Russia launches 200 drones at Ukraine after ceasefire expires

Russia sent 216 drones into Ukraine overnight, just hours after a U.S.-mediated ceasefire expired, and Ukrainian air defenses said they downed or neutralized 192 of them. The attack killed at least one person and injured at least six others, while debris from a intercepted drone set fire to the roof of a 16-storey residential building in Kyiv’s Obolon district.

The strikes hit energy facilities, apartment buildings, a kindergarten and a civilian locomotive, widening the damage beyond the front line and into daily life. Regional authorities reported impacts in Kyiv region, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Dnipro, Kherson and Mykolaiv. In Mykolaiv region, the governor said the attacks caused blackouts in some settlements, underscoring how quickly renewed aerial strikes can reach civilian power systems even when diplomats are still talking.

The truce had covered May 9-11 and was tied to Russia’s Victory Day commemorations. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Kyiv had proposed extending the pause beyond May 11, but Moscow escalated instead. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia “chose to end the partial silence,” framing the overnight barrage as a deliberate rejection of any longer ceasefire. From Moscow, Dmitry Peskov said the “humanitarian ceasefire ended” and that Russia’s offensive was continuing.

The exchange exposed how little leverage the temporary pause had actually created. Even during the truce, both sides accused each other of violations, and the moment it expired, Russia and Ukraine both resumed claims of aerial attacks. Russia’s military said it shot down 27 Ukrainian drones after the ceasefire ended, a reminder that the air war continued in both directions even as the diplomatic window closed.

The scale of the barrage also fits a broader escalation in long-range drone warfare. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said Russia launched 464 long-range drones and 22 missiles in a coordinated attack in late November 2025, and that civilian deaths from long-range weapons rose to 548 in the first ten months of 2025, up from 434 in the same period of 2024. President Donald Trump had said he hoped the truce would be extended and could be the “beginning of the end” of the war, but the latest strikes showed how quickly a holiday pause can collapse once military pressure returns.