Ukraine Verifying US Intelligence On Russian Plans To Fire Hypersonic Oreshnik Missile On Kyiv
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv was verifying intelligence reports that Russia may be preparing to launch its Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile as fears of a major escalation in the war continue to grow. Image courtesy: Wikimedia Commons.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Saturday (May 23, 2026), said his nation was verifying an American and European intelligence report that Russia was intending to fire an Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile on Kyiv.
“Our intelligence services reported receiving data, including from American and European partners, about Russia preparing a strike with the Oreshnik missile. We are verifying this information,” Zelenskyy posted on X.
“We are preparing our air defence as much as possible, and we will respond fully justly to every Russian strike,” he added, after the US embassy in Kyiv issued a security alert warning of a “potentially significant” air attack on Ukraine in the next 24 hours.
“The embassy, as always, recommends US citizens be prepared to immediately shelter in the event an air alert is announced,” the embassy said in a statement.
On Friday (May 22), Russian President Vladimir Putin alleged several citizens were killed, and dozens were injured, in Ukrainian drone strikes on a college dormitory in Starobilsk in the Luhansk People’s Republic.
Putin said he requested proposals from his military to respond to the Ukrainian drone strikes in Starobilsk. “It is impossible to limit ourselves to statements from the Foreign Ministry alone. Therefore, the Russian Defence Ministry has been ordered to present its proposals,” Putin said.
Ukraine’s military denied Russian accusations that it attacked the dorm, saying on social media it struck one of the headquarters of a Russian military drone unit called “Rubicon.”
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in a Facebook post, described “Rubicon” as a drone unit that regularly targeted Ukrainian civilians and accused Russian media of spreading “manipulative information,” adding Kyiv only targeted military infrastructure and complied with international humanitarian law.
On Sunday (May 24), Russia reportedly struck Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with a massive wave of missiles and drones that damaged residential buildings, offices, and schools, killing at least one person and injuring 21.
Soon after midnight, explosions were heard in Kyiv, following a Ukrainian warning on its air force’s Telegram channel that Russia might launch the hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that one person was believed to have been killed after a nine-story residential building in the capital’s central district of Shevchenko was hit. Emergency services were at the site extinguishing a blaze, the mayor said.
Klitschko said 21 people were injured, with 13 of those hospitalized, three of them in serious condition. Air raid sirens sounded again after sunrise on Sunday (May 24) in Kyiv.
