Russia snubs Ukraine’s unilateral ceasefire and fires dozens of drones

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired dozens of drones at Ukraine in nighttime attacks, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday, disregarding a unilateral ceasefire announced by Kyiv that began at midnight.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that Ukraine hadn’t abided by its own ceasefire, saying that air defenses shot down 53 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula and the Black Sea between Tuesday evening and dawn Wednesday.

Five people were killed by a Ukrainian drone strike on the city of Dzhankoi in Crimea, according to Russia-installed Gov. Sergei Aksyonov. He reported the casualties just after midnight, but posted about the attack itself more than 90 minutes earlier.

There had been no official sign from Moscow that it would heed Kyiv’s ceasefire, and there was little hope for a pause in hostilities as the war stretches into its fifth year following Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor. U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the war over the past year have come to nothing.

On Tuesday, Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine killed 27 people and wounded 120 others, all of them civilians, according to Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. On Wednesday, two Russian drones hit a kindergarten in the downtown area of Sumy city in northeastern Ukraine, killing a security guard and wounding two others, officials said. No children were there at the time.

Russian attacks since last Friday have killed at least 70 civilians and wounded more than 500, the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said Wednesday, as the strikes hit 14 regions.

“What is particularly alarming is both the scale of civilian casualties and the extent of territory affected in only a few days,” said Danielle Bell, the mission’s head.

The war has killed more than 15,000 civilians, according to the United Nations.

Despite Kyiv’s open-ended suspension of hostilities, Russia has continued shelling, with aerial strikes using drones and powerful glide bombs, and has attempted to break through Ukrainian defenses on the front line, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday on X.

“Russia’s choice is an obvious spurning of a ceasefire and of saving lives,” Zelenskyy said.

“Russia must end the war it is currently waging,” he said, urging Moscow to call off its invasion. “The Russian side has our diplomatic proposals, and the only thing needed is Russia’s willingness to move toward real peace.”

Both sides have kept up long-range strike campaigns. On the roughly 1,250-kilometer (800-mile) front line, meanwhile, Russia’s bigger army remains engaged in a slow-moving and costly slog against Ukraine’s drone-heavy defenses.

Zelenskyy had announced the unilateral ceasefire after Russia said it would hold its own pause of hostilities on Friday and Saturday while it marks the 81st anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The Ukrainian leader said any breach of the ceasefire would trigger a military response.

European officials had welcomed Ukraine’s unilateral move as a goodwill gesture illustrating its readiness for a peace settlement.

Russian forces launched 108 drones and three missiles overnight, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said, with attacks continuing throughout the night and into Wednesday morning.

“Moscow once again ignored a realistic and fair call to end hostilities, supported by other states and international organizations,” Sybiha said in a post on X.

Moscow’s proposal to stop fighting later this week follows a pattern of Russia declaring short unilateral ceasefires during the war timed to coincide with various holidays, most recently Orthodox Easter.

Those suspensions of combat don’t produce any tangible results amid deep mistrust between the warring sides.

Sybiha said Russia’s actions exposed its calls for a separate ceasefire around May 9 as insincere. “Putin only cares about military parades, not human lives,” he said.

The diplomat called for increased international pressure on Moscow, including new sanctions, diplomatic isolation, accountability measures for war crimes and expanded military and civilian support for Ukraine.

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