Russian strikes killed six civilians in Ukraine on May 20 (updated)
Russian strikes killed four civilians in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions on 20 May 2026, while at least 47 others were injured, including in the Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, and Kherson Oblasts, Ukraine’s National Police said.
A residential high-rise building in the Donetsk Oblast damaged by a Russian strikeThose killed in Russian strikes on May 20 included:
- a woman in Dnipro;
- a person in Kindrativka in Donetsk Oblast;
- a man from the Semenivka “hromada,” a local government area that includes one or more nearby settlements, in Chernihiv Oblast;
- and one person in the Konotop hromdada in the Sumy Oblast.
At least 15 civilians were injured in Russian strikes in the Sumy Oblast that day.
Another 11 civilians were injured in the Donetsk Oblast, which Russian forces struck more than 1,300 times with various types of weapons over the course of the day.
Seven people were injured in Russian attacks in the Kharkiv Oblast on May 20. Another man was injured after triggering an unidentified explosive device while working in a field.
Five civilians were injured in Russian strikes in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, while three people were injured in both the Kherson and Chernihiv Oblasts. Two other men were wounded in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
Update: Later, the news outlet Ukrayinska Pravda. Zhyttya reported that a Russian attack on Dnipro on 20 May killed two young men: 18-year-old Dmytro Samoilenko and 19-year-old Denys Palyok. The Lychkove territorial hromdada, where the victims were from, also reported the tragedy.
Dmytro Samoilenko and Denys PalyokDmytro was a first-year student at the rehabilitation faculty of Dnipropetrovsk State Medical University, the university’s student council reported.
According to local TV channel D1, he was heavily involved in sports, regularly participated in various competitions, won awards, and had big plans for the future.
The Russian strike also claimed the life of Denys Palok. According to his cousin, Anna Chykhychyna, he was killed by a direct Russian missile hit on a warehouse facility.
“He was only 19 years old. … At this age, people are just starting to live: making plans, dreaming, working for their future and believing that a whole life is still ahead,” Anna wrote in a post. “Denys did not have time to make his dreams come true, did not have time to truly live. His life was taken by a Russian missile that forever left our family in unspeakable pain. Too early. Too painful. Too unfair,” she stated.
Previously, ZMINA reported that Russian strikes killed seven civilians across Ukraine on 19 May.
During an open UN Security Council debate, as reported by Ukrinform, Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Andrii Melnyk, has called on member states to find a political and legal mechanism to strip Russia of its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Melnyk said that among all wars and conflicts around the world, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine “truly stands out for the brutality and systematic nature of violence inflicted against civilians”.
He noted that Russia had repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure throughout the winter in an attempt to “freeze millions of civilians into submission”.
Melnyk also pointed to Russia’s use of so-called double-tap strikes, in which a second attack follows shortly after the first “just to kill medical personnel and rescue workers”.
“All the obligations to protect civilians will ultimately ring hollow unless acts of aggression like this and related war crimes are punished,” he stated.
Melnyk urged Security Council members and the wider UN community to “confront this grotesque reality and to identify, finally, a political and legal way toward revoking Russia’s status as a permanent member of the Security Council”.
Join us on X, BlueSky, and LinkedIn for daily human-rights updates – and help shape ZMINA’s English coverage by sharing your thoughts here.
