Residents clear debris at the site of a nine-storey residential building struck by a drone in Kyiv, Ukraine, 24 May 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

At least fifteen people were injured by Russian drone and missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early Saturday morning in what city officials labelled “one of the biggest combined attacks” of the war.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russian forces launched 14 Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 250 Iranian-made Shahed drones at several cities across Ukraine, including Kharkiv, Donetsk and Odesa, with Kyiv bearing the brunt of the assault.

Russian attacks also targeted eastern Ukraine, leaving four dead and eight injured in the Donetsk region, and three dead and two injured in the Kharkiv region.

Responding to the attacks in a Telegram post Saturday morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged international partners to put “much more pressure on Russia” in order to achieve a ceasefire and allow for “real diplomacy” to begin:

“We are waiting for sanctions from the United States, Europe and all our partners. Only additional sanctions against key sectors of the Russian economy will force Moscow to cease fire.”

In Russia, the Defence Ministry claimed that over 100 Ukrainian drones had been shot down overnight, primarily in regions bordering Ukraine, while multiple industrial facilities and critical infrastructure sites across the country have reported sustaining damage from the attack.

In the Lipetsk region, central Russia, a battery-production plant was attacked, resulting in one of the workshops catching fire and nine workers being injured. The factory produces batteries used in UAVs and the aviation and maritime sectors, according to independent news channel ASTRA.

Elsewhere, three people were injured in the central Russian region of Tula, as a UAV damaged a natural gas pipeline near a local business in the city of Novomoskovsk, regional Governor Dmitry Milyaev said Saturday morning.

The overnight attacks come amid Ukraine and Russia’s “thousand for a thousand” prisoner of war swap, which is expected to continue taking place over the weekend. On Friday, 270 prisoners of war and 120 civilians were exchanged, according to the Russian Defence Ministry.