Russian Attacks Kill 27 Before Kyiv Ceasefire Deadline

Russian attacks in Ukraine killed at least 27 people on Tuesday, just hours before Kyiv’s proposed open-ended ceasefire was due to begin at midnight. The deadliest strikes hit Zaporizhzhia, where at least 12 people were killed in one of the worst assaults on the city so far this year.

Russia has announced a ceasefire for 8 and 9 May to coincide with commemorations of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II and a military parade in Moscow’s Red Square. Ukraine responded by proposing an open-ended halt to the fighting from midnight on Wednesday and called on Moscow to reciprocate.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X that Russia showed no sign of preparing to end hostilities shortly before Ukraine’s ceasefire proposal was due to take effect. “On the contrary, Moscow intensifies terror,” he said.

In Zaporizhzhia, aerial bombs and drones hit the city, damaging residential buildings, a car repair shop and other structures and causing widespread fires. Another six people were killed in the bombing of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region.

Strikes also killed people in Dnipro, Poltava and Sumy regions. Moscow, meanwhile, claimed that Ukrainian drones had killed five civilians in annexed Crimea and two others in Russia’s Chuvashia region.

(reuters, bak)