On the night of May 23-24, Kyiv experienced one of the largest combined attacks since the start of the full-scale invasion. 15 people were wounded, residential buildings, a shopping center, an educational institution, and a boiler house were damaged — simultaneously across six districts of the city.
What and how they attacked
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia launched 14 Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles and 250 Shaheds and decoy drones of various types. Missiles were launched from Taganrog, Yeisk, Bryansk, and temporarily occupied Crimea — targets: Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and Zaporizhzhia regions. Air defense forces shot down six missiles and neutralized 245 unmanned aerial vehicles, including 128 destroyed and another 117 that were either lost on radar or suppressed by electronic warfare means.
"A difficult night for all of us. One of the largest combined attacks on the capital. The enemy is improving its own tactics for using drones, while simultaneously striking with ballistic missiles."
— Kyiv Mayor Timuir Tkachenko
Consequences by district
- Solomyansky district: Shrapnel hit a 24-story residential complex — fire on upper levels, four floors were engulfed in flames. 7 wounded, one person rescued. A separate 9-story building was also damaged.
- Obolonsky district: At least 4 locations with damage. Shrapnel struck a shopping center and residential building — apartments on the 3rd to 6th floors were destroyed.
- Dniprovsk district: Shrapnel damaged an apartment on the third floor of a multi-story building, two people were hospitalized.
- Shevchenko district: Fire in a non-residential building, the fire was localized. According to updated National Police data — three injured, including an 86-year-old woman with acute stress reaction and a man with multiple injuries.
- Holosiivsky district: Drone shrapnel fell at several locations — one person wounded, five cars damaged.
- Sviatoshyn district: Fire in a non-residential building, extinguished.
Tactical context
The attack occurred in waves: the first explosions were heard around 22:00 on May 23, the main ballistic strike came after 01:00. More than 20 drones simultaneously approached from three directions: Brovar, Vyshhorod, and Boryspil. The combination of "ballistic missiles + massed swarm of Shaheds" is a tactic Russia consistently applies to overwhelm and exhaust air defense systems. Tkachenko directly recorded this trend, emphasizing that the enemy adapts its tactics between attacks.
The National Police documented damage to residential buildings in Dniprovsk, Solomyansky, and Obolonsky districts, as well as to a shopping and entertainment center, an educational institution, eight cars, and a boiler house.
If Russia establishes the "multi-vector swarm + ballistic strikes on key districts" scheme as a standard for nightly attacks on the capital — the question is no longer whether air defense will hold quantitatively, but how many missiles are sufficient to overwhelm interception capabilities over densely populated residential areas.
