According to reports, at least 18 people died in the
capital, where densely populated residential areas sustained
significant damage and several neighbourhoods had to be
evacuated.
“Search and rescue operations are ongoing
to save people trapped beneath the rubble
of collapsed residential buildings, including a
15-year-old girl and her family,” said
Matthias Schmale, the UN’s top aid official in
Ukraine.
In a statement condemning the violence, Mr.
Schmale noted that many of Kyiv’s three million
residents spent up to 11 hours in bomb shelters or
taking cover at home “to the terrifying sounds of
war”.
In addition to those killed in Kyiv, nearly 90
people were injured, including several children, in what the
city’s mayor described as the “most massive attack”,
while national media reported apartment blocks and a hotel
set ablaze.
Medics hit
Among those injured
were several health workers and ambulance drivers after an
ambulance station was struck and several vehicles were
damaged.
Nearly every part of the capital sustained
damage, Mr. Schmale explained, with multiple homes, a hotel,
market and other civilian facilities destroyed or
damaged.
Between December 2025 and May 2026,
civilian casualties increased
by 40 per cent compared with the same
period a year earlier, according to the UN Human
Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
Deadly
pattern
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“Civilians in Kyiv and across the
country should not be bracing for yet another
attack; they are protected under international
humanitarian law,” Mr. Schmale stressed.
He noted
that the latest attacks on densely populated areas across
Ukraine are part of a “continuing deadly pattern”, while
in Russia and occupied Ukrainian Crimea, a growing number of
swarm drone attacks attributed in media reports to Ukrainian
forces have caused major disruption to oil facilities and
closed Moscow airports.
Across Ukraine, aid
organisations provide emergency support to nearly one
million people affected by strikes by Russia, whose
full-scale invasion began on 24 February 2022.
This
vital relief includes first aid, shelter, protection, cash
assistance and mental health support – a widespread but
largely unseen consequence of the war.
“The loss and
fear caused by this and every other attack intensify the
psychological trauma countless people have
to bear,” said Mr. Schmale. “The longer the war goes on,
the deeper these invisible scars
become.”
