Russian bombing damages National Art Museum of Ukraine in Kyiv

Between the night of May 23 and early hours of May 24, 2026, Russia launched an attack on Kyiv and other areas of Ukraine using 600 drones and 90 missiles. The National Art Museum of Ukraine (NAMU) in Kyiv suffered severe structural damage. The attack was reportedly in retaliation for a Ukrainian bombing on a dormitory in Russian-occupied Starobilsk, Luhansk oblast. Ukrainian Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna stated that Russia systematically targets civilian infrastructure and cultural institutions, attempting to intimidate and destroy Ukrainian identity. The museum, founded in the late 19th century as Kyiv's first free museum, houses nearly 40,000 works spanning over a thousand years of Ukrainian art, including medieval icons, Baroque masterpieces, works by Taras Shevchenko, and avant-garde pieces by Oleksandr Archypenko and Aleksandra Ekster. The neoclassical building was designed by Petro Boitsov and completed by Władysław Horodecki, opening in 1904.