24 dead, including three girls aged 12, 15, and 17. This is the grim result of the bombing carried out by Russia against Kyiv in the early hours from Wednesday to Thursday. A ballistic missile struck a residential building in the Ukrainian capital. The race-against-time search for survivors among the rubble ended on Friday morning. The attack also left 50 injured, 24 seriously, and a dozen adjacent apartment blocks damaged.
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Despite everything, these Russian attacks have not stopped the exchange of prisoners of war agreed upon by Moscow and Kyiv. A total of 205 prisoners from each side returned to their countries this Friday. The return is part of an exchange of 2,000 prisoners that Trump managed to mediate for this May. It is the second largest prisoner of war exchange between Russia and Ukraine. The first, of just over 2,000 soldiers and civilians, also took place in 2025 through mediation by the U.S. president.
Russia carried out a new 24-hour bombing on the Ukrainian rear between Tuesday and Thursday. Hundreds of drones arrived day and night in Ukrainian territory, totaling more than 1,200. The main target of the invader was the power grid.
It was in the early hours and morning of Thursday when the bombing ended with the arrival of about 60 cruise and ballistic missiles, most targeting Kyiv. One of these rockets hit the apartment block where the 24 fatalities occurred.
Images showed President Volodymyr Zelensky kneeling at the attack site honoring the memory of the deceased and, through his social networks, urging the world not to forget that his country remains the shield that stops the Russian advance towards other countries.
This is the deadliest Russian bombing this spring. The other day when numerous civilians died was April 16, when 18 people died in Kyiv, Odesa, and Dnipro. That day marked the end of the two-day truce ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin for Orthodox Easter.
In another attack, the United Nations has denounced that one of its convoys was targeted by two Russian drones in the southern province of Kherson, partially occupied by Kremlin troops, while heading to deliver humanitarian aid. The officials of the humanitarian affairs agency (OCHA) say that both armies had been previously informed of the mission they were to carry out.
In Russian territory, authorities reported this Friday a Ukrainian drone attack on a refinery in the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow, which left three civilians dead and a dozen injured.
This latest attack on the Ukrainian capital comes three days after Russia also ended a 76-hour ceasefire agreed with Trump. This truce allowed the Kremlin to organize in Moscow, without the threat of Ukrainian drones, the May 9 parade commemorating the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
President Zelensky again reminded his European allies this Friday of the importance of transferring air defense systems, especially the U.S. Patriot missiles, which must be acquired from the United States. “It is Ukraine that protects Europe and the world so that attacks like this do not spread,” Zelensky wrote on his social networks, “support for those who defend life must continue. Anti-ballistic missiles are always necessary.”
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