Ukraine says new attacks show Russia rejected truce offer
Ukraine said drone and missile attacks showed the Kremlin had rejected Kyiv’s offer of a truce, raising the stakes ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand for a ceasefire during the annual May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow.
The Russian army continued hostilities and shelling throughout Wednesday after overnight attacks against Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Kramatorsk and other cities, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X. “Russia’s choice is an obvious spurning of a ceasefire and of saving lives,” Zelenskyy said.
The overnight Russian attacks included 108 drones and three missiles, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said earlier in a post on the X platform. “This shows that Russia rejects peace and its fake calls for a ceasefire on May 9th have nothing to do with diplomacy.”
Russia hadn’t said it would abide by a truce from midnight that Zelenskyy proposed in response to Putin’s earlier announcement of a unilateral May 8-9 ceasefire to mark the World War II victory over Nazi Germany.
The Russian Defense Ministry on Monday threatened “a massive missile strike on the center” of Kyiv if Ukraine disrupted the annual military parade on Red Square. It announced last week that the parade would take place without heavy military equipment for the first time since 2007, amid the threat from Ukrainian drones.
Zelenskyy on Tuesday said there’d been no coordination with his government on Russia’s ceasefire announcement.
He hasn’t said whether Ukraine will refrain from strikes on May 9. “Based on the reports from our military and intelligence, we will decide on our further actions,” Zelenskyy said on Wednesday.
Ukraine has intensified attacks in Russia in recent weeks, including on targets deep inside the country. A drone hit a residential tower in an upscale district of Moscow on Monday, a rare failure of the capital’s air defenses.
A Russian strike hit a kindergarten in Ukraine’s Sumy region, killing one person, though no children were in the building at the time, the local military administration said on Telegram.
With assistance from Aliaksandr Kudrytski.
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This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 10:49 AM.