1,510 political violence events
2% increase compared to last week
103 incidents of violence targeting civilians
11% increase compared to last week
At least 42 fatalities from civilian targeting
8% increase compared to last week
Key trends
- In the Donetsk region, Russian forces seized three settlements near Pokrovsk and two others south of Kostiantynivka. They also continued advancing north of Velyka Novosilka.
- In the border areas of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, Russian forces captured two and one settlements, respectively.
- ACLED records at least 42 Russian long-range missile and drone strikes, including in Kyiv city and the Kyiv region, as well as in the western regions of Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr, and Ternopil.
- Russian shelling, missiles, aerial bombs, and drones killed at least 38 civilians in the Kherson, Sumy, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Donetsk, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhia regions. Ukrainian shelling and drone strikes reportedly killed three civilians in the Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson and Kharkiv regions.
Key events
- 25 May | Kyiv – Ukraine and Russia complete a swap of 1,000 prisoners of war each
- 25 May | Khmelnytskyi – Russian drones and missiles kill five civilians and wound five others in Krasyliv
- 29 May | Khmelnytskyi – More than 100 people clash with conscription officers and police in Kamianets-Podilskyi
Spotlight: Russian forces launch a record number of drones at Ukraine
Between the evening of 23 May and early on 26 May, Russia launched the largest wave of drone strikes in Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion in early 2022. According to Ukrainian authorities, Russian forces launched over 900 Shahed-type attack and decoy drones,1Yuriy Svyrydyuk, “‘Iskanders’ and ‘Shaheds’: the Air Force told about the massive attack of the Russian Federation,” Suspilne, 24 May 2025 (Ukrainian); Roman Petrenko, “Russia launches nearly 300 drones and 70 missiles overnight, with hits recorded at 22 locations,” Ukrainska Pravda, 25 May 2025; Valentyna Romanenko, “Another record drone attack by Russia: Ukrainian air defence neutralised 288 UAVs and destroyed 9 cruise missiles,” Ukrainska Pravda, 26 May 2025 damaging civilian infrastructure and killing and injuring civilians across 16 regions, including the western regions of Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Khmelnytskyi. In Kyiv, Russian drones and ballistic missiles hit apartment buildings and private houses in five of the city’s 10 boroughs, injuring seven civilians. Combined drone, ballistic missile, and cruise missile attacks on 25 and 26 May killed at least four and injured about 28 civilians, while also damaging at least 51 houses in the surrounding region. Accompanying strikes also killed three civilians in the Zhytomyr region and another five in the Khmelnytskyi region, where strikes destroyed almost 40 houses in one town alone. Intensifying and indiscriminate attacks on Ukrainian civilians continued unabated amid Moscow’s refusal to make compromises in the Turkey-mediated peace talks2Vladimir Soldatkin, Tom Balmforth, and Huseyin Hayatsever, “Russia sets out punitive terms at peace talks with Ukraine,” Reuters, 3 June 2025 and its grinding occupation of eastern Ukraine.
Explore the ACLED Conflict Exposure tool to assess the numbers of people affected by armed violence, disaggregated by locations, time period, and actors involved.
