More than 700 weapons rained on the capital as a Darnytskyi apartment block collapsed; 20 residents still missing and eastern Kyiv lost running water.
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Russia hammered Kyiv between roughly 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. on May 14, 2026 with a synchronised wave of 675 one-way attack drones and 56 ballistic and cruise missiles — including Iskander and Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles. Local officials confirmed at least 5 dead and 44 injured in the capital by mid-afternoon, with another 7 hurt in Kyiv Oblast. A residential building in the eastern Darnytskyi district partially collapsed: 18 apartments were destroyed, 11 people rescued, 20 still missing. A DTEK transformer substation and a high-voltage line were knocked out, cutting running water across the city's eastern bank. Fires broke out in four other districts from drone debris.
Ukraine's air defence absorbed most of the swarm: gunners and electronic-warfare crews destroyed or jammed 29 X-101 cruise missiles, 12 Iskander or S-400 missiles, and 652 of the 675 drones Russia launched. That interception rate — about 96% on drones — explains why the casualty count, while grim, sits in the dozens rather than the hundreds despite the size of the strike package. What got through still wrecked 18 apartments in one Darnytskyi block, sparked fires in Dniprovskyi, Holosiivskyi, Solomianskyi, and Obolonskyi, and severed a DTEK transformer substation that kept eastern Kyiv's water flowing.
The single deadliest spot was an apartment block on Kyiv's east bank where a missile or large drone tore through structural columns. Rescue crews pulled 11 residents out alive overnight but were still digging through a rubble pile that swallowed 20 more people, including at least one child. Mayor Vitalii Klitschko moved between collapse sites coordinating triage and damage surveys. With DTEK's transformer taken offline, residents in Darnytskyi, Dniprovskyi and other left-bank districts woke to no running water — turning what could have been a one-night ordeal into a multi-day humanitarian incident as ambient temperatures climbed.
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The barrage hit while Donald Trump and Xi Jinping sat down in Beijing, with Ukraine and Iran reportedly near the top of their agenda. Russian strikes have repeatedly tracked Western diplomatic calendars in the past 18 months; the symbolism of pounding Kyiv exactly as the world's two largest economies discussed war-and-peace will not be lost on either capital. It was also the second blow in 24 hours: a rare daytime drone attack on May 13 killed at least six people across roughly 20 regions, one of the longest sustained assaults of the war. Together the two waves pushed the May death toll into triple digits.
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Russia launched one of its longest sustained drone attacks of the war during daylight on May 13, with the swarm reaching roughly 20 regions of Ukraine and killing at least six people. The Kyiv leg of the daytime wave foreshadowed the overnight escalation.
Ukrainian air-defence sirens went up across the capital region shortly before 1 a.m. local time as inbound cruise-missile and ballistic tracks were detected. Residents moved to shelters; metro stations stayed open as overnight refuges.
Around 3 a.m. local time, the main wave hit: 56 missiles — Iskander ballistic and Kinzhal aeroballistic — alongside 675 one-way attack drones converged on Kyiv and other regions. Ukrainian air defence intercepted 29 cruise missiles, 12 Iskander or S-400 missiles and 652 drones; the rest broke through.
Mayor Vitalii Klitschko moved between four districts where fires sparked by drone debris were still being contained — Dniprovskyi, Holosiivskyi, Solomianskyi and Obolonskyi — and updated casualty figures to at least five dead and 44 injured in Kyiv by 2 p.m. local time.
A strike on a residential building in the eastern Darnytskyi district brought down structural columns, destroying 18 apartments. Rescuers pulled 11 people from the rubble overnight; 20 remained missing as of mid-afternoon. A DTEK transformer substation went offline, cutting running water across eastern Kyiv.
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