Russia fires 800 drones at Ukraine despite recent talk by Putin and
Trump of possible peace
[May 14, 2026]
By HANNA ARHIROVA and BARRY HATTON
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired at least 800 drones in a massive
daytime barrage on about 20 regions of Ukraine on Wednesday, killing at
least six people and wounding dozens, including children, in one of the
longest attacks by Moscow in the 4-year-old war, President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy said.
The attack began in midmorning and lasted for hours in the capital of
Kyiv, the western city of Lviv near Poland, and the port of Odesa on the
Black Sea, among other population centers, Zelanskyy said on the
Telegram messaging app.
“Our soldiers are defending Ukraine, but Russia’s obvious goal is to
overload air defenses,” Zelenskyy said, as the bombardment stretched
into the late afternoon. He cautioned that a cruise and ballistic
missile attack could follow the drone barrage.
It was “one of the longest, massive Russian attacks against Ukraine,” he
said on social media.
It also rattled neighbors. Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar said
his new government has summoned the Russian ambassador over a drone
attack near Hungary’s border, in a significant shift from his
predecessor Viktor Orbán's friendly relations with Moscow.
“The Hungarian government strongly condemns the Russian attack on
Transcarpathia,” Magyar told journalists, adding that Foreign Minister
Anita Orbán will speak with the ambassador Thursday morning.
The foreign minister will ask “when Russia and Vladimir Putin plan to
finally end this bloody war,” Magyar added.
“Thank you for your compassion and strong position!” Zelenskyy said on X
after Magyar’s comments.
Three people are killed in a region near Kyiv
Drone debris fell in an open area in Kyiv’s Obolonskyi district with no
casualties, city officials said, as air defense systems engaged Russian
drones over the capital. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said emergency services
responded to the scene. Explosions were heard across the city earlier
Wednesday.
Three people were killed in a drone attack in the Rivne region west of
Kyiv, according to Oleksandr Koval, head of the regional military
administration.
Moscow’s attacks are unrelenting, even as Ukraine is emboldened by its
recent military accomplishments and as U.S. President Donald Trump and
Russian President Vladimir Putin said — without providing evidence —
that the war could be approaching an end.
On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said, 14 Ukrainian regions came under attack,
followed by overnight strikes on Ukraine’s residential, energy and
railway infrastructure.
“It is important to support Ukraine and not remain silent about Russia’s
war. Every time the war disappears from the top of the news, it
encourages Russia to become even more savage,” Zelenskyy said,
apparently referring to the world's attention being focused on the Iran
war.
Trump and Putin talk of a possible end to the war
Trump said Tuesday said he believes Moscow and Kyiv will soon reach a
deal to end fighting.
“The end of the war in Ukraine I really think is getting very close,”
Trump said as he left the White House for a summit in Beijing. “Believe
it or not, it’s getting closer.”
Putin said in a speech last weekend that his invasion of Ukraine is
possibly “coming to an end.”
Neither leader elaborated on what persuaded them about the possibility
of peace in Europe’s longest conflict since World War II. U.S.-led
diplomatic efforts over the past year to end the war have fizzled after
making no progress on key issues, such as whether Russia gets to keep
Ukrainian land it has seized and what can be done to deter Moscow from
invading again.
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In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency
services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian
drone attack on a gas pipeline in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine,
Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated Wednesday that Moscow’s
fundamental terms are unchanged, with Putin insisting that Ukraine
pull its troops from the four regions — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson
and Zaporizhzhia — that Russia illegally annexed in September 2022
but hasn't fully captured.
“At that point, a ceasefire will be established, and the parties can
calmly engage in negotiations, which, incidentally, will inevitably
be very complex and involve a lot of important details,” Peskov
said.
Zelenskyy vowed to keep pressure on Moscow to make concessions in
talks.
“We’re not giving up on diplomatic efforts, and we hope that
pressure on Russia, together with negotiations in different formats,
will help bring peace,” he said in a speech Wednesday in Bucharest,
Romania, to representatives of countries on NATO's eastern flank.
“Sanctions are working, our long-range (drone and missile)
capabilities are working, and every form of pressure is working,” he
said.
Meanwhile, European governments are assessing the merits of opening
talks with Putin. Europe has for years tried to isolate the Russian
leader and punished his country with international sanctions.
Fighting appears to shift in Ukraine's favor
The correlation of forces in the war has shifted in recent months.
Ukraine has gone from pleading for international help with its
defense to offering foreign countries its expertise on how to
counter attacks, thanks to its domestically developed drone
technology.
Ukraine’s long-range drone and missile attacks have disrupted energy
facilities and manufacturing deep inside Russia, with three regions
reporting strikes Wednesday. The Russian Defense Ministry said that
its forces intercepted and destroyed 286 Ukrainian drones over
Russian regions, the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula, the Azov
Sea and the Black Sea.
On the 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line, the advance of
Russia’s bigger and better-equipped army has been slowing every
month since October, according to the Institute for the Study of
War.
Russia’s spring offensive has floundered, with Russian forces
recording a net loss of territory last month for the first time
since 2024, the Washington-based think tank said.
“Not only are Ukrainian defensive lines holding, but Ukrainian
forces have managed to contest the tactical initiative in several
areas of the front line even as Russia continues to lose
disproportionate amounts of manpower to achieve minimal gains,” the
ISW said Tuesday.
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Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Sam McNeil in Brussels and
Bela Szandelzsky in Budapest, Hungary, contributed,
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