Russia, Ukraine accuse each other of breaking Victory Day ceasefires

The ceasefire existed first on paper, then in dueling accusations. Vladimir Putin’s two-day pause for May 8 and May 9, meant to cover Victory Day commemorations in Moscow, quickly became a test of battlefield claims, with Kyiv and Moscow each saying the other used the window to keep attacking.

Putin announced the truce on May 4 to mark the 81st anniversary of the Soviet victory in World War Two, a date tied in Russia to the loss of 27 million Soviet citizens and the capture of Berlin in 1945. Volodymyr Zelenskyy answered with a separate proposal starting at midnight on the night of May 5-6, but he called the Russian truce “not serious” and argued that a real pause would need to be verifiable, not symbolic.

The fighting did not stop. Reuters reported that Russia launched 108 combat drones and three missiles overnight between May 5 and May 6. By 10 a.m. on May 6, Zelenskyy said Russian forces had committed 1,820 ceasefire violations, including nearly 30 assault operations and more than 20 airstrikes using over 70 guided glide bombs. Those figures underscored the core problem for any short pause in this war: without a monitoring mechanism that both sides trust, each side can declare compliance while the battlefield keeps moving.

Moscow then turned the accusation back on Kyiv. Russia said it downed 264 Ukrainian drones early on May 8, and said drone attacks forced 13 airports in southern Russia to halt operations. The Kremlin also warned that any attempt to disrupt the Victory Day celebrations would trigger a “massive missile attack” on Kyiv, while advising civilians and foreign diplomats in the Ukrainian capital to leave.

The political stakes extended beyond the battlefield. Trump had floated the idea of a brief ceasefire in a call with Putin last week, then announced a separate three-day pause from May 9 to May 11 that he said would include a prisoner swap involving 1,000 detainees from each side. In Moscow, the Victory Day parade was set to proceed in reduced form, with armored vehicles, tanks and missile carriers absent for the first time and military academy participation scaled back, a sign that security concerns and wartime strain were reshaping even one of Russia’s most important state rituals.