyiv.

For readers tracking the viral claim — “large parts of Kyiv burning overnight” — the strongest wording is that multiple areas of Kyiv burned or sustained visible fire damage after the assault. “Large parts of Kyiv” captures the scale of the impact, but it should not be read as the whole city being on fire.

NoDechev rating: confirmed major attack, developing casualty/damage picture. Reliable reports and Ukrainian officials confirm a massive overnight strike and damage across every Kyiv district; exact launch counts, final casualty numbers and Oreshnik involvement remain subject to updates.