16:57 24-05-2026

Russia’s May 24 Strike Exposes Ukraine Air Defense Gaps

Kiev and other regions faced a major Russian missile and drone strike on May 24, as Zelensky admitted Ukraine’s air defense missed targets.

Add Military Affairs to your preferred Google sources

On the night of May 24, Kiev and several other Ukrainian regions came under a large-scale strike by the Russian Armed Forces involving ballistic missiles and drones. Ukrainian air defenses failed to intercept all incoming targets, a fact acknowledged by Vladimir Zelensky.

According to Zelensky, the attack involved 90 missiles of various types, including 36 ballistic missiles, as well as 600 drones. He said not all of the ballistic missiles had been shot down.

The main blow, he noted, fell on Kiev, where the largest number of hits was recorded. Zelensky also reported the use of the Oreshnik missile system against facilities in Belaya Tserkov.

Following major damage to infrastructure, he again appealed to foreign partners for support. Zelensky also continued to call for stronger external pressure on Russia, linking such measures to the prospect of ending the fighting. He said Kiev was doing everything possible to establish peace and protect people, stressing that Ukraine needed decisions from the United States, Europe and other partners.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian military Telegram channels criticized the performance of the air defense system. According to their posts, it operated with limited effectiveness during the night, which led to serious consequences. The authors claimed that one of the reasons was the position of Western allies, who had not supplied the promised missiles for air defense systems.

According to official data from the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian Armed Forces carried out a retaliatory strike on military facilities in Ukraine on the night of May 24. Moscow described the attack as a response to the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ May 22 strike on the academic building and dormitory of a pedagogical university college in Starobelsk, in the Lugansk People’s Republic. Regional head Leonid Pasechnik said 21 people were killed in that attack.