KYIV -- Rescue crews ended their search through the rubble after Russian forces hit a Kyiv apartment building in an attack that killed at least 24 people, and US President Donald Trump suggested the strike could set back peace efforts.
The suspected missile strike, which destroyed an entire section of a nine-story building in the Ukrainian capital's Darnytskiy district, was part of a massive air attack that began on May 13, two days after a US-brokered May 9-11 cease-fire.
The war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, is "one that we'd like to see settled," Reuters quoted Trump as telling reporters aboard Air Force One en route home from Beijing after a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"Until last night, it was looking good, but they [the Ukrainians] took a big hit last night. So it's gonna happen [the end of the war]. But it's a shame," Trump said in a reference to the Russian attack.
Kyiv authorities declared May 15 a day of mourning for the victims of the latest Russian attacks on the city, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the site of the strike on the same day.
"Here, Russia took the lives of 24 people, including three children," he said.
"Ukraine will not allow any of the aggressor's strikes that take the lives of our people to go unpunished," Zelenskyy said later in the day, after meeting top military and intelligence officials to discuss retaliatory long-range strikes.
"We are entirely justified in our responses against Russia's oil industry, weapons industry, and those directly responsible for committing war crimes against Ukraine and Ukrainians," he said.
Ryazan Refinery
Ukraine's military general staff and its drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, said Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery in Ryazan, about 200 km southeast of Moscow, on May 15.
Russian-language Telegram channels also reported the strike and said the attack on one of Russia's largest oil processing plants triggered a major fire at the site.
Ryazan region governor Pavel Malkov said the drone attack killed at least four people in Ryazan, including a child, and that two high-rise residential buildings were damaged.
Malkov confirmed that drone debris fell on the grounds of an "industrial facility" but did not specify that it was the refinery. He later reported that the Ryazan region was attacked by 99 drones overnight.
Russia's Defense Ministry reported on May 15 that its forces destroyed 355 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight. Kyiv has been targeting Russian military sites and energy infrastructure, sometimes deep inside Russian territory.
Authorities said 18 units were destroyed in the Kyiv strike. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported that at least 57 people were injured throughout the capital, 27 of whom were hospitalized.
"Everything was burning. People were screaming...people were shouting," Andriy, a Kyiv resident wearing bloodstained night clothes, told AFP near a collapsed residential building.
Zelenskyy said that, according to initial reports, a Russian Kh-101 subsonic cruise missile struck the apartment building. He called for heightened diplomatic efforts to prevent Russia from developing such weapons.
Valeriy Romanenko, a Ukrainian aviation expert, said it is absolutely certain that Russian forces used Kh-101 missiles, based on debris found at the site.
"The missile is described as high-precision, but that would mean that Russian strategic aviation was precisely targeting residential high-rise buildings," Romanenko told Current Time.
He praised Ukrainian air defense forces, saying that 652 of the 675 drones Russia fired on May 14 were shot down. "That is a very high interception rate."
"There were people there, children. What happened to them? You have to understand, an entire building collapsed," Alla Komisarova, 74, was quoted by Reuters as saying at the site.
"I heard something flying, it's flying nearby...And then there was such a terrible sound, and our house, which is opposite [to the apartment building] jumped and rumbled."
In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said Russia had launched 1,567 drones against Ukraine since the start of May 13. He put the number of dead at 27 over the past two days, with the toll likely to rise.
POW Exchange
Zelenskyy announced on May 15 the first stage of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine, part of an agreement linked to the May 11-13 cease-fire brokered by Trump, confirming that 205 Ukrainian prisoners of war had been returned.
"Today, warriors of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, and the State Border Guard Service are returning from Russian captivity. This is the first stage of the 1,000-for-1,000 exchange,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
The Russian Defense Ministry also reported on the prisoner exchange, saying that 205 Russian soldiers had been released from Ukraine and were currently in Belarus before heading to Russia.
The United Arab Emirates mediated the Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchange, the ministry said.
War 'Coming To An End'?
Russia's massive attack came days after Russian President Vladimir Putin told a news conference on May 9 that he believes the war is "coming to an end."
But Putin made no suggestion that Russia was ready for compromises that could lead to a potential peace deal with Ukraine, and his spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated the Kremlin's hard-line territorial demands on May 13, saying Kyiv must cede large amounts of land in the east and south as a precondition for meaningful peace talks.
"As the president said in June 2024...for a cease-fire to occur and a path to full-scale peace talks to open, Zelenskyy must give the order that the Ukrainian Armed Forces...leave the territory of the Donbas, the territory of Russian regions," Peskov said.
Russia holds almost all of the Donbas, which comprises the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but has been struggling to seize the remaining portion of Donetsk that it does not control, and analysts said it is unlikely to achieve that goal any time soon.
Kyiv has rejected that demand and Peskov's remark suggested that Moscow also demands Ukraine cede large portions of the southern Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions that its forces hold, including the capitals.
After several face-to-face meetings, US-brokered talks between Ukrainian and Russian negotiatorshave been stalled since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran at the end of February.
Following the latest Russian attacks, Zelenskyy ridiculed Putin’s assertion, saying, "These are definitely not the actions of those who believe the war is coming to an end."
"It's important that our partners do not remain silent about this strike. And it is equally important to continue supporting the protection of our skies," he added.
Regional governor Oleh Synyehubov separately said that 28 people, including three children, were injured in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in attacks on civilian sites.
Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said the attacks were evidence that Moscow wanted to continue the war despite attempts by the US to broker a peace deal.
"I am certain that the leaders of the United States and China have enough leverage over Moscow to tell Putin to finally end the war," he wrote on X, referring to Trump's visit to China.
"Moscow is testing the unity and resolve of the free world, believing terror can weaken support for Ukraine," Sybiha wrote.
Russia denies it targets civilian sites despite widespread evidence of such attacks.
