In brief
- Russia has ignored a truce suggested by Ukraine.
- It comes days ahead of a Russian-suggested ceasefire for the World War II Victory Day holiday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Russia had decided to reject efforts to halt fighting and save lives by launching fresh attacks on Ukraine, which had called a unilateral ceasefire.
His comments raise the spectre of retaliatory Ukrainian strikes on Moscow during mass public events celebrating the end of World War II on 9 May, after the Kremlin announced it would hold off attacks on Ukraine that day, hoping it would do the same.
"Russia's choice is an obvious spurning of a ceasefire and of saving lives," Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
Ukraine, he added, had earlier vowed to "act in kind" to the Russian ceasefire proposal this weekend, when Russians typically flood the streets across the country to mark victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
"It is obvious to any reasonable person that a full-scale war and the daily murdering of people are a bad time for public 'celebrations'," the Ukrainian leader said.
Ukraine said Russia had attacked eastern and southern Ukraine with more than 100 drones overnight, a day after Russian strikes killed almost 30 Ukrainian civilians.
Russia had never said it would abide by Ukraine's call to halt fire from midnight on 6 May — a counter-truce Zelenskyy proposed after Russia announced a ceasefire to cover its Victory Day parade Saturday on Red Square in Moscow.
Zelenskyy had dismissed Russia's "utter cynicism" for calling for a ceasefire to protect the parade — one of the most important days of the year for Russian leader Vladimir Putin — while launching deadly strikes on his country.
Frontline fighting
A Ukrainian officer at the eastern front, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP: "The enemy continued to carry out infantry raids and attempts to storm our positions."
Since Russia "did not comply" with the Ukraine-suggested ceasefire, "our unit responded in kind and countered all provocations", he added.
Another frontline commander said: "The intensity of combat operations remains at the same level."
His unit, he said, was also responding: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!".
Ukraine said at least one person had been killed in the overnight strikes.
Russian forces also struck a kindergarten in the eastern border region of Sumy on Wednesday, killing two people, officials said.
Russia has not commented on the Ukraine-proposed ceasefire, only calling for Ukraine to halt attacks for 9 May.
Russia's defence ministry said it had downed 53 Ukrainian drones — far fewer than in previous days.
It did not say whether any of the drones had attacked after Ukraine's unilateral truce was supposed to come into effect at midnight.
Late on Tuesday, Ukrainian drone attacks on the north of Russian-annexed Crimea killed five people, Russian-installed authorities in the peninsula said.
The strike hit hours after Russia had pounded several Ukrainian cities with the deadliest attacks in weeks — killing at least 28 people in 24 hours.
Zelenskyy called on Ukraine's allies to condemn the attacks. A strike on the centre of Zaporizhzhia city, which killed 12 people, had "absolutely no military justification", he added.
Attacks deep in Russia
Both sides have stepped up strikes in recent weeks, and the more than four-year war has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians.
Ukraine on Wednesday hit deep inside Russia, killing two people in Cheboksary, a city on the Volga, hundreds of miles from its own borders.
The attacks have created a sense of unease in Russia ahead of the 9 May parade. Russia has said it will remove military hardware from the procession for the first time in almost 20 years.
It has also started intermittent city-wide internet shutdowns lasting until Saturday.
Zelenskyy has called this a sign of weakness, saying: "They fear drones may buzz over Red Square."
Talks on ending what has spiralled into Europe's worst conflict since World War II have shown little progress and have been sidelines by the Iran conflict.
Russia is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from four regions it claims as its own — terms seen as unacceptable to Ukraine.
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