Ukrainian protesters in Kyiv urge veto of a bill families fear could declare missing soldiers dead

A woman looks at a makeshift memorial for fallen soldiers in Russia Ukraine war on Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

KYIV, Ukraine — Hundreds of Ukrainians marched through the capital on Friday, demanding that the government veto a bill that families of missing soldiers say could lead to their loved ones being prematurely declared dead.

The protesters gathered to oppose Bill No. 13646, which addresses the legal status of missing persons. Participants said that certain provisions of the legislation could allow courts to declare missing Ukrainian military personnel legally dead before their fate has been confirmed.

“Today all the families came out so that the missing are not equated with the dead,” said Mariana Yatselenko, 27, who took part in the Kyiv march.

More than 90,000 people are listed as missing in Ukraine’s unified registry of persons who disappeared under special circumstances, according to Artur Dobrosierdov, the country’s commissioner for missing persons.

The missing date back to 2014

Neither Russia nor Ukraine publish regular casualty numbers in the war, although analysts estimate hundreds of thousands of casualties in the fighting.

The Ukrainian register covers people who went missing during combat, as a result of armed aggression or in occupied territories, mostly after Russia’s all-out invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022. But some cases date back to 2014, when Russian soldiers invaded the Crimean Peninsula and pro-Russia forces started fighting in eastern Ukraine.

The registry began operating in May 2023, and at that point, information about both military personnel and civilians from previous years was entered into it.

Similar demonstrations have been held previously over the bill, reflecting growing pressure from relatives of soldiers who are missing.

Russia says Ukraine struck a dorm, killing 4

Ukrainian drones hit a college dormitory building in Starobilsk, a city in Ukraine’s Russia-occupied Luhansk region, killing four people and wounding 39 others, Russian authorities said. Up to 18 people could be buried under the rubble, officials said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the strike as a “heinous crime.” Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday said that it intercepted 217 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions, including the Moscow region and St. Petersburg, the country’s second-largest city.

For the fourth time this month Ukraine struck Russia’s Yaroslavl oil refinery, around 700 kilometres (440 miles) from the border, in an overnight operation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday.

Ukraine has been pounding Russian oil facilities in an effort to deny Moscow funding for its invasion.

U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting have brought no significant results and recently appeared to peter out.

“They were not fruitful, unfortunately,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said of negotiations over the past year with Russia and Ukraine.

No talks are happening now, he said during a trip to Sweden, although they could resume if Washington sees an opportunity for progress.

Russian barrages as Ukraine makes battlefield gains

Ukraine’s air force said that it shot down or jammed 115 of 124 Russian drones that were launched overnight, in regular bombardments of civilian areas that in recent months have escalated.

Eleven people, including a child, were wounded in Russian attacks across the northern Sumy region, the National Police said. Also, a man was killed by a Russian drone in the city of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, according to the region’s military administration chief.

The number of Ukrainian civilian casualties verified by the United Nations increased by 21 per cent in the first four months of this year, compared with the same period last year, with 815 civilians killed and 4,174 wounded.

In Washington, the Trump administration approved a modest US$108 million arms sale to Ukraine that will help the country sustain its midrange air defence missile system.

The U.S. State Department announced the sale of ground-to-air Hawk missile components, spare parts and logistic support late Thursday. Under U.S. President Donald Trump, Washington has slashed military support for Ukraine.

On the battlefield, Ukrainian counterattacks have driven the Russian army out of more than 400 square kilometres (150 square miles) of southern Ukraine since the end of last year, Western analysts say.

Those successes are attributed to Ukraine’s increasingly homegrown drone and missile technology, as well as Russian forces being denied access to Starlink satellite services used to steer drones toward targets.

Ukraine keeps a wary eye on Belarus

Zelenskyy said that Russia could be planning new attacks on northern Ukraine, launched from Belarus.

Moscow “is eager to draw (Belarus) deeper into this war,” Zelenskyy said on social media, warning that “there will be consequences” for the Belarusian government, if it provides a platform for strikes on Ukraine.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha alerted allies at a NATO meeting in Sweden about what Ukrainian intelligence services say are growing threats from Belarus. Sybiha urged partners to take unspecified deterrence measures against Minsk.

Russia and Belarus held joint nuclear exercises earlier this week.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, underscored “Russia’s ability to leverage Belarus for future Russian military operations and Russia’s deepening de facto control over Belarus.”

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Matthew Lee in Washington, and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.

Dan Bashakov And Hanna Arhirova, The Associated Press