Russia's Foreign Ministry has announced plans for a new round of mass long-range strikes on Kyiv, including on Ukraine's "decision-making centers," in what Moscow called retaliation for a Ukrainian strike in occupied Luhansk Oblast whose target remains disputed. Russia claimed a dormitory was hit, while Ukraine said it had targeted a Russian drone command facility.The threat came just a day after one of Russia's largest-ever mass missile and drone attacks on the capital, which killed two and injured over 80, as strikes were recorded in almost every district of the city. "The Russian Armed Forces are launching systematic strikes against Ukrainian military-industrial complex enterprises in Kyiv," the Foreign Ministry statement read, "including specific sites where drones are designed, manufactured, programmed, and prepared for use by the Kyiv regime with the assistance of NATO specialists responsible for the supply of components, intelligence, and targeting.""The strikes will target both decision-making centers and command posts," the statement added, repeating a common phrase in Russia used to threaten strikes on the headquarters of state institutions and security services.Foreign citizens, including diplomats, were encouraged to leave the city, while Ukrainian civilians were called upon to stay away from "military and administrative infrastructure of the Zelensky regime."Overnight on May 22, Ukrainian drones allegedly struck an educational facility in the city of Starobilsk in Luhansk Oblast, which has been occupied by Russia since the first weeks of the full-scale war. According to Moscow, 21 people, including children, were killed and dozens more injured in the attack on what was a dormitory and a neighboring building of the Starobilsk Pedagological College. Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed that sixteen Ukrainian drones, arriving in three waves, hit the buildings, which were, according to him, not surrounded by any military assets.A Russian investigator examines what is presented by Russian authorities as parts of Ukrainian drones outside the destroyed building of the Starobilsk professional college of the Luhansk Pedagogical University, following a drone attack in Starobilsk, Russian-occupied Ukraine, on May 24, 2026. Russia states that 21 students at the college were killed in a Ukrainian strike launched overnight on Thursday to Friday. Ukraine had denied targeting civilians, insisting it had hit a Russian drone unit stationed in the Starobilsk area. (Igor Ivanko / AFP via Getty Images)Located just 65 kilometers from the front line at a major road junction, the occupied city is an important logistics hub for Russian operations in Kharkiv and northern Donetsk oblasts.Responding on the same day, Kyiv had called the Russian claim "misleading information," stressing that it strictly adheres to the international humanitarian law and strikes military infrastructure and facilities used for military purposes.Ukraine's General Staff reported that a strike was carried out in the area of Starobilsk on a command facility of Russian elite drone unit and school Rubicon, which works across the front line in Ukraine, but did not provide further details.Forensic operations were later carried out at the scene, and a handful of journalists, including from Reuters, were taken on a press tour of the site. The Kyiv Independent is unable to independently verify the target or casualties of the strike on Starobilsk.According to UN figures cited on May 22 by Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, Russia has killed at least 15,850 Ukrainian civilians, including 791 children since the beginning of the full-scale war. The real figures are understood to be much higher, in particular due to the lack of independent verification of the thousands of deaths during Russia's siege of Mariupol.Just over 24 hours after Putin's speech, in which he instructed the military to prepare measures to respond., Russia launched one of its most destructive mass attacks against Kyiv, with 90 missiles, 600 drones fired at the country.The overnight attack also saw the third known use of the Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile, this time against the town of Bila Tserkva, where damage from its unarmed re-entry vehicles was minimal.Russia frequently uses the narrative of retaliation as justification for major strikes against Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure, despite being the aggressor in its war against sovereign Ukraine.Despite having the means to do so, Russia has so far mostly refrained from striking the most important government buildings in Kyiv. On May 15 though, President Zelensky warned of Russian plans to strike the so-called "decision-making centers," including the building of the President's Office in central Kyiv.