Russia snubs Ukraine’s unilateral ceasefire, firing dozens of drones
Russia fired dozens of drones at Ukraine in nighttime attacks, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday, disregarding a unilateral ceasefire announced by Kyiv that began at midnight.
The Russian Defence Ministry claimed that Ukraine hadn’t abided by its own ceasefire, saying that air defences shot down 53 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula and the Black Sea between Tuesday evening and dawn Wednesday.
Five people were killed by a Ukrainian drone strike on the city of Dzhankoi in Crimea, according to Russia-installed Governor Sergei Aksyonov.
He reported the casualties just after midnight, but posted about the attack itself more than 90 minutes earlier.
There had been no official sign from Moscow that it would heed Kyiv’s ceasefire, and there was little hope for a pause in hostilities as the war stretches into its fifth year following Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbour.
US-led diplomatic efforts to stop the war over the past year have come to nothing.
On Tuesday, Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine killed 27 people and wounded 120 others, all of them civilians, according to Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. The war has killed more than 15,000 civilians, according to the United Nations.
Both sides have kept up long-range strike campaigns. On the roughly 1,250-km (800-mile) front line, meanwhile, Russia’s bigger army remains engaged in a slow-moving and costly slog against Ukraine’s drone-heavy defences.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had announced the unilateral ceasefire after Russia said it would hold its own pause of hostilities over two days later this week while it marks the 81st anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The Ukrainian leader said any breach of the ceasefire would trigger a military response.
European officials had welcomed Ukraine’s unilateral move as a goodwill gesture illustrating its readiness for a peace settlement.
Russian forces launched 108 drones and three missiles overnight, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said, with attacks continuing throughout the night and into Wednesday morning.
