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24 people killed in Russian strike on Kyiv Rescuers clear the rubble of a destroyed nine-story building. The city is in mourning.

Source: Meduza

Two days after the end of a truce that ran from May 9 to 11, Russian forces launched a massive strike on Ukraine, deploying 670 attack drones and 56 missiles. In Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district, a section of a residential building — floors one through nine — collapsed in the attack, destroying 18 apartments. On the morning of May 15, after more than a day of search-and-rescue operations, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko announced that 24 people had been killed in the attack, including three children. Among the dead were 12-year-old Lyubava Yakovleva and her older sister, daughters of soldier Yevhen Yakovlev, who went by the call sign “Rudyi” (Redhead) and was killed in the war in April 2023. On its Facebook page, Lyubava’s school announced her death, noting that her older sister was still buried under the rubble at the time. No survivors were found overnight. May 15 has been declared a day of mourning in Kyiv. Meduza is publishing photos from the search-and-rescue operation.


Maxym Marusenko / NurPhoto / Getty Images

State Emergency Service rescuers clear rubble at the site of the collapsed building section in Darnytskyi district. Kyiv, May 14, 2026

Maxym Marusenko / NurPhoto / Getty Images

The aftermath of a Russian strike on a residential building in Kyiv. May 14, 2026

Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA

Danylo Antoniuk / Ukrinform / SIPA / Scanpix / LETA

Torres Kantorowicz / SIPA / Scanpix / LETA

Rescuers carry the body of one of the victims.

Mykola Tymchenko / EPA / Scanpix / LETA

Sergey Dolzhenko / EPA / Scanpix / LETA

Efrem Lukatsky / AP / Scanpix / LETA

State Emergency Service of Ukraine

Danylo Antoniuk / Ukrinform / SIPA / Scanpix / LETA

A view of the building destroyed in the Russian strike from a neighboring building

Torres Kantorowicz / SIPA / Scanpix / LETA