24 Killed in Russian Missile Strike on Kyiv Apartment Building as Both Sides Launch Large-Scale Drone Attacks

A Russian cruise missile struck a nine-story corner apartment building in Kyiv on May 14, 2026, killing 24 people including three teenagers during what the Ukrainian air force described as Russia’s biggest barrage of the full-scale invasion. The death toll from the attack on the Ukrainian capital rose to 24 as emergency workers finished digging through the rubble after more than one day of searching, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy also stated that 48 people were wounded in the assault, including two children.

Zelenskyy led an official day of mourning in Kyiv on May 15, 2026. Crowds of grieving people, many of them children, gathered at a makeshift memorial near the destroyed building that day, with teenagers clutching bouquets and breaking into tears beside a growing mound of flowers, stuffed toys and photographs of the dead.

One portrait showed a girl in a school uniform posed against a bright yellow backdrop.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko and Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko visited the site of the damaged apartment building in Kyiv on May 15, 2026, as did Kyiv-based foreign diplomats. The assault mostly targeted the Ukrainian capital. Zelenskyy said Moscow launched more than 1,560 drones against Ukrainian population centers since Wednesday, damaging about 180 sites across Ukraine including more than 50 residential buildings.

The previous biggest Russian drone attack occurred on March 23-24 when nearly 1,000 drones and missiles were fired at Ukraine. Thursday’s death toll in Kyiv approached the toll from a July 2024 attack that killed 32 civilians and injured 85. The cruise missile that hit the Kyiv apartment building was built in the second quarter of 2026.

Zelenskyy said the timing meant Russia is still importing components for missile production in circumvention of global sanctions. " In a parallel development, Russia and Ukraine each released 205 prisoners of war on May 15, 2026.

The prisoner exchange marked the first phase of a planned 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner swap, Zelenskyy said. Some of the Ukrainians released in the May 15, 2026 exchange had been held by Russia since 2022 and fought in some of the war’s fiercest battles, Zelenskyy added. Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the 205-for-205 prisoner exchange and thanked the United Arab Emirates for brokering it.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed 355 Ukrainian drones overnight in one of the largest barrages of the war. Several airports suspended flights overnight because of the Ukrainian drone attacks. A Ukrainian drone struck Ryazan, a city about 100 kilometers southeast of Moscow, on or before May 15, 2026.

The strike killed four people including a child, regional Gov. Pavel Malkov said, and a fire broke out at an oil refinery in Ryazan following the attack.