Ukraine pressures Russia as midnight ceasefire looms ahead of World War II anniversary

KYIV – Ukraine on May 5 piled pressure on Russia after announcing its own truce in response to Russia’s demand for a ceasefire to coincide with its annual World War II Victory Day commemorations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that holding a ceasefire between May 8 and 9 so Moscow could mark the celebration was “not serious” and hit back with his own truce starting at midnight “on the night of May 5-6”.

Russia has threatened a “massive missile strike” on Kyiv if Ukraine violates its Victory Day ceasefire.

The quarrelling between the two sides comes amid a lull in US-led diplomatic efforts to end the war as Washington shifts its focus to conflict in the Middle East.

Russian strikes killed nine people across Ukraine on May 4, according to Ukrainian officials, while a Ukrainian drone crashed into a high-rise building in an upscale Moscow neighbourhood overnight.

In accordance with a decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a ceasefire “has been declared from May 8-9... We hope that the Ukrainian side will follow suit”, the Russian Defence Ministry said in a post on state-backed messaging service MAX.

“If the Kyiv regime attempts to implement its criminal plans to disrupt the celebration... the Russian armed forces will launch a retaliatory, massive missile strike on the centre of Kyiv,” it added.

“We warn the civilian population of Kyiv and employees of foreign diplomatic missions of the need to leave the city promptly.”

Russia marks World War II Victory Day each year with a massive military parade through its Red Square.

“As of today, there has been no official appeal to Ukraine regarding the modality of a cessation of hostilities that is being claimed on Russian social media,” Mr Zelensky said in a post on X.

“We believe that human life is far more valuable than any anniversary ‘celebration’. In this regard, we are announcing a ceasefire regime starting at 00:00 (5am Singapore time) on the night of May 5-6,” he added.

He did not specify how long the ceasefire would last.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga also condemned Moscow’s truce, saying: “Peace cannot wait until ‘parades’ and ‘celebrations’.”

Mr Sybiga posted on X on May 4: “If Moscow is prepared to end hostilities, it can do so already tomorrow night.”

He said Mr Zelensky’s truce was a “serious proposal to end the war and turn to diplomacy”.

Mr Zelensky later landed in the Gulf nation of Bahrain for talks on “security cooperation”, a source in the Ukrainian delegation told AFP.

Deadly attacks

Russian strikes on Ukraine killed at least nine people on May 4, according to Ukrainian officials.

A Russian ballistic missile attack on the town of Merefa – outside Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv – killed seven civilians and wounded dozens earlier on May 4, regional authorities said.

AFP journalists in Merefa saw several bodies strewn in the street, covered by blankets and white sheets – with shops, houses and cars damaged.

A separate Russian strike on the village of Vilnyansk in the southern Zaporizhzhia region killed two others, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said.

“Unfortunately, a married couple were killed: a 51-year-old man and a 62-year-old woman,” Mr Fedorov said.

Their 31-year-old son was wounded in the strike, along with three other people, he added.

In Russia, a Ukrainian drone killed a civilian in the border region of Belgorod, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

A Ukrainian drone also hit a residential high-rise building in an upscale Moscow neighbourhood overnight, the Russian capital’s mayor, Mr Sergei Sobyanin, said.

Russia advances slow

Russia lost more territory than it gained in Ukraine in April for the first time since a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the summer of 2023, an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed.

Moscow ceded control of about 120 sq km between March and April, the ISW data showed.

Despite the fighting on the front lines reaching a near stalemate, intense and deadly drone-dominated attacks have continued unabated in recent months.

Russia’s advances have slowed since late 2025, as communication issues in the Russian army combined with Ukrainian counterattacks helped Kyiv make localised breakthroughs in the south-east.

The Ukrainian army’s net gains – its first in more than two years – were marginal, however, representing only 0.02 per cent of Ukrainian territory, the data showed.

Moscow currently occupies just over 19 per cent of Ukraine, the majority of which it seized during the first weeks of its invasion in 2022.

Approximately 7 per cent, including Crimea and areas in the Donbas region, were already under Russian or pro-Russian separatist control before the invasion. AFP