Russian missile and drone strikes pummeled Ukrainian cities on Tuesday, killing at least 22 people and wounding more than 80, Ukrainian authorities said. The attacks came hours before Kyiv was set to enact its own unilateral ceasefire, a response to Moscow’s announcement that it would pause fighting on Friday and Saturday to mark the 81st anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany. The timing — an intense barrage just ahead of a promised pause — drew an immediate rebuke from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who called it “utter cynicism.”
In a statement on X, Zelenskyy said Russia could stop the war at any moment and that Ukraine would observe a reciprocal ceasefire starting at the end of Tuesday. “Peace is needed, and real steps are needed to achieve it. Ukraine will act in kind,” he said. He did not specify how long the pause would last. The Russian Defense Ministry had declared a unilateral ceasefire for May 9 and 10 but warned it would retaliate if Ukraine disrupted the Victory Day celebrations. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the announcements and reiterated his call for “a full, immediate, unconditional and lasting ceasefire.”
The deadliest strikes on Tuesday hit the eastern city of Kramatorsk, the southern city of Zaporizhzhia and the northern city of Chernihiv. Russian glide bombs slammed into civilian areas in each, killing at least 17 and wounding 45, according to Ukrainian officials. Overnight attacks had already killed five and wounded 39, bringing the day’s civilian toll to 22 — a number authorities warned could rise as rescue operations continued.
Zelenskyy, speaking from Bahrain where he met with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, offered to share Ukraine’s air defense expertise in a bilateral drone defense partnership, drawing a parallel between Iranian attacks on Gulf states and Russia’s daily aerial campaign against Ukraine. He said Ukrainian teams are already assisting Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan with drone-related security.
The overnight assault included 11 Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 164 strike drones, the Ukrainian Air Force reported. Air defenses shot down 149 drones and one missile, but others evaded interception and struck targets across the country. Russia again hit natural gas production facilities in the central Poltava and northeastern Kharkiv regions, according to state energy company Naftogaz Group, which said its infrastructure had been attacked 107 times since the start of the year. Zelenskyy called the strike on Poltava “especially vile” because Russia launched a second missile at the same site as emergency rescuers worked. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said Russia’s main targets remained energy and industrial sites, but that homes, businesses and transport networks were also damaged. Moscow’s ceasefire proposals, she said, “remain only statements.”
Ukrainian forces kept up their own long-range strikes. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses destroyed 289 Ukrainian drones overnight across 18 Russian regions and over occupied Crimea. Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukraine had used its new F-5 Flamingo cruise missiles to strike a military-industrial plant in Cheboksary, more than 1,500 kilometers from the border, which supplied navigation components for the Russian navy, missile industry, aviation and armored vehicles. A regional health ministry said the strike wounded three people. Ukrainian drones also hit the Kirishi oil refinery in the Leningrad region near St. Petersburg, sparking a fire in the industrial zone; regional Governor Alexander Drozdenko said 29 drones were shot down and no casualties were reported.
In a monthly battlefield update, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Ukraine doubled its midrange strikes on Russian rear areas in April compared with March, and quadrupled them compared with February, focusing on warehouses, command posts, air defense systems and supply lines up to about 160 kilometers behind the front line. Ukrainian ground robots completed 10,281 resupply and evacuation missions in April, averaging nearly 343 per day, according to Fedorov’s report, which could not be independently verified.