Day of Mourning in Kyiv: final toll from Russian missile strike reaches 24 dead, including three girls aged 12, 15, and 17

A 28-hour search-and-rescue operation at the destroyed 9-story apartment block in Kyiv's Darnytskyi district ended on 15 May with 24 people confirmed dead, three of them children, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Telegram. A Day of Mourning has been declared in the Ukrainian capital.

Mayor Vitalii Klitschko confirmed the three children killed were girls aged 12, 15, and 17. More than 50 people were injured citywide, of whom 24 are in hospital.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said rescuers cleared more than 3,000 cubic meters of destroyed building, and nearly 400 people received psychological support from the State Emergency Service and the National Police on site. State Emergency Service units have moved to recovery and cleanup work.

"Russians practically destroyed an entire stairwell with their missile," Zelenskyy said. "Russia like this can never be normalized — Russia that purposefully destroys lives and hopes to remain unpunished. We must press."

The 14 May Russian attack on Ukraine launched more than 670 strike drones and 56 missiles, Ukrainian Air Force defenses documented. Kyiv was the main target of the strike.

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Russia destroyed a section of a 9-story Kyiv apartment block overnight, killing 8 civilians in one of the war’s largest combined attacks (updated)

Liubava, 12, and a family Russia killed twice over

Among the dead was 12-year-old Liubava Yakovlieva, a 6th-grader at Lyceum N323, according to the Facebook page "Russia Killed Them," which documents victims of Russian strikes. Her father, Ukrainian soldier Yevhen Yakovliev, call sign "Ryzhyi," died in combat three years ago.

"Russian terrorists killed the daughter of a fallen soldier," the page wrote.

Her older sister was still being searched for under the rubble at the time the post was written.

The Kh-101 made this year, despite 21 EU sanctions packages

The Russian Kh-101 cruise missile that destroyed practically the entire stairwell was manufactured in the second quarter of 2026, meaning Russia produced it within the past three months, Zelenskyy said.

Microelectronics, optical components, and other dual-use items needed to assemble Kh-101 missiles continue to enter Russia through third-country supply chains, despite 21 EU sanctions packages and three years of Western export controls.

The Institute for the Study of War noted that the 14 May strike did not violate the US-brokered Russian-Ukrainian Victory Day ceasefire, which ran from May 9 to 11, but "nonetheless demonstrates that Russia is a bad faith negotiator."

Russia had threatened to launch a concentrated strike on Kyiv's decision-making centers, including with the Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile, if Ukraine struck Russia's Victory Day celebrations in Moscow on May 9. In response, Zelenskyy committed to a three-day pause from May 9 through 11 and issued an 8 May decree barring Ukrainian strikes on Moscow's Red Square for the duration of the parade.