Kyiv, Ukraine – May 4, 2025 — Russia launched a large-scale drone assault on Ukraine overnight from Saturday into Sunday, deploying 165 unmanned aerial vehicles across multiple regions, including the capital Kyiv, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The attack, one of the largest drone strikes in recent months, triggered fires and left at least eleven people injured, including two children.
The State Emergency Service (SES) of Ukraine reported that three districts in Kyiv — Obolonskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, and Shevchenkivskyi — were affected. In Obolonskyi, a 12-storey residential building was set ablaze following a drone strike. Residents were forced to flee their homes in the middle of the night.
“When it hit, we didn’t know what to do. I was with my son, and I said to him: ‘Come on, let’s go!’ I grabbed him like this, in my pyjamas, and ran over here,” said Nadiya, a resident of the damaged building.
“We saw people coming down the stairs to evacuate. We were all sitting here in the dark. There was a strong fire, they were putting it out, and we were sitting here. Two guys got hurt, an ambulance came, but they didn’t take them — probably they were under a lot of stress.”
The SES deployed 75 firefighters to extinguish the blazes in Kyiv. In Sviatoshynskyi district, additional residential buildings caught fire, while Shevchenkivskyi district saw roads and electrical poles damaged by falling drone debris.
Images from the aftermath showed municipal workers clearing rubble near burnt-out cars and a gaping crater in a residential courtyard. The drone attacks have added strain to emergency services already stretched thin by months of repeated assaults on urban centers.
Further south, the central Ukrainian region of Cherkasy also came under attack. Russian shelling there damaged facades and shattered windows of multi-storey buildings, along with warehouses belonging to a furniture company and local garden infrastructure. In the town of Cherkasy, residents described the suddenness of the strike.
“There was no whistle, no noise, nothing,” said Vasyl Shevchenko, a local resident. “It just hit us so hard that the windows blew out. Thank God we are alive. They say you need to take documents and things, but in such a situation, what can you take? We just took our underwear and ran.”
According to preliminary reports, ten apartments were damaged in the Cherkasy strikes, with two completely destroyed by fire. Over 100 rescuers and 26 emergency vehicles were deployed in the region to assist with fire suppression and evacuations.
Ukraine’s Air Armed Forces stated that 69 Shahed-type drones were intercepted and destroyed during the night. However, around 80 others reportedly went off radar, raising concerns about ongoing threats.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry released video footage on Sunday, which it claims shows successful strikes against Ukrainian military positions in the southern Kherson region — a front that continues to see regular clashes.
With the war entering its third year, Ukrainian officials warn that continued drone and missile attacks are aimed at destabilizing civilian life and exhausting emergency response systems.
No fatalities have been reported so far, but officials emphasize that the psychological toll on civilians and the strain on infrastructure remain significant.