At least four people were killed and more than a hundred injured in Ukraine in intense nighttime Russian bombings which particularly targeted the capital, according to the authorities, with kyiv and Moscow reporting Russia’s use of its Orechnik nuclear-capable ballistic missile.
AFP journalists noted massive bombings on the capital during the night from Saturday to Sunday, which left at least four dead in kyiv and its regiona few days after a deadly Ukrainian attack against a high school in a region occupied by Russia, for which Russian President Vladimir Putin had promised a military response.
Russia targeted Ukraine with “90 missiles and 600 drones”, of which 55 and 549 respectively were intercepted, the Ukrainian army said on Sunday morning.
Moscow to use its Orechnik hypersonic ballistic missile, of intermediate range and capable of carrying nuclear warheads, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Russian Defense Ministry indicated that it had used several of these missiles, with kyiv only reporting a single strike so far. Moscow claims to have only targeted targets linked to the Ukrainian armyin response to kyiv’s strikes on its territory.
A “flight forward” for France
Top European leaders responded by saying the use of the Orechnik missile revealed Russia’s “desperation.”
“Terrorism against civilians is not (a sign of, editor’s note) force. It is despair”, declared the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on called Orechnik’s use an “irresponsible escalation.”
Russian strikes follow one another against civilian objectives in Ukraine, like again last night.
France condemns this attack and the use of the Oreshnik ballistic missile, which above all signify a form of headlong flight and the impasse of Russia’s war of aggression.…
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 24, 2026
The head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloni deplored “a progressive escalation in the importance of the weapons used”.
This is the third time that Moscow has used this missile on Ukraine since the start of its invasion in February 2022, until now without nuclear warheads.
Russia deployed it last year in Belarus, a country allied with Moscow and bordering three member states of the Atlantic Alliance and the European Union – Poland, Lithuania and Latvia – as well as Ukraine.
The Russian president had promised a military response after a Ukrainian drone strike during the night from Thursday to Friday on educational buildings in Starobilsk, in the Ukrainian region of Lugansk (east) occupied by Moscow, which left 21 dead and more than 40 injured.
Negotiations under American mediation to put an end to this conflict, the worst in Europe since the Second World War, are at a standstill since the outbreak of war in the Middle East. “Decisions are needed from the United States, Europe and others to get this old madman in Moscow to finally say the word ‘peace,'” Zelensky said.
