At midnight on May 24, Russia launched one of the most massive attacks on Kyiv since the full-scale war began. Among dozens of damaged facilities is a McDonald's restaurant near Lukyanivska metro station. The timing is symbolically significant: this establishment opened on May 24, 1997 — the first McDonald's in Ukraine.
An opening that became an event
Construction took 99 days. At the 1997 opening, queues stretched for several days — people waited to taste a hamburger for ~$1 and a Big Mac for ~$3.68. According to Wikipedia, in 2011, the McDonald's at Kyiv railway station was the second busiest in the world — a testament to how quickly the chain took root in Ukraine.
Today, over 100 of the chain's establishments operate in the country. In May 2025, McDonald's opened a restaurant in Zakarpattia — the only region where it had not yet been present.
The sixth attack — and another promise to restore
The May 24 strike is already the sixth case of damage to this particular facility since the full-scale invasion began. The previous one, in January 2025, was the most severe: a ballistic missile destroyed the facade, and the restaurant was closed for nearly a month. At that time, the company promised to "definitely restore" it — and it reopened by February 13.
"We are currently assessing the extent of the damage and plan to resume operations as soon as possible. The important thing is that all our employees were in shelter and no one was harmed."
Press service of McDonald's Ukraine Ltd.
The wording is almost identical to what the company used after the January attack. Personnel evacuation protocols worked — this has become standard practice: staff goes to shelter when an alarm is announced, and the facility closes.
Attack context: largest by number of damaged locations
Kyiv City Military Administration head Timur Tkachenko called the overnight strike the largest in terms of number of damaged locations since the full-scale invasion began — the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, the Chornobyl Museum, the Art Museum, the Cabinet of Ministers, and dozens of other structures were damaged. At least two people were killed, and dozens more were wounded. Lukyanivska metro station was temporarily closed due to damage to its vestibule from the blast wave.
Against this backdrop, the damaged fast-food restaurant is a detail. But a telling one: the facility that symbolized Ukraine's integration into the Western world in 1997 now documents the geography of Russian strikes on Kyiv's civilian infrastructure.
If the company maintains its previous restoration pace — approximately a month — the restaurant could reopen by the end of June. The real question is different: how many times can "restore as soon as possible" be repeated before logistics and insurance make maintaining the facility economically impractical — and whether McDonald's Ukraine has a public answer to this.
