Ukraine Announces Truce as Russian Strikes Kill at Least 22
Russian strikes killed at least 22 as Kyiv and Moscow traded rival ceasefire dates. The battlefield kept burning while both sides framed Victory Day as a truce test.
The language of ceasefire collided with the reality of war on Tuesday, when Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least 22 people, including 12 in one of the worst strikes so far this year. The deaths came as Kyiv and Moscow put forward rival pauses in fighting, turning a humanitarian concept into another front in a political fight over Victory Day.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine would begin its own truce at 12 a.m. on Wednesday, May 6, and would respond in kind to Russia’s actions from that moment on. He did not set an end date. The Ukrainian leader initially dismissed Moscow’s request for a ceasefire as "not serious" and said Russia had not made an official appeal for the terms of the truce.
Moscow, meanwhile, declared a separate two-day ceasefire for May 8 and 9, timed to mark the 81st anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the pause would cover Victory Day, a major state event on May 9 that the Kremlin uses to project military strength and nationalist legitimacy. Russia also warned it would strike back if Ukraine tried to disrupt the festivities.
The rival declarations underscored how little trust remains between the two governments. Ukraine has repeatedly warned that temporary ceasefires can serve as political theater rather than a path to lasting peace, and the timing of Russia’s announcement sharpened that fear. With a major ceremonial date approaching in Moscow, the Kremlin’s pause looked less like a humanitarian opening than a controlled gesture designed to shield a symbolic celebration while fighting continued elsewhere.
The day’s strikes made that contradiction hard to miss. As the deadline approached for Kyiv’s proposed open-ended ceasefire, the war kept exacting a civilian toll, with Tuesday’s attacks counted among the deadliest of the year. Zelenskiy’s decision to answer Moscow "symmetrically" beginning Wednesday placed the burden back on the Russian side, but the fighting on May 5 showed that diplomatic language alone was not stopping the war.
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