Russia has launched what is thought to be the largest drone strike on Ukraine since it invaded the country in 2022, just days after Friday’s peace talks.
A total of 273 exploding drones and decoys were fired by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces on Saturday night, Ukraine’s air force said.
The attacks targeted the area around the capital, Kyiv, as well as the Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions in the east of Ukraine.
Destroyed cars are parked near a building after Russian drone strikes on the Kyiv region in Ukraine on May 18, 2025. Ukrainian State Emergency Service/AFP via Getty ImagesA 28-year-old woman was killed and three others, including a four-year-old child, were wounded, Kyiv regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk posted on the Telegram messaging app.
Hours earlier, nine civilians were killed and seven wounded in a separate Russian strike on a bus in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region on Saturday.
Horror photos from the scene show the mangled wreckage of the bus with pools of blood on the road around it.
“This was a deliberate killing of civilians,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X, as he called on further pressure to be “exerted on Russia to stop the killings.”
Much of the eastern half of Ukraine remained under air raid alerts on Sunday morning.
The number of drones fired by Russia is greater than the previously reported record. That happened in February when Russian forces launched 267 drones on the eve of the third anniversary of the start of the conflict.
A 22-year-old Ukrainian resident walks through the rubble of his home damaged by a Russian drone strike. REUTERS
A home is heavily damaged in the aftermath of Russia’s attack on the Kyiv Region on May 18, 2025. REUTERSOf the drones and decoys used, 88 were intercepted and a further 128 are believed to have been lost due to electronic jamming, Ukraine said.
The fresh assault came after Friday’s US-mediated peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv — the first between the two countries since the start of the conflict. The two sides failed to agree to a ceasefire.
Ukraine has accused Russia of stepping up its attacks in the wake of the collapsed peace talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
A firefighter battles a fire at a private enterprise outside of Kyiv, Ukraine. REUTERS“It’s been a tough night. The Russians have always used war and attacks to intimidate everyone in negotiations,” the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, wrote on X on Sunday.
Ukraine has blamed Russia for the collapse of the peace talks, accusing Moscow of introducing “unacceptable demands” not previously discussed, including calls for Kyiv to withdraw from vast swaths of territory they control.
Russia “deliberately wants to throw nonstarters on the table in order to walk away from today’s meeting without any results,” a Ukrainian official told The Associated Press.
Ukraine remains focused on achieving an immediate ceasefire and a pathway to real diplomacy “just like the US, European partners and other countries proposed,” the official added.
Firefighters stand in front of burned-down structures after the Russian drone attack. REUTERSPresident Trump has said he will speak to Russia and Ukraine’s leaders over the phone on Monday in a fresh bid to end the “bloodbath” in Ukraine.
Attention has now turned to whether a direct meeting between Putin and Zelensky — the first since 2019 — could go ahead.
President Zelensky challenged his Russian counterpart to meet him in Turkey this week, but Putin sent a team of aides instead.
Meanwhile, Zelensky met with JD Vance in Rome on Sunday for the inaugural mass of the new American Pope Leo.
It was the first face-to-face meeting between the pair since they clashed in the White House in February after the US Vice President accused Ukraine’s leader of being ungrateful for America’s support in the war.
The pair smiled and shook hands as they greeted each other during mass, ahead of Pope Leo’s private meeting with President Zelensky on Sunday.
