Russian strikes kill 22 as ceasefire window approaches
Russian drone and missile attacks carried out overnight and later on Tuesday killed at least 22 people in Ukraine and wounded more than 80 others, Ukrainian authorities said, hours before Kyiv was due to enact a ceasefire and three days before Moscow promised its own pause in hostilities.
Ukrainian officials said Tuesday afternoon, powerful Russian glide bombs struck the eastern city of Kramatorsk, the southern city of Zaporizhzhia and the northern city of Chernihiv, killing at least 17 civilians and wounding 45. Attacks the previous night killed five people and wounded 39, according to those authorities.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned Moscow’s action in comments posted after Russia announced its unilateral ceasefire schedule, calling it “utter cynicism” and tying it to the timing of Moscow’s planned pause around the May 9 Victory Day commemorations.
In a post on X, Zelenskyy said, “Russia could cease fire at any moment, and this would stop the war and our responses,” adding, “Peace is needed, and real steps are needed to achieve it. Ukraine will act in kind.”
Kyiv said it would begin a ceasefire at the end of Tuesday, while Zelenskyy indicated Ukraine would respond to Moscow’s actions from that point, without specifying an end date for its own move. The Russian Defense Ministry, in turn, declared a unilateral ceasefire for Friday and Saturday, while saying it would strike back if Ukraine tried to disrupt Russia’s Victory Day festivities.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the unilateral ceasefires and said he “looks forward to their successful implementation,” with U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric saying the secretary-general reiterated his call for “a full, immediate, unconditional and lasting ceasefire” in line with the U.N. Charter and U.N. resolutions.
Drone and missile salvos continue, Ukraine says
While the ceasefire announcements were circulating, the fighting continued with Russian missile and drone attacks described by Ukraine’s Air Force as ongoing overnight. The Ukrainian Air Force said Russian forces fired 11 Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 164 strike drones, including a jet-powered Shahed drone variant, from Monday into Tuesday.
The Air Force said air defense units stopped 149 drones and one missile, but others got through. It added that two ballistic missiles failed to reach their targets without elaborating further.
The report also said Russian forces continued striking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which has been a recurring target since the war began on Feb. 24, 2022. The state energy company Naftogaz Group said Russia hit natural gas production facilities in Ukraine’s central Poltava and northeastern Kharkiv regions, and that Naftogaz facilities have come under attack 107 times since the start of the year.
Zelenskyy called the Poltava attack “especially vile,” saying Russia launched a second missile at the same target while emergency rescuers were working at the scene. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said Russia’s main targets were energy facilities, oil and gas infrastructure, railways and industrial sites, while attacks also damaged homes, businesses and parts of the transportation network.
Svyrydenko said Russia’s ceasefire proposals “remain only statements,” framing the new announcements against what she described as continuing attacks.
Ukraine keeps up long-range attacks on Russia
Kyiv’s side of the fighting also continued as Ukraine carried out long-range attacks on Russian rear areas, which Ukrainian officials and state outlets described as aiming at targets that could disrupt Moscow’s war economy. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces destroyed 289 Ukrainian drones overnight across 18 Russian regions, and that drones were intercepted over the occupied Crimean Peninsula and over the Azov Sea.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine launched its F-5 Flamingo cruise missiles at targets including military-industrial complex facilities in Cheboksary, more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) away. He said the plant supplied navigation components for the Russian navy, the missile industry, aviation and armored vehicles.
A regional health ministry said a Ukrainian drone attack wounded three people in Cheboksary. Ukrainian drones also attacked the Kirishi oil refinery in the Leningrad region near St. Petersburg, sparking a blaze in the town’s industrial zone, according to regional Gov. Alexander Drozdenko.
Drozdenko said on social media that 29 Ukrainian drones had been shot down during the Kirishi attack, and he said no casualties were reported.
Ceasefire pattern, Gulf outreach and battlefield activity
Moscow’s proposal to pause fighting followed what the AP described as a familiar pattern during the war, with Russia declaring short unilateral ceasefires timed to holidays, most recently Orthodox Easter. Those suspensions of combat, the AP said, have produced no tangible results amid deep mistrust between Moscow and Kyiv more than four years after Russia launched an all-out invasion.
In separate diplomacy ahead of the latest ceasefire window, Zelenskyy was in Bahrain on Tuesday. The Ukrainian president met with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and proposed a bilateral drone defense partnership, saying Ukraine could share its air defense expertise while drawing parallels between Iranian attacks on Gulf states and Russia’s daily aerial strikes on Ukrainian territory that often use Shahed drones.
Zelenskyy said last month that Ukrainian officials have been helping countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan with drone expertise and air defense.
On the battlefield, Ukraine also reported a change in operational tempo for longer-range strikes. Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov published a monthly battlefield report on Tuesday saying Ukraine doubled its midrange strikes on Russia in April compared with March and quadrupled them compared with February.
Fedorov said the midrange attacks targeted enemy warehouses, command posts, air defense systems and supply lines up to about 100 miles (160 kilometers) behind the front line. He also said Ukrainian ground robots completed 10,281 resupply and evacuation missions in April—an average of almost 343 per day—adding that it was not possible to independently confirm those claims.