Russia Tells Foreign Nationals to Leave Kyiv After Attack

Russian forces launched dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles along with hundreds of drones at Kyiv overnight on Saturday, marking one of the largest attacks on the Ukrainian capital since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. The barrage killed four people and injured about 100 others across Kyiv and surrounding areas.

Non-military sites including the Chernobyl Museum, the National Art Museum of Ukraine, a shopping center, a market, and several residential buildings were damaged or destroyed. Russia also fired a hypersonic Oreshnik missile at the area of Bila Tserkva, 90 kilometers south of Kyiv.

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday urged foreign nationals and diplomats to leave Kyiv as soon as possible and warned citizens to stay away from administrative and military buildings. Moscow stated that new strikes would target decision-making centers, command posts, and drone manufacturing facilities in the city.

Officials described the planned attacks as consistent and systemic strikes on Ukrainian defense industry enterprises. They added that Russian strikes on Kyiv have continued nearly every week since the start of the war and that the overall security threat remains unchanged.

Moscow said the Saturday attack and planned follow-on strikes were in response to a Ukrainian strike on a student dormitory in Starobilsk on Friday that killed 21 people. Ukrainian military officials stated their forces had targeted an elite Russian military drone unit in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine and had not struck civilians.

Russia has conducted several waves of missile and drone attacks on Kyiv since a brief ceasefire tied to Moscow's Victory Day parade expired earlier in May. A previous large-scale strike killed 24 people, including three children, in a residential block.