Russia’s large-scale attack against Ukraine on Saturday leaves four dead, marks third use of hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile

Before the May 23 strike, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote, citing Western intelligence, that Ukraine could face a massive attack that night, potentially involving the Oreshnik missile:

“We are preparing our air defenses as much as possible and will respond entirely fairly to every Russian strike. We gave permission for the parade, but Russia was given no permission for madness,” he wrote.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) later confirmed the Oreshnik strike. Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said the target was Bila Tserkva.

President Zelensky addressed the nation following the overnight attacks, naming Kyiv as the main target of the attacks:

“Vladimir Putin can no longer even pronounce the word ‘hurrah’ properly — he slurs it — yet he is still ‘defeating’ residential buildings with his missiles. Three Russian missiles against a water supply facility, a market burned down, dozens of residential buildings damaged, several ordinary schools hit. He launched his ‘Oreshnik’ against Bila Tserkva. They are truly deranged.”

Four people were killed as the result of the strikes, Zelensky reported in a separate post.

The Russian Ministry of Defense described the strikes on Ukrainian cities as a “retaliatory” for the Ukrainian UAV attack on the dormitory and an academic building of the Starobilsk College of the Luhansk Pedagogical University in the occupied Luhansk Region, adding that the Oreshnik, Iskander, Kinzhal, and Tsirkon missiles were used in the attack.

The Russian bombardment overnight May 24 caused the most extensive damage to Kyiv’s cultural institutions since the start of the war, Ukrainian Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna wrote on Facebook. She listed the cultural sites that sustained the heaviest damage.

• The National Art Museum of Ukraine
• The National Chornobyl Museum
• The National Philharmonic
• The National Music Academy
• The Yaroslav Mudryi National Library of Ukraine
• Kyiv Opera

Experts are working at multiple sites to assess damage to the cultural and architectural monuments. Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said the Russian strike overnight May 24 irreversibly destroyed 40% of the exhibits at the National Chornobyl Museum. The ministry said rescuers spent more than 15 hours extinguishing fires and were still dismantling hazardous structures after the attack.