Street with a destroyed shopping mall, which was hit during yesterday’s Russian missile and drone attack, amid Russia’s attack in Kyiv, Ukraine on May 25, 2026. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Russia fired more than 100 drones and two ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said Tuesday (May 26, 2026), as the country’s Foreign Ministry noted that Moscow’s recent threat to hit Kyiv especially hard from the air brought nothing new.
Russia on Monday (May 25, 2026) urged foreign citizens, including members of diplomatic missions, to leave the Ukrainian capital as quickly as possible and told residents to steer clear of military and government facilities. It said that “systemic strikes” on Kyiv were being prepared.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio by phone on Monday (May 25, 2026) that the U.S. should evacuate its diplomatic staff from Kyiv, a Foreign Ministry statement said. Mr. Rubio didn’t say whether the State Department would take that step, but expressed concern during a trip to India that the “terrible” war in Ukraine could escalate further.
The Trump administration has tried for more than a year to stop the fighting that broke out after Russia’s February 2022 invasion. But its efforts yielded no significant breakthrough and are now on ice as Washington focuses on the Iran war.
There were no announcements of diplomatic departures from Kyiv. The European Union, French and Polish delegations publicly said that they would not leave.
The level of security threats posed by Russia to Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities “remains the same as in previous years and months”, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on late Monday (May 25, 2026).
Russia has continuously launched missile and drone attacks on the capital for more than four years, it pointed out, adding that Ukraine was prepared to assist diplomatic missions seeking additional security measures.
Russia said its biggest missile attack of the year last weekend was a response to Friday’s (May 22, 2026) deadly Ukrainian drone strike on what Moscow said was a college dormitory in Starobilsk, a city in Ukraine’s Russia-occupied Luhansk region.
But the Ukrainian General Staff said that its strike in Starobilsk hit the local headquarters of the Russian military’s special drone unit.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that sophisticated American-made air defence systems that Ukraine needs to stop Russian ballistic missiles are in short supply due to the Iran war.
“Unfortunately, there has been no progress for a long time with America on expanding the production of anti-ballistic capabilities,” Mr. Zelenskyy said on social media on late Monday (May 25, 2026), adding that Kyiv is working with Europe to improve its own anti-ballistic capabilities in sufficient quantities.
He noted that Ukrainian battlefield gains in recent months have enabled it to “stabilise” the 1,250-kilometres (780-mile) front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, suggesting that Kyiv’s forces are holding their own against Russia’s bigger Army.
Russia’s spring offensive is floundering as Ukraine’s midrange drone strikes disrupt its rear supply lines, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Published – May 26, 2026 04:25 pm IST
