Kyiv has denounced Russia for launching a barrage of more than one hundred combat drones and three missiles against several Ukrainian cities overnight, despite a unilateral 24‑hour ceasefire declared by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy announced the truce after the Kremlin signalled a willingness to observe a ceasefire on Saturday during its annual Red Square military parade, adding that he would match any Russian breach of Ukraine’s ceasefire, which is set to expire at midnight on Wednesday.
Rather than halting hostilities, Moscow intensified its attacks, striking densely populated urban centres. On Tuesday, bomb and missile strikes in the Donetsk, Poltava and Dnipro regions killed 28 civilians and left dozens wounded. Subsequent strikes on Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia demonstrated, according to Ukraine’s foreign minister Andriy Sybiga, that Russia has rejected peace efforts. “These false calls for a ceasefire on May 9th have nothing to do with diplomacy,” Sybiga wrote on social media. “Putin values parades over human lives.”
He continued, “Such behaviour demands stronger pressure on the Russian regime, including fresh sanctions, diplomatic isolation, accountability for war crimes and increased support for Ukraine across all sectors.”
The drone and bomb assaults on Tuesday were the deadliest Ukraine has faced in weeks. They occurred as Russian battlefield advances have stalled; in April Moscow’s forces lost more territory than they gained – a reversal not seen since 2024.
To safeguard Saturday’s parade, which commemorates the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, the Kremlin has taken extensive protective measures following recent long‑range Ukrainian drone strikes on various targets. For the first time in nearly two decades the parade will proceed without a display of tanks or ballistic missiles. Air‑defence units have been redeployed to the capital from other regions, and mobile internet service has been suspended, apparently as a security precaution. It remains uncertain whether Ukraine will attempt to disrupt the event or instead target Russian oil facilities and military‑industrial sites.
Russia’s defence ministry reported intercepting 53 Ukrainian drones between 21:00 and 07:00 (18:00‑04:00 GMT), a figure far lower than in previous days. It did not clarify whether any of those drones entered Ukrainian airspace after Kyiv’s unilateral ceasefire was due to begin at midnight.
Negotiations aimed at ending Europe’s worst conflict since World War II have shown little advancement. Putin has refused to soften the demands first put forward during his 2022 full‑scale invasion, namely the cession of large swaths of Ukrainian territory and the removal of its pro‑Western government.
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