Russia hits Ukraine in deadly strikes amid failed Victory Day truce

Ukraine said Russia shattered its own promised pause in fighting with a barrage that killed 26 civilians and injured at least 118 over the previous day, underscoring how little trust remains around Moscow’s Victory Day diplomacy. Kyiv said Russian forces violated the Ukrainian-proposed May 6 ceasefire 1,820 times and launched two ballistic missiles, a Kh-31 air-to-surface missile and 108 drones overnight, even as the Kremlin tried to project control ahead of its May 9 military showcase.

The attacks hardened the view in Kyiv that the ceasefire talk was built for optics, not restraint. A senior Ukrainian official said, “We just don’t see the point (to follow it) for the parade.” That suspicion has become central to the wider credibility gap: Moscow speaks of pauses, while Ukrainian officials and allies say Russian forces continue hitting cities, homes and critical infrastructure as civilians pay the price.

The dispute has been building for days. On April 29, Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump he was ready to declare a temporary pause in fighting around Victory Day. The next day, Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed a longer, reliable ceasefire instead of what he described as a brief pause for a parade in Moscow. Dmitry Peskov said the Russian truce would be unilateral and did not require a response from Kyiv, but the fighting gave Ukraine little reason to treat it as more than stagecraft.

Victory Day has long been one of the Kremlin’s most important displays of military power, and this year the security atmosphere was tense even before the parade. Russia cut mobile internet in Moscow and St. Petersburg ahead of the event, while Crimea canceled Victory Day celebrations over security concerns amid Ukrainian drone strikes. Overnight on May 5 and May 6, Russia said it intercepted 19 drones headed toward Moscow, triggering temporary shutdowns at Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Zhukovsky and Sheremetyevo airports.

The exchanges are likely to make any future ceasefire harder to sell to Ukrainian families who have already absorbed months of bombardment. Zelenskyy spent the same period pressing support abroad, meeting Mark Rutte and António Costa in Yerevan on May 4, while Canada announced an additional $200 million for the PURL initiative, bringing its total contribution to more than $830 million. For Kyiv, the lesson from the failed truce was plain: symbolic gestures from Moscow mean little unless they are matched by enforceable restraint.